0:00:00.944,0:00:04.809
I want to talk a little bit today[br]about labor and work.

0:00:06.500,0:00:09.222
When we think about how people work,

0:00:09.246,0:00:11.615
the naive intuition we have

0:00:11.639,0:00:14.003
is that people are like rats in a maze --

0:00:14.027,0:00:15.996
that all people care about is money,

0:00:16.020,0:00:17.672
and the moment we give them money,

0:00:17.696,0:00:19.394
we can direct them to work one way,

0:00:19.418,0:00:21.398
we can direct them to work another way.

0:00:21.422,0:00:25.033
This is why we give bonuses to bankers[br]and pay in all kinds of ways.

0:00:25.057,0:00:28.525
And we really have[br]this incredibly simplistic view

0:00:28.549,0:00:32.819
of why people work, and what[br]the labor market looks like.

0:00:32.843,0:00:35.166
At the same time, if you think about it,

0:00:35.190,0:00:38.499
there's all kinds of strange behaviors[br]in the world around us.

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Think about something like mountaineering[br]and mountain climbing.

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If you read books of people[br]who climb mountains, difficult mountains,

0:00:46.550,0:00:51.239
do you think that those books are full[br]of moments of joy and happiness?

0:00:51.699,0:00:54.016
No, they are full of misery.

0:00:54.040,0:00:57.698
In fact, it's all about frostbite[br]and having difficulty walking,

0:00:57.722,0:00:59.382
and difficulty breathing --

0:00:59.406,0:01:02.444
cold, challenging circumstances.

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And if people were just trying[br]to be happy,

0:01:04.946,0:01:06.803
the moment they would get to the top,

0:01:06.827,0:01:08.952
they would say,[br]"This was a terrible mistake.

0:01:08.976,0:01:10.357
I'll never do it again."

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(Laughter)

0:01:11.522,0:01:15.137
"Instead, let me sit on a beach[br]somewhere drinking mojitos."

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But instead, people go down,

0:01:18.859,0:01:21.177
and after they recover, they go up again.

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And if you think about[br]mountain climbing as an example,

0:01:24.850,0:01:26.865
it suggests all kinds of things.

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It suggests that we care[br]about reaching the end, a peak.

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It suggests that we care[br]about the fight, about the challenge.

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It suggests that there's all kinds[br]of other things that motivate us

0:01:38.150,0:01:41.497
to work or behave in all kinds of ways.

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And for me personally,[br]I started thinking about this

0:01:44.821,0:01:47.614
after a student came to visit me.

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This was one of my students[br]from a few years earlier,

0:01:52.014,0:01:53.798
and he came one day back to campus.

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And he told me the following story:

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He said that for more than two weeks,

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he was working[br]on a PowerPoint presentation.

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He was working in a big bank,

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and this was in preparation[br]for a merger and acquisition.

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And he was working very hard[br]on this presentation --

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graphs, tables, information.

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He stayed late at night every day.

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And the day before it was due,

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he sent his PowerPoint[br]presentation to his boss,

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and his boss wrote him back and said,

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"Nice presentation,[br]but the merger is canceled."

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And the guy was deeply depressed.

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Now at the moment when he was working,

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he was actually quite happy.

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Every night he was enjoying his work,

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he was staying late, he was perfecting[br]this PowerPoint presentation.

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But knowing that nobody would ever[br]watch it made him quite depressed.

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So I started thinking[br]about how do we experiment

0:02:49.327,0:02:52.596
with this idea of the fruits of our labor.

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And to start with, we created[br]a little experiment

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in which we gave people Legos,

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and we asked them to build with Legos.

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And for some people,[br]we gave them Legos and we said,

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"Hey, would you like to build[br]this Bionicle for three dollars?

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We'll pay you three dollars for it."

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And people said yes,[br]and they built with these Legos.

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And when they finished, we took it,[br]we put it under the table,

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and we said, "Would you like[br]to build another one,

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this time for $2.70?"

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If they said yes,[br]we gave them another one,

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and when they finished, we asked them,

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"Do you want to build another one?"[br]for $2.40, $2.10, and so on,

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until at some point people said,

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"No more. It's not worth it for me."

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This was what we called[br]the meaningful condition.

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People built one Bionicle after another.

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After they finished every one of them,

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we put them under the table.

