Autonomy, Mastery, Purpose

While travelling in Berlin and Antwerp over the past couple of weeks I had a chance to talk about Daniel Pink’s book Drive with a variety of different people.  I read his book for the first time a at the beginning of this year, and am now going through it again.  I can’t say enough about this book… it really will change the way you think about what motivates people, and what motivates you.  It’s phenomenal.

What I continue to find fascinating is how much overlap there is between Pink’s writing and the Agile movement.  The Agile manifesto starts with “Individuals and interactions over processes and tools”.  The thrust of Pink’s book is how every person does their best work when given autonomy, mastery, and purpose.  I’m sure you can see the correlation.

If you haven’t read Drive, I’d recommend you pick up a copy.   For a quick teaser, watch this quick video that animates the main points in the book.