I want to talk a little bit today about labor and work.
Hoxe quero falar un pouco sobre traballo e emprego.
When we think about how people work, the naive intuition we have is that people are like rats in a maze -- that all people care about is money, and the moment we give them money, we can direct them to work one way, we can direct them to work another way. This is why we give bonuses to bankers and pay in all kinds of ways. And we really have this incredibly simplistic view of why people work, and what the labor market looks like.
Cando pensamos en como traballa a xente, a intuición inocente que temos é que a xente é como as ratas no labirinto: que o que lle importa á xente é os cartos, e que mentres lles deamos cartos podemos dirixilos para que traballen nunha dirección, podemos dirixilos para que traballen noutra dirección. Por iso lles damos primas aos banqueiros e pagamos de moitas maneiras. E realmente temos esta visión incriblemente simplista de por que a xente traballa e de como é o mercado de traballo.
At the same time, if you think about it, there's all kinds of strange behaviors in the world around us. Think about something like mountaineering and mountain climbing. If you read books of people who climb mountains, difficult mountains, do you think that those books are full of moments of joy and happiness? No, they are full of misery. In fact, it's all about frostbite and having difficulty walking, and difficulty breathing -- cold, challenging circumstances. And if people were just trying to be happy, the moment they would get to the top, they would say, "This was a terrible mistake. I'll never do it again."
Ao mesmo tempo, se nos paramos a pensalo, hai todo tipo de comportamentos inusuais ao noso arredor. Pensade en algo como o alpinismo ou a escalada. Se lemos libros de persoas que escalan montañas, montañas difíciles, credes que estes libros están cheos de momentos de xúbilo e ledicia? Non, están cheos de penalidades. De feito, do que falan é de conxelación, de dificultade para andar e dificultade para respirar... de frío, de circunstancias esixentes. E se a xente quixese simplemente ser feliz, en canto chegasen ao cume dirían: "Isto foi un erro tremendo. Non o farei nunca máis."
(Laughter)
(Risos)
"Instead, let me sit on a beach somewhere drinking mojitos." But instead, people go down, and after they recover, they go up again. And if you think about mountain climbing as an example, it suggests all kinds of things. It suggests that we care about reaching the end, a peak. It suggests that we care about the fight, about the challenge. It suggests that there's all kinds of other things that motivate us to work or behave in all kinds of ways.
"Prefiro sentar nunha praia e beber mojitos." Pero no canto diso, descenden e, cando se recuperan, volven a subir. E se pensamos na escalada como exemplo, vemos que implica todo tipo de cousas. Implica que lle damos importancia a chegar ao final, a un cume. Implica que lle damos importancia á loita, ao reto. Implica que hai moitas outras cousas que nos motivan para traballar ou para comportarnos de moitas maneiras.
And for me personally, I started thinking about this after a student came to visit me. This was one of my students from a few years earlier, and he came one day back to campus. And he told me the following story: He said that for more than two weeks, he was working on a PowerPoint presentation. He was working in a big bank, and this was in preparation for a merger and acquisition. And he was working very hard on this presentation -- graphs, tables, information. He stayed late at night every day. And the day before it was due, he sent his PowerPoint presentation to his boss, and his boss wrote him back and said, "Nice presentation, but the merger is canceled." And the guy was deeply depressed. Now at the moment when he was working, he was actually quite happy. Every night he was enjoying his work, he was staying late, he was perfecting this PowerPoint presentation. But knowing that nobody would ever watch it made him quite depressed.