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And we told them that at the end[br]of the experiment,

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we will take all these Bionicles,[br]we will disassemble them,

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we will put them back in the boxes,

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and we will use it[br]for the next participant.

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There was another condition.

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This other condition was inspired[br]by David, my student.

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And this other condition we called[br]the Sisyphic condition.

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And if you remember[br]the story about Sisyphus,

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Sisyphus was punished by the gods[br]to push the same rock up a hill,

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and when he almost got to the end,

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the rock would roll over,[br]and he would have to start again.

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And you can think about this[br]as the essence of doing futile work.

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You can imagine that if he pushed[br]the rock on different hills,

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at least he would have[br]some sense of progress.

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Also, if you look at prison movies,

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sometimes the way that the guards[br]torture the prisoners

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is to get them to dig a hole,[br]and when the prisoner is finished,

0:04:41.866,0:04:44.865
they ask him to fill the hole[br]back up and then dig again.

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There's something[br]about this cyclical version

0:04:47.095,0:04:49.710
of doing something over and over and over

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that seems to be[br]particularly demotivating.

0:04:52.575,0:04:54.782
So in the second condition[br]of this experiment,

0:04:54.806,0:04:56.472
that's exactly what we did.

0:04:56.496,0:04:57.783
We asked people,

0:04:57.807,0:05:00.966
"Would you like to build[br]one Bionicle for three dollars?"

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And if they said yes, they built it.

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Then we asked them, "Do you want[br]to build another one for $2.70?"

0:05:06.738,0:05:09.882
And if they said yes,[br]we gave them a new one,

0:05:09.906,0:05:11.691
and as they were building it,

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we took apart the one[br]that they just finished.

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And when they finished that,

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we said, "Would you like[br]to build another one,

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this time for 30 cents less?"

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And if they said yes,

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we gave them the one[br]that they built and we broke.

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So this was an endless cycle[br]of them building,

0:05:28.887,0:05:31.413
and us destroying in front of their eyes.

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Now what happens when you compare[br]these two conditions?

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The first thing that happened was[br]that people built many more Bionicles --

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eleven in the meaningful condition,

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versus seven in the Sisyphus condition.

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And by the way, we should point out[br]that this was not big meaning.

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People were not curing cancer[br]or building bridges.

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People were building[br]Bionicles for a few cents.

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And not only that, everybody knew

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that the Bionicles[br]would be destroyed quite soon.

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So there was not a real[br]opportunity for big meaning.

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But even the small meaning[br]made a difference.

0:06:06.471,0:06:08.789
Now we had another version[br]of this experiment.

0:06:08.813,0:06:10.728
In this other version of the experiment,

0:06:10.752,0:06:12.695
we didn't put people in this situation,

0:06:12.719,0:06:14.725
we just described to them the situation,

0:06:14.749,0:06:16.855
much as I am describing to you now,

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and we asked them to predict[br]what the result would be.

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What happened?

0:06:21.441,0:06:25.117
People predicted the right direction[br]but not the right magnitude.

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People who were just given[br]the description of the experiment

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said that in the meaningful condition,

0:06:31.110,0:06:33.768
people would probably build[br]one more Bionicle.

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So people understand[br]that meaning is important,

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they just don't understand[br]the magnitude of the importance,

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the extent to which it's important.

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There was one other piece[br]of data we looked at.

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If you think about it, there are[br]some people who love Legos,

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and some people who don't.

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And you would speculate[br]that the people who love Legos

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would build more Legos,[br]even for less money,

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because after all,[br]they get more internal joy from it.

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And the people who love Legos less[br]would build less Legos

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because the enjoyment[br]that they derive from it is lower.

0:07:02.813,0:07:05.741
And that's actually what we found[br]in the meaningful condition.

0:07:05.765,0:07:08.574
There was a very nice correlation[br]between the love of Legos

0:07:08.598,0:07:10.703
and the amount of Legos people built.

0:07:11.012,0:07:13.254
What happened in the Sisyphic condition?

0:07:13.679,0:07:16.290
In that condition,[br]the correlation was zero --

0:07:16.314,0:07:19.035
there was no relationship[br]between the love of Legos,

0:07:19.059,0:07:20.822
and how much people built,

0:07:20.846,0:07:23.521
which suggests to me[br]that with this manipulation

0:07:23.545,0:07:25.983
of breaking things[br]in front of people's eyes,

0:07:26.007,0:07:30.556
we basically crushed any joy[br]that they could get out of this activity.

