Why bonuses and performance pay are a bad idea

Dan Pink's TED talk on the Science of Motivation shreds the notion of bonuses and performance pay.

http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation.html

Joe Bob says "check it out."

To avoid registration:

http://news.google.com/news/search?pz=1&cf=all&ned=u...

So what's a good idea?

I value very much these articles and talks but i end up with the same problem.

How to motivate investors, cofounders, employees, anybody?

Give them something to love.

do things 'the right way'. high standards are my personal favorite motivation for doing a good job and working harder. if i know the quality of my work matters i will try harder to get it right. in some orgs it seems quality is completely disregarded in favor of 'just getting things done' and respect for the job suffers.

smart and gets things done (R), the right way

I've not tried any of them myself, but the list in the article from http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1134301 seemed quite sensible.