Eu persoalmente comecei a pensar nisto cando un alumno veu visitarme. Era un alumno ao que lle dera clase había uns anos. E un día volveu polo campus. E contoume esta historia: Contoume que durante máis de dúas semanas traballara nunha presentación PowerPoint. Estaba traballando nun banco importante. Era para preparar unha fusión e adquisición. E estaba a traballar con moito afán nesta presentación: gráficas, táboas, información. Ficaba ata ben tarde todas as noites. E o día antes da data de entrega, envioulle a presentación PowerPoint ao seu xefe, e o seu xefe contestoulle dicindo: "Boa presentación, pero a fusión cancelouse." E o rapaz sentiuse moi abatido. O caso é que mentres estaba traballando, sentíase bastante contento. Cada noite desfrutaba co seu traballo, ficaba ata tarde, perfeccionando a presentación PowerPoint. Pero saber que ninguén a vería fíxolle sentirse bastante abatido.
So I started thinking about how do we experiment with this idea of the fruits of our labor. And to start with, we created a little experiment in which we gave people Legos, and we asked them to build with Legos. And for some people, we gave them Legos and we said, "Hey, would you like to build this Bionicle for three dollars? We'll pay you three dollars for it." And people said yes, and they built with these Legos. And when they finished, we took it, we put it under the table, and we said, "Would you like to build another one, this time for $2.70?" If they said yes, we gave them another one, and when they finished, we asked them, "Do you want to build another one?" for $2.40, $2.10, and so on, until at some point people said, "No more. It's not worth it for me." This was what we called the meaningful condition. People built one Bionicle after another. After they finished every one of them, we put them under the table. And we told them that at the end of the experiment, we will take all these Bionicles, we will disassemble them, we will put them back in the boxes, and we will use it for the next participant.
Así que comecei a pensar en como experimentar con esta idea dos froitos do noso traballo. E para comezar, creamos un pequeno experimento no que dabamos a unhas persoas Legos, e lles pedíamos que construísen cos Legos. E a algunhas das persoas démoslles Legos e dixémoslles: "Oes, gustaríache construír este Bionicle por tres dólares? Pagarémosche tres dólares por facelo." E as persoas dicían que si, e construían con estes Legos. E cando remataban, colliámolo, poñiámolo debaixo da mesa, e dicíamos: "Gustaríache construír outro máis, esta vez por 2,70 $?" Se dicían que si, dabámoslles outro máis. E cando remataban, preguntabámoslles: "Queres construír outro máis?" por 2,40 $, 2,10 $ etc., ata que nalgún momento dicían: "Xa abonda. Non me paga a pena." Isto é o que chamamos a condición significativa. As persoas construían un Bionicle detrás doutro. Ao rematar cada un, poñiámolo baixo a mesa. E diciámoslles que ao final do experimento, colleriámos todos eses Bionicles, desfariámolos, poñeriámolos de novo nas caixas e usariámolos para o seguinte participante.
There was another condition. This other condition was inspired by David, my student. And this other condition we called the Sisyphic condition. And if you remember the story about Sisyphus, Sisyphus was punished by the gods to push the same rock up a hill, and when he almost got to the end, the rock would roll over, and he would have to start again. And you can think about this as the essence of doing futile work. You can imagine that if he pushed the rock on different hills, at least he would have some sense of progress. Also, if you look at prison movies, sometimes the way that the guards torture the prisoners is to get them to dig a hole, and when the prisoner is finished, they ask him to fill the hole back up and then dig again. There's something about this cyclical version of doing something over and over and over that seems to be particularly demotivating.
Había outra condición. Estoutra condición estivo inspirada por David, o meu alumno. E a esta outra condición chamámola a condición sisífica. Se lembrades a historia de Sísifo, Sísifo fora castigado polos deuses a empurrar unha roca costa arriba, e cando estivera a chegar ao cume do outeiro, a roca rodaría para abaixo, e tería que volver a comezar de novo. E podemos considerar isto como a esencia do traballo fútil. Podemos imaxinar que se empurrase a roca por distintos outeiros, polo menos tería algunha noción de progreso. Tamén se pensamos en filmes de cárceres ás veces a forma que teñen os gardas de torturar os presos é mandarlles cavar un burato e cando o preso remata, mándanlle reencher o burato e cavalo de novo. Hai algo nesta versión cíclica de facer algo unha e outra vez que semella desmotivar especialmente.
