Twitter Summary: People involved in creative work perform best when they are allowed to pursue the mastery of a creative skill.
Principle
At this point I have taken you through a few principles from Dan Pink’s book Drive. I’ve explained how money can do more harm than good in a creative work environment and followed that up with an explanation of how creative employees flourish when given autonomy, a chance to master a skill, and a clear purpose.
Today I want to highlight this idea of providing people a chance to master a skill. To creative people, there’s something innately satisfying about constantly striving to master something amazing, even though they never quite achieve it.
Pink explains first that creative talent is often simply confused for intense practice and dedication. Many people who seem naturally talented are just those who focus on a task intensely for a long period of time. Those who appear exceptional at their talents typically have spent the most time and effort on the mundane aspects of that talent – much more so than others. And that is what causes them to appear exceptional. These type of people have learned to work harder and longer without switching objectives or getting distracted.
Those involved in creative work understand and have an unexplainable drive to master even the most mundane aspects of a creative skill. This is contrary to other non-creative work where incentives are required for success. But with creative work, people are self-motivated and want to master these types of skills; they require no oversight, financial motivation, or threats.
However, most people in this type of work realize mastery is not fully attainable. They know that there is joy in the pursuit of mastery and not in the realization. Ultimately, Pink says, “mastery attracts precisely because mastery eludes.” What a great line.
Bottom line, creative people need to be offered the chance to seek the mastery of a creative skill. You won’t have to persuade, motivate, or threaten them to do so because they already realize the intrinsic value of the work.
Mastery and Making Connections
This principle rings true because it supports what I’ve already written regarding Jim Collin’s book Good to Great, where he explains the need to focus on a task like a hedgehog and maintain a culture of discipline.
I love how this principle resonates with me personally because, as a musician, I have sought to master ridiculously mundane techniques on countless occasions. I have spent hours in practice rooms drilling scales on the trumpet, memorizing songs, drilling fingering patters on the guitar, and trying to master the delivery of great music.
I have never deceived myself by thinking I would ever “master” my instrument. But that didn’t matter. What did matter were those priceless moments while pursuing that mastery, when I had a glimpse of what it felt like to master an instrument. There have been and I hope there will still be many moments when, the planets aligned and the people I performed with were in perfect unison of thought that, I felt like I experienced musical “perfection,” however briefly it may have been. Those moments are why the pursuit of mastery is so amazing and worthwhile.
So What?
If you don’t already have a skill or hobby that you find joy in pursuing, find one. Find something that makes you excited, not because of the reward you expect to achieve from it’s completion, but because of the pursuit of it’s completion. You may find there is something exciting in your life that you have greatly been missing.
If you are responsible for the management of others involved in creative work, provide opportunities for your people to seek mastery of their skills. They will perform better in the long run, be happier, and provide you better results.
Next Weeks Post: The third and final drive for creative people, a sense of purpose.
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