rewards and recognition

Still thinking about praise and rewards. Isn’t praise a kind of reward? – and I’ve railed against rewards as being counter-productive. Yet, Dweck shows that the right kind of praise can fuel intrinsic motivation. I’ve decided that praise for ability (the bad kind) is a reward, and praise for effort (the good [...]

gaining perspectives

I just finished another marathon 3 day weekend of CTI training. The whole first day of this weekend was focused on how to get clients who are stuck to take on different perspectives – which helps to get them unstuck and move towards their goals. Hmm – sounds just like the mind-set stuff [...]

praiseworthy?

Kimberly linked to an excellent article in her comment on an earlier entry about rewards. (I’m so excited to have actual comments!!!) It’s worth reading the article in full, but the gist of it is that kids become intrinsically motivated when they are praised for efforts rather than abilities. It looks at the work of [...]

the front row of your life

One of the books I read while working on my MEd was Ben and Rosamund Zander’s  The Art of Possibility.
My first reading of it was clouded by my suspicions of anyone associated with Landmark Education – which the authors are.  Since then I have met a couple of people who have had good experiences with [...]

if you ask a person what they want out of life…

Yesterday’s post reminded me of an article in the January 2007 issue of O (the magazine is fairly intelligent, but does she have to be on every cover?) called, “Hi, my name is Amanda and I might be an alcoholic”. The author decides drinking has become a problem in her life and eschews the [...]

control and power

Tara has it as one of her points contributing to intrinsic motivation. Yesterday Gretchen posted about how having a sense of control contributes to happiness.
To be clear, they are both referring to having control over their own stuff – not control over others. I’m sure we are all familiar with at least one control freak [...]

my stories

I love decluttering. I even used to do it when I was a kid – long before there were websites that could clutter up your email inbox as they told you how to declutter. I’m pretty sure I inherited this from my dad – who so loves to declutter that we have numerous family [...]

more on motivation

Tara Hunt blogs about marketing – particularly her approach to it – which she calls Pinko Marketing.
Just a few days after writing about Alfie Kohn I was looking through her slideshow about Unmanaging and found she was referencing Kohn’s work, as well – the whole slideshow is interesting to read even though it is focused [...]

jann arden – alive & well

Alive is a free health magazine distributed through vitamin shops and heath food stores in Canada. It can have some wacky, hocus-pocus stuff in it, but as a magazine junkie, how can I resist a free magazine? (Answer: I can’t.)
This month’s issue has Jann Arden on the cover looking quite fabulous. And an interview [...]

rewards kill resonance

I belong to a staff book club at my school.  We choose a book to read and get together at lunch twice a month to discuss a couple of chapters.  The book we are reading right now is Alfie Kohn’s The Schools Our Children Deserve.
Full disclosure: I already heart Alfie Kohn.  I first saw him [...]