So in the second condition of this experiment, that's exactly what we did. We asked people, "Would you like to build one Bionicle for three dollars?" And if they said yes, they built it. Then we asked them, "Do you want to build another one for $2.70?" And if they said yes, we gave them a new one, and as they were building it, we took apart the one that they just finished. And when they finished that, we said, "Would you like to build another one, this time for 30 cents less?" And if they said yes, we gave them the one that they built and we broke. So this was an endless cycle of them building, and us destroying in front of their eyes.
Entón na segunda condición do experimento foi iso o que fixemos. Preguntabamos: "Gustaríache construír un Bionicle por tres dólares?" E se dicían que si, construíano. Entón preguntabámoslles: "Queres construír outro por 2,70 $?" E se dicían que sí, dabámoslles un novo, e mentres o construían, desfaciamos o que viñan de rematar. E cando remataban, diciamos: "Gustaríache construír outro, esta vez por 30 centavos menos?" E se dicían que sí, dabámoslles o que construíran e nós desfixeramos. Co cal era un ciclo sen fin no que eles construían e nós desfaciamos diante dos seus ollos.
Now what happens when you compare these two conditions? The first thing that happened was that people built many more Bionicles -- eleven in the meaningful condition, versus seven in the Sisyphus condition. And by the way, we should point out that this was not big meaning. People were not curing cancer or building bridges. People were building Bionicles for a few cents. And not only that, everybody knew that the Bionicles would be destroyed quite soon. So there was not a real opportunity for big meaning. But even the small meaning made a difference.
E que acontece cando se comparan estas dúas condicións? O primeiro que aconteceu foi que a xente construíu moitos máis Bionicles (11 fronte a 7) coa condición significativa fronte á condición sisífica. E, por certo, temos que ter en conta que isto non tiña un significado enorme. Non se trataba de curar o cancro nen de construír pontes. O que facían era construír Bionicles por uns cantos centavos. E non só iso, senon que todos sabían que os Bionicles se desfarían ao pouco tempo. O cal non era moi propicio para un significado importante. Pero mesmo este significado miúdo tiña o seu impacto.
Now we had another version of this experiment. In this other version of the experiment, we didn't put people in this situation, we just described to them the situation, much as I am describing to you now, and we asked them to predict what the result would be. What happened? People predicted the right direction but not the right magnitude. People who were just given the description of the experiment said that in the meaningful condition, people would probably build one more Bionicle. So people understand that meaning is important, they just don't understand the magnitude of the importance, the extent to which it's important.
Tamén tiñamos outra versión deste experimento. Nesta outra versión non poñiamos a xente nesta situación, soamente lles describiamos a situación, case como a estou describindo agora, e pediámoslles que predixesen o resultado. Que aconteceu? A predición foi correcta pero a magnitude non o foi. As persoas ás que so se lles describiu o experimento dixeron que coa condición significativa a xente probablemente construiría un Bionicle máis. Ou sexa que a xente comprende que o significado é importante, só que non comprende a magnitude da súa importancia, ata que punto é importante.
There was one other piece of data we looked at. If you think about it, there are some people who love Legos, and some people who don't. And you would speculate that the people who love Legos would build more Legos, even for less money, because after all, they get more internal joy from it. And the people who love Legos less would build less Legos because the enjoyment that they derive from it is lower. And that's actually what we found in the meaningful condition. There was a very nice correlation between the love of Legos and the amount of Legos people built.
Houbo ademais outro dato que analizamos. Se o pensades, hai persoas ás que lles encantan os Legos e hai persoas ás que non. E poderiamos conxecturar que as persoas ás que lles encantan os Legos construirían máis Legos, mesmo por menos cartos, porque á fin e ao cabo desfrutarían máis. E as persoas ás que lles gustaran menos os Legos, construirían menos porque o desfrute que obterían sería menor. E iso é de feito o que atopamos coa condición significativa. Houbo unha correlación clara entre o gusto polo Lego e a cantidade de Legos construídos.