0:07:30.580,0:07:32.238
We basically eliminated it.

0:07:33.833,0:07:37.054
Soon after I finished[br]running this experiment,

0:07:37.078,0:07:40.498
I went to talk to a big[br]software company in Seattle.

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I can't tell you who they were,[br]but they were a big company in Seattle.

0:07:45.260,0:07:47.348
This was a group[br]within the software company

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that was put in a different building,

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and they asked them to innovate,

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and create the next big product[br]for this company.

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And the week before I showed up,

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the CEO of this big software company[br]went to that group, 200 engineers,

0:08:00.574,0:08:02.522
and canceled the project.

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And I stood there in front of 200

0:08:05.365,0:08:08.441
of the most depressed[br]people I've ever talked to.

0:08:09.014,0:08:11.637
And I described to them[br]some of these Lego experiments,

0:08:11.661,0:08:16.561
and they said they felt like they had[br]just been through that experiment.

0:08:17.053,0:08:18.276
And I asked them, I said,

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"How many of you now show up[br]to work later than you used to?"

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And everybody raised their hand.

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I said, "How many of you now go home[br]earlier than you used to?"

0:08:27.093,0:08:28.619
Everybody raised their hand.

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I asked them, "How many of you now add

0:08:31.709,0:08:34.842
not-so-kosher things[br]to your expense reports?"

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And they didn't raise their hands,

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but they took me out to dinner

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and showed me what they could do[br]with expense reports.

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And then I asked them, I said,

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"What could the CEO have done[br]to make you not as depressed?"

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And they came up with all kinds of ideas.

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They said the CEO could have asked[br]them to present to the whole company

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about their journey[br]over the last two years

0:08:55.980,0:08:57.382
and what they decided to do.

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He could have asked them to think[br]about which aspect of their technology

0:09:01.190,0:09:04.512
could fit with other parts[br]of the organization.

0:09:04.536,0:09:07.854
He could have asked them to build[br]some next-generation prototypes,

0:09:07.878,0:09:09.879
and see how they would work.

0:09:09.903,0:09:14.888
But the thing is that any one of those[br]would require some effort and motivation.

0:09:14.912,0:09:19.092
And I think the CEO basically did not[br]understand the importance of meaning.

0:09:19.116,0:09:21.314
If the CEO, just like our participants,

0:09:21.338,0:09:24.299
thought the essence[br]of meaning is unimportant,

0:09:24.323,0:09:25.537
then he [wouldn't] care.

0:09:25.561,0:09:28.460
And he would say, "At the moment[br]I directed you in this way,

0:09:28.484,0:09:30.507
and now that I'm directing[br]you in this way,

0:09:30.531,0:09:32.053
everything will be okay."

0:09:32.077,0:09:34.752
But if you understood[br]how important meaning is,

0:09:34.776,0:09:37.354
then you would figure out[br]that it's actually important

0:09:37.378,0:09:39.172
to spend some time, energy and effort

0:09:39.196,0:09:42.100
in getting people to care more[br]about what they're doing.

0:09:43.322,0:09:45.433
The next experiment[br]was slightly different.

0:09:45.457,0:09:48.092
We took a sheet of paper[br]with random letters,

0:09:48.116,0:09:50.203
and we asked people[br]to find pairs of letters

0:09:50.227,0:09:52.258
that were identical next to each other.

0:09:52.282,0:09:53.442
That was the task.

0:09:53.466,0:09:54.870
People did the first sheet,

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then we asked if they wanted to do[br]another for a little less money,

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the next sheet for a little bit[br]less, and so on and so forth.

0:10:01.163,0:10:02.723
And we had three conditions.

0:10:02.747,0:10:06.327
In the first condition, people[br]wrote their name on the sheet,

0:10:06.351,0:10:08.641
found all the pairs of letters,

0:10:08.665,0:10:10.306
gave it to the experimenter,

0:10:10.330,0:10:12.213
the experimenter would look at it,

0:10:12.237,0:10:13.972
scan it from top to bottom,

0:10:13.996,0:10:17.910
say "Uh huh," and put it[br]on the pile next to them.

