What Really Motivates Us? Insights for your Tech Team

Over the last month or so, a large number of authors in my RSS reader called attention to Dan Pink’s ‘Drive’ video …

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc

With so many brilliant minds pointing me in this direction, I had to watch it – and yes, I was impressed by the presentation style and the content. It struck all the same chords that were called out above – and got me to stretch my presentation style a bit.

I hold quarterly meetings with my groups in IT, designed to continually invigorate and reinforce communications up, down, and across the business and IT organizations. And – free lunch for all, plus a chance to regularly hone my presentation style, and try out new things.

I have long been loathe to demonstrate software or do any sort of “live” presentation in front of a crowd – the silence can be deafening when Murphy strikes. But I like the message of the video – the style and length just fit nicely with the general themes I was covering this past quarter. So I took the chance and embedded the link in a PowerPoint slide, and ended my slides with the video. What did I learn?

• Always test the internet connection beforehand – make sure there are no unfortunate proxy logins to get past
• Do NOT rely on the speakers in your laptop (I had to scramble for some external speakers – thanks, Andy!)
• Never underestimate the ability of a technical audience for introversion, insight – and outspoken feedback!

I did get some nice responses from my team – not in the group setting, but a couple of folks came to me afterwards, marvelling about how they had been thinking about the same ideas recently. A double win – new presentation tool, and new insights into the creativity and openness of my team!