What happened in the Sisyphic condition? In that condition, the correlation was zero -- there was no relationship between the love of Legos, and how much people built, which suggests to me that with this manipulation of breaking things in front of people's eyes, we basically crushed any joy that they could get out of this activity. We basically eliminated it.
Que aconteceu coa condición sisífica? Nesa condición a correlación foi de cero. Non houbo relación entre o gusto polo Lego e a cantidade construída, o cal implica para min que con esta manipulación de desfacer estas figuras diante dos seus olllos, o que faciamos era esnaquizar calquera satisfacción que puideran obter. Basicamente suprimiámola.
Soon after I finished running this experiment, I went to talk to a big software company in Seattle. I can't tell you who they were, but they were a big company in Seattle. This was a group within the software company that was put in a different building, and they asked them to innovate, and create the next big product for this company. And the week before I showed up, the CEO of this big software company went to that group, 200 engineers, and canceled the project. And I stood there in front of 200 of the most depressed people I've ever talked to. And I described to them some of these Lego experiments, and they said they felt like they had just been through that experiment. And I asked them, I said, "How many of you now show up to work later than you used to?" And everybody raised their hand. I said, "How many of you now go home earlier than you used to?" Everybody raised their hand. I asked them, "How many of you now add not-so-kosher things to your expense reports?" And they didn't raise their hands, but they took me out to dinner and showed me what they could do with expense reports. And then I asked them, I said, "What could the CEO have done to make you not as depressed?" And they came up with all kinds of ideas.
Pouco despois de rematar este experimento fun falar cunha empresa importante de software en Seattle. Non podo dicirvos cal era, pero era unha grande empresa en Seattle. Era cun grupo desta empresa de software que traballaba nun edificio distinto. Pedíronlles que innovasen e que creasen o novo produto estrela da empresa. E unha semana antes de eu aparecer, o director executivo desta empresa dirixiuse a ese grupo, 200 enxeñeiros, e cancelou o proxecto. E velaí estaba eu diante das 200 persoas máis deprimidas coas que falara nunca. Describinlles algún dos experimentos de Lego e dicían que se sentían xusto coma se acabaran de facer ese experimento. Pregunteilles: "Cantos de vós chegades agora ao traballo máis tarde que antes?" E todos levantaron a man. Dixen: "Cantos de vós marchades a casa máis cedo que antes?" E todos levantaron a man. Pregunteilles: "Cantos engadides agora cousas extra aos gastos de empresa?" E a verdade é que non levantaron a man pero invitáronme a cear e mostráronme o que podían facer a cargo da empresa. Entón pregunteilles: "Que puido ter feito o director executivo para non vos deprimir tanto?" Ocorréronselles todo tipo de ideas.
They said the CEO could have asked them to present to the whole company about their journey over the last two years and what they decided to do. He could have asked them to think about which aspect of their technology could fit with other parts of the organization. He could have asked them to build some next-generation prototypes, and see how they would work. But the thing is that any one of those would require some effort and motivation. And I think the CEO basically did not understand the importance of meaning. If the CEO, just like our participants, thought the essence of meaning is unimportant, then he [wouldn't] care. And he would say, "At the moment I directed you in this way, and now that I'm directing you in this way, everything will be okay." But if you understood how important meaning is, then you would figure out that it's actually important to spend some time, energy and effort in getting people to care more about what they're doing.
Dixeron que o director podía terlles pedido que presentaran ao resto da empresa a súa traxectoria dos dous últimos anos e o que decidiran facer. Podía terlles pedido que pensaran que aspecto da súa tecnoloxía podería encaixar noutras partes da organización. Podería terlles pedido que construísen prototipos, prototipos de nova xeración e observar o seu funcionamento. O que pasa é que calquera destas ideas precisaría de certo esforzo e motivación. E penso que o director simplemente non comprendeu a importancia do significado. Se o director executivo, como os nosos participantes, pensase que a esencia do significado non era importante, entón non lle importaría. Diríalles: "Nese momento dirixinvos nesa dirección, e agora estouvos dirixindo nestoutra; todo irá ben." Pero se se entende a importancia do significado, un daríase conta de que paga a pena investir tempo, enerxía e esforzo en que a xente se preocupe máis polo que fai.
