Comment by khaledtaha | Hacker News Reader

Comment by khaledtaha | Hacker News Reader

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I also have a similar theory. I believe rewarding work (interesting projects of passion) encourages employees because it provides them with energy and unrewarding work (monotonous, boring tasks) discourages employees because it drains energy. Interestingly, one could also burn out on rewarding work because it eventually starts consuming energy due to the obsessiveness it fosters. That's when unrewarding work is welcomed.

The problem is that if you're not innovative you will never understand how to encourage it others until you change within. You will read books and attend seminars with the buzzword of the month and it'll all make sense in theory but the practice of it will allude you and you will fall into old habits. Companies that need to become more innovative have to start at the beginning and at the very top and make this a company-wide cultural shift rather than making it a few individuals delegated overtime responsibility.

I actually believe that the mental strain of making 'breakthrough' level ideas is so high that workers who demonstrate they have that capacity should get whatever time and space they need, after deadline day or whatever. If you can't afford to give it to them that then you can't afford those people.

Imagine Greg House MD bouncing his ball against the wall...that is what it takes to constantly make big breakthroughs. Once these people are in the zone you wont have to motivate them

There are great books about making innovation your default culture. I highly recommend reading "An Everyone Culture" which is about creating Deliberate Learning Organizations: https://blog.coderbyheart.com/an-everyone-culture

Books on management theory only work for people who already made the conscious shift and just want to refine their thinking imho

Well, everybody starts somewhere. And books greatly help (me) to get more input and some books (like An Everyone Culture) are so outstanding and unique, that it's worth reading them even if you are not in the position to change an organization.

Yes, and Kotter does not offer any incentive for the hierarchy to change. First, because they can keep controlling the network, and second, they can (in his idea) keep people more productive, if there is the negative example of the hierarchy that makes working for the network so desirable.

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