I have always been a fan of people who challenge conventional notions with a big idea based in fact or research. By big ideas I mean ones that affect all of us, from CEOs to artists living out of garages. And by challenging conventional notions I mean things like redefining the way we believe ideas are spread or what makes a successful person.

Remember Malcom Gladwell’s concept of sneezers? Those people who could single-handedly take a product from relative obscurity to mainstream popularity? The people who purely through their innate personality and communication abilities, could put a brand no one had heard of before on the map?

I like ideas like that. They are powerful. To realise that the way we thought things work, isn’t exactly right – that there is more to the story, is exciting. This is why I am now loving Daniel Pink. Daniel Pink is the best-selling author of A Whole New Mind, To Sell is Human. He is also the author of Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. According to the Financial Times, “Pink is rapidly acquiring international guru status… He is an engaging writer, who challenges and provokes”. He has been named one of the most influential thinkers in business, and lives close to my home town of Annapolis, in Washington, DC.

According to Daniel Pink, the way we think we are motivated, by reward or punishment, isn’t correct, or at least not like we thought. This is important news for everyone from MD’s with employees to motivate, to managers with teams to teach, to the rest of us who want to get ourselves to go to the gym, finish the proposal or do that last DIY project. Motivation… drive… genius problem-solving… is not always dictated by fear of punishment or desire for reward according to Pink.

Pink says there is a mismatch between what science knows and what business does. Motivating someone (an employee for example) with a bigger reward for a task, will often ensure this person does a slower, and lesser, job. It is hard to believe but true. And without reading his book, you can get the gist of what does motivate by watching him explain it here.

Over 8 years ago now, VTSL’s founders started the company because they were motivated to fill a gap in the market for SMEs that desperately needed a business phone system that was made for their unique needs. These companies weren’t able to benefit from VoIP solutions yet because the ones available had poor voice quality, and they weren’t happy signing up for a business phone system from BT because the contracts were long and rates were high. What motivated Rob and Dave Walton, wasn’t the reward of money, nor was it the punishment of failure. They didn’t report to anyone who was dangling these typical carrot-stick motivational offerings in front of them. They were motivated by something else to create a business phone system that worked for small businesses. And if you watch Daniel Pink, or read a bit of his book, you will understand what that is.

“The course of human history has always moved in the direction of greater freedom,” Pink wrote. Oddly our most intelligent advancements as a species—our most incredible breakthroughs—have almost always been both the product of, and leading to, greater freedom of thought and creative expression.

And with that clue to motivation, I’m off to do some wild running instead of the gym.