The document summarizes and evaluates a TED talk given by Dan Pink on motivation. It discusses Pink's thesis on intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation and how he engaged the audience. The document also compares Pink's talk to those given by Sir Ken Robinson, noting both speakers argue for changing traditional paradigms in education and work to incorporate more creativity and passion.

1. Tave Hawkins
PSP 1209
Week 2: TED Talk Evaluation Slide Show

2. Chosen speaker and
thesis of speech
Dan Pink - The overall thesis was about
motivation and what science has shown us about
it and how business has yet to incorporated
these scientific findings. Dan deduces that
business’ ideology of payment for performance
incentive (extrinsic motivation) is outdated and
that a more natural and passion based motivation
(intrinsic motivation) would yield more
productivity and better results.

3. How did the speaker
capture the attention of
the audience in the
intro?
Dan seized the audiences attention by declaring
that he had a confession to make. His tone was
also kind of somber and direct. Naturally the
audience became more interested as to what the
confession could possibly entail.

4. How did the speaker
maintain the audience
attention throughout
the speech?
Dan was successful at maintaining the audience
attention by introducing the candle problem and
engaging them through fun problem solving while
simultaneously evoking passion and inflection
throughout different stages of the speech.

5. Which of the ten TED
commandments does Dan
best follow?
Don’t read your talk - Dan’s speech was
delivered organically and despite having it
feel well organized, I could tell that it
flowed naturally and that he was passionate
about the information he was delivering.

6. Which of the ten TED
commandments does Dan
best follow?
Don’t flaunt your ego - Despite having a law
degree, Dan chose to poke fun of himself as
a lawyer and often times criticized his
abilities as one. At one point he talks about
finishing towards the bottom of his class and
even invoked the notion that he was paid
NOT to practice law.

7. Which of the ten TED
commandments does Dan
best follow?
Connect with peoples emotions - Dan is
passionate about changing the way we’re
motivated. He demonstrates this with his
discussion about the current economy and
how motivating the work force intrinsically
would produce a better outcome that would
help in getting the economy on back on
track.

8. Which of the ten TED commandments
does Dan best follow?
Make the complex plain - Dan simplified his
argument of intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation
by supplying factual studies. He tied
everything together by using the studies
that supported his claim thus making the
argument more tangible when the audience
heard the outcomes. The example of the
company using; FedEx days, 20% time, and
ROWE

9. How did the speaker
rate in terms of
dynamism?
On a scale of 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest) I would
give Dan a 4. His energy was appropriate for the
kind of speech he gave being that it was
informative. The one think I would have liked to
see him do more is implement the occasional
pause to allow the information to sink in and add
more of a dramatic effect. Some of the speech
felt as if it was coming from a fire hose.

10. What tips were used
from Nancy Duarte?
Dan was able to balance the factual aspect of
his speech through telling a story about how
intrinsic motivation in the business world has
been able to yield better results for employees
and employers alike. He took the data and found
the meaning of it to convey the argument that
supports intrinsic motivation.
As Nancy Duarte says,
“A little bit of report with a little bit of story”

11. What did I learn about
delivery based on
watching Dan Pink?
What I took from Dan’s presentation is that it’s
not only important to have factual data but in
order to link that data to my listeners I need to
have a compelling story that connects to people
emotionally. Ultimately I feel this will have a
greater impact on my speech.

12. Compare & Contrast
the speakers
I think Sir Ken Robinson comes off very passionate
about transforming the way education is applied to
younger generations. In both speeches we listened
to, an emphasis is paid to stopping the
institutionalization of schooling and begin to apply a
more broad approach to how youths learn. This is
pointed out in his speech “School Kills Creativity”,
where he argues that most adolescence have their
natural creativity killed due to archaic forms of
teaching that focus on a traditional approach to
academia and ignoring the cultivation of those who
show an aptitude for creativity.

13. Compare & Contrast
the speakers
In Ken’s second speech, “Changing Education Paradigms”,
he continues to focus on today’s youth and challenges
“how” todays children are being educated. He feels
that the rising diagnosis of ADHD, higher drop out
rates, and a diminishing appreciation for the arts is in
direct correlation with how children are being taught.
His argument is that the current education paradigm
(originally developed for the enlightenment culture of
the industrial revolution) needs to be changed and that
if this doesn’t occur, we risk alienating millions of kids
who don’t see the importance of continuing their
education.

14. Compare & Contrast
the speakers
Dan Pink’s speech “The Surprising Science of
Motivation” also focuses on how to get better results
from changing the way we do things. Dan’s argument
hinges on scientific proof that motivating individuals
through intrinsic (passionate) means rather extrinsic
(this for/or that) means yields better results and
ultimately can improve our current struggling
economy. Dan concludes that if we’re doing something
we love and are passionate about it, the end results
are far better than doing something simply to be paid
for it. He utilizes case studies to prove his point.

15. Compare & Contrast
the speakers
Dan also focuses on three elements that provide
the optimal intrinsic approach to “doing stuff”.
Autonomy - The urge to direct our own lives.
Mastery - The desire to get better at something
that matters.
Purpose - The yearning to do what we do in the
service of something larger than ourselves.

16. Compare & Contrast
the speakers
All of Dan’s three elements are vital but he chooses to
focus on Autonomy to provide more proof that intrinsic
motivation is more successful than extrinsic.
This is further supported in his story about the
popular encyclopedia war of the 90‘s between
Wikipedia (free non paid contributors) vs Microsoft’s
Encarta (hired and paid employees). Today, Wikipedia is
the largest and most complete encyclopedia model and
is completely free to access. Dan argues that the
reason it worked is because the people who contributed
to Wikipedia did so (successfully) because they loved
doing what they were doing.

17. Summary
Dan Pink and Sir Ken Robinson obviously had more
similarities than contrasts. Both speakers are
passionate about a fundamental change in the
approach to educating and productivity. These two
men have acknowledged that the the systematic
approach to the way we learn and work is
extremely outdated and should be reformed to
include a more creative and passion based
approach. Both support their arguments with data
and case studies that show evidence to their
respective arguments. As one who suffers from ADD,
I feel that it’s vital to find more ways to get the
right brained thinker back into the game.