By Staff Writer – Boonsri Dickinson (@boonspoon)

Workers are more productive when they are allowed to do what they want. Now that we have computers that can take care of mundane, number-crunching tasks, we need humans to be more creative.

There’s a disconnect between what science knows about motivation and what business knows. We invented management in the 20th century.

While it’s a good system for getting people to comply, it needs an upgrade. In fact, letting people direct themselves actually works the best, Dan Pink said in a TED Global 2009 talk about the science of motivation. Behavior therapist Andrea Kuszewski wrote about Pink’s discussion:

Pink talks of companies such as Google and Atlassian who have pre-set “free work times”; during these times, employees have no restrictions on what they can work on, what time they have to be in the office, even whether or not they have be in the office at all to do their work. The only stipulation is that they have to get “something” done…. thinking for the pure enjoyment of generating new ideas.

Without limits, we are free to come up with creative solutions. That is why people shouldn’t be offered economic incentives because it limits their creative potential. Princeton’s psychologist Sam Glucksberg found that when people were offered an economic reward, it actually took them longer to come up with solutions. “The science confirms what we know in our hearts,” says Pink in the talk. We need to develop a new way to motivate people, one that is built around intrinsic drive, and steers clear from the traditional reward and punishment system.

There are, of course, other methods to try. According to Portfolio, the healthier your employees are, the better your stock price is. Companies who foot the bill for wellness programs are not only seeing their company value increase, but workers are more productive when they work out regularly. So exercise is a win-win situation — plus it will make you feel good too!

Image: flickr/ tribe.paramimedia.com