Marissa Goldberg Profile picture
Aug 18, 2020 11 tweets 2 min read Read on X
Why extrinsic motivation might not be working for you:

"Carrots and Sticks: The Seven Deadly Flaws
1. They can extinguish intrinsic motivation
2. They can diminish performance
3. They can crush creativity
4. They can crowd out good behavior
5. They can encourage cheating, shortcuts, and unethical behavior
6. They can become addictive
7. They can foster short-term thinking"

- Drive by @DanielPink
"The opposite of autonomy is control. And since they sit at different poles of the behavioral compass, they point us toward different destinations. Control leads to compliance; autonomy leads to engagement."
"For routine tasks, the sort of work that defined most of the twentieth century, gaining compliance usually worked just fine.

But that was then."
"One source of frustration in the workplace is the frequent mismatch between what people must do and what people can do. When what they must do exceeds their capabilities, the result is anxiety. When what they must do falls short of their capabilities, the result is boredom."
"Mastery is an asymptote. You can can approach it. You can home in on it. You can get really, really, really close to it. But... you can never touch it."
"The mastery asymptote is a source of frustration. Why reach for something you can never fully attain? But it's also a source of allure. Why not reach for it? The joy is in the pursuit more than the realization. In the end, mastery attracts precisely because mastery eludes."
"People at work are thirsting for context, yearning to know that what they do contributes to a larger whole. And a powerful way to provide that context is to spend a little less time telling how and a little more time showing why."
If you're a boss having trouble relinquishing control, try these 3 tips:

1. Involve people in goal-setting - "Individuals are far more engaged when they are pursuing goals they had a hand in creating"
2. Use non-controlling language - Use "think-about" or "consider" instead of "must" or "should"

3. Hold office hours - Let people come to you instead of always doing the summoning
'[A]sk yourself, "Is there one thing I can do tomorrow in my own domain to make things a little better?" The answer to that is almost always yes. Start small. Pile up small wins. And worry less about changing everything than about doing something.'

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More from @mar15sa

Mar 22, 2022
I've helped dozens of companies switch to an async-first work environment. This means fewer meetings and more quality work done.

When companies switch to async wrong, it slows their work. I created the Work Forward Approach to prevent this.

Here are the 8 core principles ⬇️
1. Start with Clarity

You need a clear understanding of:

• What you're responsible for
• The priority order
• How you'll get them done
• Where you'll go to find answers when you're stuck

Everything else below will not work without this.
When you see people having trouble making the shift to an async-first approach, the core issue tends to be rooted in a lack of clarity around one of these areas.

Don't fall into this trap.
Read 14 tweets
Jan 13, 2022
This issue is one of the biggest problems people run into when working remotely.

It causes stress, decision fatigue, and burnout - But it's never talked about!

Let's expose the issue and give you the tools to fix it ⬇️
We’ve spent a long time having our job choose our life — where we live, who we spend our time with, and how we work.

Switching to remote work can be exciting at first because, suddenly, we have tons of freedom.

But then the overwhelm kicks in.
You now have endless decisions up to you:

What is "enough" work?
How do you take breaks?
What do you work on next?
Where should you live now?
When do you start/end work?
Where should you work from?

And so on. Overwhelm from new freedom is real.

Here are 3 tips to combat this:
Read 12 tweets
Dec 28, 2021
I've completed 4/4 of my 2021 New Year's resolutions.

People like to hate on resolutions, but the real problem is they're choosing the wrong goals.

Here are 5 common mistakes people make when setting their goals for the New Year:
1. Choosing other people's version of success

Instead of defining success for yourself, you choose goals based on what society or other people say is successful.

Failure: You're never going to have the internal drive to achieve someone else's dream
2. Liking the idea, not the reality

You need to think through and say yes to the whole package.

Ex. Saying yes to both the good parts of having a 6-pack and also the lifestyle required

Failure: You're not ready to accept the sacrifice required to make the goal happen
Read 7 tweets
Dec 2, 2021
The top 5 things every remote worker should have (but most don't) ⬇
1. Virtual Boundaries

Virtual boundaries are even more important than physical boundaries in remote work.

You likely have a virtual boundary issue if you feel constantly distracted, unorganized, and feel a big overlap in your work and personal life.

remoteworkprep.com/blog/3-simple-…
2. Multiple Work Zones

Don't replicate the office. Working from one desk was a measure to save the company money, not to do your best work.

Instead, use your environment to inject inspiration and maximize utility to allow your work to be effortless.

Read 7 tweets
Nov 4, 2021
"Set up one specific, separate place to do your work at home"

This is typically the first piece of remote work advice we get, yet it's all wrong.

Here's why following this popular advice may be making your work worse ⬇ Different people working from different home workspaces
The one workspace advice is another example of us attempting to replicate in-office work at home.

Offices weren't created to be the most effective place to work, but to fit as many workers into a space.

Why bring that home?

Working from one desk works against us for 2 reasons:
1. It's not optimized for different types of work

Most knowledge workers have multiple modes of work like:
• Deep work
• Brainstorming
• Syncing
• Tasks

A work environment made for one of these modes directly works against you if you're in another mode.
Read 16 tweets
Jun 28, 2021
Hybrid work isn't new.

Big companies, like Yahoo, have tried it and failed at this pre-pandemic.

Instead of using history as a lesson, I haven't seen a single company going hybrid address what they're going to do differently.

Here are 3 big areas where hybrid fails:
1. Decision maker for the distributed team isn't remote

Too often, the hybrid company requires the person making remote work decisions to work in person.

If they aren't remote, they aren't experiencing the virtual environment and can't tell what's working and what's not.
2. Not giving agency to the individual

Remote work is about giving the individual agency over when/where/how they work.

Hybrid breaks this by forcing people into an office certain days.

The whiplash from bouncing between 2 extremes is a frustrating struggle for the individual.
Read 5 tweets

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