0:10:18.680,0:10:21.966
In the second condition,[br]people did not write their name on it.

0:10:21.990,0:10:24.355
The experimenter looked at it,

0:10:24.379,0:10:27.322
took the sheet of paper,[br]did not look at it, did not scan it,

0:10:27.346,0:10:30.950
and simply put it on the pile of pages.

0:10:30.974,0:10:33.510
So you take a piece,[br]you just put it on the side.

0:10:33.534,0:10:34.859
In the third condition,

0:10:34.883,0:10:37.226
the experimenter got the sheet of paper,

0:10:37.250,0:10:39.732
and put it directly into a shredder.

0:10:39.756,0:10:41.756
(Laughter)

0:10:43.177,0:10:45.970
What happened in those three conditions?

0:10:45.994,0:10:50.196
In this plot I'm showing you[br]at what pay rate people stopped.

0:10:50.220,0:10:52.802
So low numbers mean[br]that people worked harder.

0:10:52.826,0:10:54.928
They worked for much longer.

0:10:54.952,0:10:56.506
In the acknowledged condition,

0:10:56.530,0:10:59.630
people worked all the way[br]down to 15 cents.

0:10:59.654,0:11:01.271
At 15 cents per page,

0:11:01.295,0:11:03.119
they basically stopped these efforts.

0:11:03.642,0:11:08.129
In the shredder condition, it was twice[br]as much -- 30 cents per sheet.

0:11:08.153,0:11:10.392
And this is basically[br]the result we had before.

0:11:10.416,0:11:13.780
You shred people's efforts, output --

0:11:13.804,0:11:16.464
you get them not to be as happy[br]with what they're doing.

0:11:16.488,0:11:18.192
But I should point out, by the way,

0:11:18.216,0:11:20.946
that in the shredder condition,[br]people could have cheated.

0:11:20.970,0:11:22.975
They could have done not so good work,

0:11:22.999,0:11:25.498
because they realized[br]people were just shredding it.

0:11:25.522,0:11:27.609
So maybe the first sheet[br]you'd do good work,

0:11:27.633,0:11:29.768
but then you see nobody[br]is really testing it,

0:11:29.792,0:11:31.705
so you would do more and more and more.

0:11:31.729,0:11:33.569
So in fact, in the shredder condition,

0:11:33.593,0:11:36.427
people could have submitted more work[br]and gotten more money,

0:11:36.451,0:11:37.831
and put less effort into it.

0:11:38.471,0:11:40.416
But what about the ignored condition?

0:11:40.440,0:11:43.170
Would the ignored condition[br]be more like the acknowledged

0:11:43.194,0:11:46.113
or more like the shredder,[br]or somewhere in the middle?

0:11:46.137,0:11:48.561
It turns out it was[br]almost like the shredder.

0:11:49.473,0:11:52.141
Now there's good news and bad news here.

0:11:52.917,0:11:56.980
The bad news is that ignoring[br]the performance of people

0:11:57.004,0:12:01.276
is almost as bad as shredding[br]their effort in front of their eyes.

0:12:01.300,0:12:04.649
Ignoring gets you a whole way out there.

0:12:05.213,0:12:09.522
The good news is that by simply looking[br]at something that somebody has done,

0:12:09.546,0:12:11.539
scanning it and saying "Uh huh,"

0:12:11.563,0:12:13.149
that seems to be quite sufficient

0:12:13.173,0:12:15.942
to dramatically improve[br]people's motivations.

0:12:16.585,0:12:19.365
So the good news is that adding motivation

0:12:19.389,0:12:21.888
doesn't seem to be so difficult.

0:12:21.912,0:12:24.066
The bad news is[br]that eliminating motivations

0:12:24.090,0:12:25.841
seems to be incredibly easy,

0:12:25.865,0:12:29.657
and if we don't think about it[br]carefully, we might overdo it.

0:12:29.681,0:12:33.092
So this is all in terms[br]of negative motivation,

0:12:33.116,0:12:35.450
or eliminating negative motivation.

0:12:36.426,0:12:39.905
The next part I want to show you[br]is something about positive motivation.

0:12:40.473,0:12:44.160
So there is a store[br]in the U.S. called IKEA.

