At our Firm we find out the five things people most want to do, see, or experiece. It is what really matters to them. It is what John Strelecky named the Big Five for Life. As an employer, I need to know them as well, togehter with my Purpose for Existing. Both, the Big Five and the PFE need to be aligned to what my business is all about. If there is no connection, then it will be impossible to live up to my potential. Consequentially, not knowing what matters to me means not being able to reach what I could reach if I knew. It means to lose productivity, and profit.
If I know my Big Five for Life there is the chance to link them (or some of them) to what I do as a Job. Maybe it will mean to allocate different people to different jobs. If you are just starting up, then the world is yours if you heed this principle:
Always know your purpose and the five things you most want to do, see, or experience. Your business will be one of them, or even connected to many of them. If not, don’t start at all. Do not embark on a mission which isn’t yours!

Great post! We’ve just started working in ROWE format (Results Oriented Work Environment This was motivated by Dan Pink’s “Drive”. The team seems to be thriving here, and finding ways to push themselves to learn new a better ways to work together. We’ve pushed our team to create a culture of learning where they are constantly growing their skill sets and expertise. We’ve had more interest to join the team the more we talk about this culture.

I get your point, but I also see opportunities to use cash for motivation. Managers use sales contests because they work. Winning the contest is big, but taking the losers out for a beer with that won c-note is a ton of motivation.

According to our recent survey on work styles, top three productivity motivators at work are sense of responsibility (increases productivity for 77% of respondents), good mood (57%) and a possible reward (42%). So, a reward only ranked third. We also compared whether it’s a more powerful efficiency trigger for male or female workers. And the result is that a prospective reward inspires almost 46% of men and only 35% of women (http://www.wrike.com/blog/02/26/2013/Who-Works-More-The-Secrets-Male-and-Female-Working-Habits-Wrike-s-New-Infographic)