Daniel Pink in Conversation

San Francisco Waldorf High School Lecture Series presents
Daniel Pink in conversation with Michael Krasny
21st Century Education:
Motivation, Creativity and Achievement
Saturday, January 16, 2PM
Kanbar Hall, JCC

When I read Daniel Pink's A Whole New Mind a couple of years ago, I had the bad feeling that he was right on about a major shift in the information age economy. & indeed, as an old-school, left-brained tech worker, I seem to be screwed. Anyway, I was interested in this chance to see this prophet of my professional doom in person. Mr. Pink's topic was motivation, the subject of his latest book, Drive. As advertised, the event was a true conversation as opposed to an interview. The professorial Michael Krasny offered as many ideas, personal anecdotes & opinions as Mr. Pink.

Mr. Pink himself was lively, quick & humorous. The audience responded warmly to him, & it was as if we were all friends of his. We never got a précis of his book, but I think all he is saying is that we need to move beyond the traditional system of rewards & punishments in order to motivate people. So instead of just money, people are better motivated by AMP, meaning Autonomy, Mastery & Purpose. This argument seems to be addressed specifically to business people.

The event was full, & the audience was predominately middle-aged women, most of whom I took to be educators. 2 local high school students were among those posing questions to Mr. Pink, one of whom turned out to be his nephew, a student at Berkeley High. I recognized Ingrid Nystrom, of the sadly defunct Stacey's, selling books for the signing afterward.