0:12:44.970,0:12:49.175
And IKEA is a store[br]with kind of okay furniture

0:12:49.199,0:12:51.183
that takes a long time to assemble.

0:12:51.667,0:12:53.316
(Laughter)

0:12:53.714,0:12:54.866
I don't know about you,

0:12:54.890,0:12:56.763
but every time I assemble one of those,

0:12:56.787,0:12:59.128
it takes me much longer,[br]it's much more effortful,

0:12:59.152,0:13:02.517
it's much more confusing,[br]I put things in the wrong way --

0:13:03.186,0:13:05.766
I can't say I enjoy those pieces.

0:13:06.175,0:13:08.473
I can't say I enjoy the process.

0:13:09.040,0:13:10.676
But when I finish it,

0:13:10.700,0:13:12.818
I seem to like those[br]IKEA pieces of furniture

0:13:12.842,0:13:14.694
more than I like other ones.

0:13:14.718,0:13:15.774
(Laughter)

0:13:15.798,0:13:19.151
And there's an old story about cake mixes.

0:13:19.758,0:13:22.985
So when they started[br]cake mixes in the '40s,

0:13:23.009,0:13:26.465
they would take this powder[br]and they would put it in a box,

0:13:26.489,0:13:29.530
and they would ask housewives[br]to basically pour it in,

0:13:29.554,0:13:31.276
stir some water in it,

0:13:31.300,0:13:35.562
mix it, put it in the oven,[br]and -- voila -- you had cake.

0:13:35.586,0:13:37.615
But it turns out they were very unpopular.

0:13:37.639,0:13:39.450
People did not want them,

0:13:39.474,0:13:41.999
and they thought about[br]all kinds of reasons for that.

0:13:42.023,0:13:43.432
Maybe the taste was not good?

0:13:43.456,0:13:44.632
No, the taste was great.

0:13:44.656,0:13:49.656
What they figured out was[br]that there was not enough effort involved.

0:13:49.680,0:13:53.057
It was so easy that nobody[br]could serve cake to their guests

0:13:53.081,0:13:55.365
and say, "Here is my cake."

0:13:55.389,0:13:58.965
No, it was somebody else's cake,[br]as if you bought it in the store.

0:13:58.989,0:14:01.232
It didn't really feel like your own.

0:14:01.574,0:14:03.019
So what did they do?

0:14:03.043,0:14:06.289
They took the eggs and the milk[br]out of the powder.

0:14:06.313,0:14:08.039
(Laughter)

0:14:08.063,0:14:11.880
Now you had to break[br]the eggs and add them,

0:14:11.904,0:14:15.060
you had to measure the milk[br]and add it, mixing it.

0:14:15.084,0:14:17.917
Now it was your cake.[br]Now everything was fine.

0:14:17.941,0:14:20.305
(Laughter)

0:14:20.329,0:14:27.251
(Applause)

0:14:27.904,0:14:30.133
Now, I think a little bit[br]like the IKEA effect,

0:14:30.157,0:14:31.785
by getting people to work harder,

0:14:31.809,0:14:34.222
they actually got them to love[br]what they're doing

0:14:34.246,0:14:35.762
to a higher degree.

0:14:36.150,0:14:38.586
So how do we look at this[br]question experimentally?

0:14:39.046,0:14:41.199
We asked people to build some origami.

0:14:41.223,0:14:43.976
We gave them instructions[br]on how to create origami,

0:14:44.000,0:14:45.738
and we gave them a sheet of paper.

0:14:45.762,0:14:47.580
And these were all novices,

0:14:47.604,0:14:50.158
and they built something[br]that was really quite ugly --

0:14:50.182,0:14:52.317
nothing like a frog or a crane.

0:14:53.086,0:14:56.127
But then we told them,[br]"Look, this origami really belongs to us.

0:14:56.151,0:14:59.175
You worked for us, but I'll tell[br]you what, we'll sell it to you.

0:14:59.199,0:15:01.203
How much do you want to pay for it?"

0:15:01.610,0:15:04.286
And we measured how much[br]they were willing to pay for it.

0:15:04.310,0:15:06.118
And we had two types of people:

0:15:06.142,0:15:08.086
We had the people who built it,

0:15:08.110,0:15:09.889
and the people who did not build it,

0:15:09.913,0:15:12.713
and just looked at it[br]as external observers.

0:15:13.173,0:15:15.404
And what we found[br]was that the builders thought

0:15:15.428,0:15:18.056
that these were beautiful[br]pieces of origami --

0:15:18.080,0:15:19.342
(Laughter)

0:15:19.366,0:15:21.857
and they were willing to pay[br]five times more for them

0:15:21.881,0:15:24.485
than the people who just[br]evaluated them externally.

0:15:24.890,0:15:27.918
Now you could say --[br]if you were a builder,

0:15:27.942,0:15:31.110
do you think [you'd say],[br]"Oh, I love this origami,

0:15:31.134,0:15:33.728
but I know that nobody[br]else would love it?"

0:15:34.474,0:15:39.868
Or "I love this origami,[br]and everybody else will love it as well?"

0:15:39.892,0:15:42.273
Which one of those two is correct?

0:15:42.297,0:15:45.749
Turns out the builders[br]not only loved the origami more,

0:15:45.773,0:15:49.077
they thought that everybody[br]would see the world in their view.

0:15:49.101,0:15:51.793
They thought everybody else[br]would love it more as well.

0:15:52.451,0:15:54.889
In the next version,[br]we tried to do the IKEA effect.

0:15:54.913,0:15:56.777
We tried to make it more difficult.

0:15:57.126,0:15:59.754
So for some people, we gave the same task.

0:15:59.778,0:16:03.636
For some people, we made it harder[br]by hiding the instructions.

0:16:04.001,0:16:06.383
At the top of the sheet,[br]we had little diagrams

0:16:06.407,0:16:08.366
of how you fold origami.

0:16:08.390,0:16:10.719
For some people, we just eliminated that.

0:16:11.151,0:16:12.484
So now this was tougher.

0:16:12.867,0:16:14.024
What happened?

0:16:14.048,0:16:16.095
Well in an objective way,

0:16:16.119,0:16:19.585
the origami now was uglier,[br]it was more difficult.

0:16:20.064,0:16:23.071
Now when we looked at the easy[br]origami, we saw the same thing --

0:16:23.095,0:16:26.317
builders loved it more,[br]evaluators loved it less.

0:16:26.341,0:16:28.500
When you looked at the hard instructions,

0:16:28.524,0:16:31.222
the effect was larger.

0:16:31.246,0:16:32.398
Why?

0:16:32.422,0:16:35.492
Because now the builders[br]loved it even more.

0:16:35.516,0:16:36.722
(Laughter)

0:16:36.746,0:16:38.902
They put all this extra effort into it.

0:16:39.352,0:16:41.188
And evaluators?

0:16:41.212,0:16:42.839
They loved it even less.

0:16:42.863,0:16:46.712
Because in reality, it was even uglier[br]than the first version.

0:16:46.736,0:16:48.077
(Laughter)

0:16:48.101,0:16:52.073
Of course, this tells you something[br]about how we evaluate things.

0:16:52.835,0:16:54.414
Now think about kids.

0:16:55.216,0:16:58.323
Imagine I asked you, "How much[br]would you sell your kids for?"

0:16:59.748,0:17:01.756
Your memories and associations and so on.

0:17:01.780,0:17:04.419
Most people would say[br]for a lot, a lot of money.

0:17:04.443,0:17:05.607
(Laughter)

0:17:05.631,0:17:07.015
On good days.

0:17:07.039,0:17:08.279
(Laughter)

0:17:08.303,0:17:10.208
But imagine this was slightly different.

0:17:10.232,0:17:12.042
Imagine if you did not have your kids.

0:17:12.066,0:17:14.801
And one day you went to the park[br]and you met some kids.

0:17:14.825,0:17:16.307
They were just like your kids,

0:17:16.331,0:17:18.349
and you played with them for a few hours,

0:17:18.373,0:17:21.722
and when you were about to leave,[br]the parents said, "Hey, by the way,

0:17:21.746,0:17:24.729
just before you leave,[br]if you're interested, they're for sale."

0:17:24.753,0:17:26.859
(Laughter)

0:17:26.883,0:17:29.113
How much would you pay for them now?

0:17:29.803,0:17:31.900
Most people say not that much.

0:17:32.549,0:17:36.719
And this is because our kids[br]are so valuable,

0:17:36.743,0:17:38.873
not just because of who they are,

0:17:38.897,0:17:40.508
but because of us,

0:17:40.532,0:17:42.692
because they are so connected to us,

0:17:42.716,0:17:45.287
and because of the time and connection.

0:17:45.311,0:17:48.218
By the way, if you think[br]IKEA instructions are not good,

0:17:48.242,0:17:51.630
what about the instructions that come[br]with kids, those are really tough.

0:17:51.654,0:17:52.662
(Laughter)

0:17:52.686,0:17:56.928
By the way, these are my kids, which,[br]of course, are wonderful and so on.

0:17:56.952,0:17:58.876
Which comes to tell you one more thing,

0:17:58.900,0:18:01.350
which is, much like our builders,

0:18:01.374,0:18:05.215
when they look at the creature[br]of their creation,

0:18:05.239,0:18:08.503
we don't see that other people[br]don't see things our way.

0:18:10.463,0:18:12.297
Let me say one last comment.

0:18:13.162,0:18:16.955
If you think about Adam Smith[br]versus Karl Marx,

0:18:16.979,0:18:20.194
Adam Smith had a very important[br]notion of efficiency.

0:18:20.750,0:18:22.892
He gave an example of a pin factory.

0:18:23.464,0:18:26.421
He said pins have 12 different steps,

0:18:26.445,0:18:30.350
and if one person does all 12 steps,[br]production is very low.

0:18:30.818,0:18:32.946
But if you get one person to do step one,

0:18:32.970,0:18:35.723
and one person to do step two[br]and step three and so on,

0:18:35.747,0:18:38.358
production can increase tremendously.

0:18:38.382,0:18:40.121
And indeed, this is a great example,

0:18:40.145,0:18:43.596
and the reason for the Industrial[br]Revolution and efficiency.

0:18:44.270,0:18:45.856
Karl Marx, on the other hand,

0:18:45.880,0:18:49.341
said that the alienation[br]of labor is incredibly important

0:18:49.365,0:18:52.761
in how people think about the connection[br]to what they are doing.

0:18:52.785,0:18:56.055
And if you do all 12 steps,[br]you care about the pin.

0:18:56.079,0:18:59.531
But if you do one step every time,[br]maybe you don't care as much.

0:19:00.568,0:19:03.353
I think that in the Industrial Revolution,

0:19:03.377,0:19:05.964
Adam Smith was more[br]correct than Karl Marx.

0:19:06.488,0:19:09.323
But the reality is that we've switched,

0:19:09.347,0:19:11.355
and now we're in the knowledge economy.

0:19:11.379,0:19:14.266
You can ask yourself, what happens[br]in a knowledge economy?

0:19:14.290,0:19:17.537
Is efficiency still more[br]important than meaning?

0:19:17.561,0:19:18.971
I think the answer is no.

0:19:18.995,0:19:21.189
I think that as we move to situations

0:19:21.213,0:19:24.172
in which people have[br]to decide on their own

0:19:24.196,0:19:28.366
about how much effort, attention,[br]caring, how connected they feel to it,

0:19:28.390,0:19:30.765
are they thinking about labor[br]on the way to work,

0:19:30.789,0:19:32.366
and in the shower and so on,

0:19:32.390,0:19:35.978
all of a sudden Marx[br]has more things to say to us.

0:19:36.843,0:19:38.249
So when we think about labor,

0:19:38.273,0:19:41.673
we usually think about motivation[br]and payment as the same thing,

0:19:41.697,0:19:45.299
but the reality is that we should[br]probably add all kinds of things to it --

0:19:45.323,0:19:49.519
meaning, creation, challenges,[br]ownership, identity, pride, etc.

0:19:49.823,0:19:52.506
The good news is that if we added[br]all of those components

0:19:52.530,0:19:54.108
and thought about them --

0:19:54.132,0:19:57.545
how do we create our own[br]meaning, pride, motivation,

0:19:57.569,0:19:59.419
and how do we do it in our workplace,

0:19:59.443,0:20:00.841
and for the employees --

0:20:00.865,0:20:04.830
I think we could get people to be[br]both more productive and happier.

0:20:04.854,0:20:06.160
Thank you very much.

0:20:06.184,0:20:07.984
(Applause)