The next experiment was slightly different. We took a sheet of paper with random letters, and we asked people to find pairs of letters that were identical next to each other. That was the task. People did the first sheet, then we asked if they wanted to do another for a little less money, the next sheet for a little bit less, and so on and so forth. And we had three conditions. In the first condition, people wrote their name on the sheet, found all the pairs of letters, gave it to the experimenter, the experimenter would look at it, scan it from top to bottom, say "Uh huh," and put it on the pile next to them. In the second condition, people did not write their name on it. The experimenter looked at it, took the sheet of paper, did not look at it, did not scan it, and simply put it on the pile of pages. So you take a piece, you just put it on the side. In the third condition, the experimenter got the sheet of paper, and put it directly into a shredder.
O seguinte experimento foi un pouco diferente. Collemos unha folla de papel con letras ao chou, e pedimos aos participantes que atopasen pares de letras idénticas que estivesen xuntas. Esa era a tarefa. E fixeron a primeira folla. Entón preguntámoslles se querían facer outra folla por un pouco menos de diñeiro e outra folla por un pouco menos de diñeiro etc. E tiñamos tres condicións. Na primeira condición, tiñan que escribir o seu nome na folla, atopar todos os pares de letras e entregarlla ao experimentador. O experimentador tiña que mirala, examinala de arriba a abaixo, dicir "ahá" e poñela no montón. Na segunda condición, non tiñan que escribir o seu nome. O experimentador tiña que mirala, coller a folla de papel, non mirala, non examinala soamente poñela no montón de follas. Ou sexa, coller o papel e poñelo ao lado. Na terceira condición, o experimentador tiña que coller a folla e directamente metela na trituradora de papel.
(Laughter)
What happened in those three conditions?
Que aconteceu nesas tres condicións?
In this plot I'm showing you at what pay rate people stopped. So low numbers mean that people worked harder. They worked for much longer. In the acknowledged condition, people worked all the way down to 15 cents. At 15 cents per page, they basically stopped these efforts. In the shredder condition, it was twice as much -- 30 cents per sheet.
Nesta gráfica amósase en que cantidade de cartos a xente parou. Os números baixos significan que a xente traballou máis. Traballaron moito máis tempo. Na condición recoñecida, a xente traballou ata chegar aos 15 centavos. Aos 15 centavos por páxina, deixaban de facer o esforzo. Na condición da trituradora, foi o dobre: 30 centavos por páxina.
And this is basically the result we had before. You shred people's efforts, output -- you get them not to be as happy with what they're doing. But I should point out, by the way, that in the shredder condition, people could have cheated. They could have done not so good work, because they realized people were just shredding it. So maybe the first sheet you'd do good work, but then you see nobody is really testing it, so you would do more and more and more. So in fact, in the shredder condition, people could have submitted more work and gotten more money, and put less effort into it. But what about the ignored condition? Would the ignored condition be more like the acknowledged or more like the shredder, or somewhere in the middle? It turns out it was almost like the shredder.
E isto no fondo é o mesmo resultado que antes. Trituras o esforzo da xente: o resultado é que non desfrutan do que están a facer. Debería sinalar, por certo, que na condición da trituradora, a xente podía ter feito trampa. Podían ter feito un traballo menos bo, porque vían que se ía triturar. Daquela, coa primeira folla farían un bo traballo, pero logo verían que ninguén o ía comprobar e farían máis e máis e máis. Entón na condición da trituradora poderían ter entregado máis traballo e recibido máis cartos facendo un esforzo menor. E que houbo da condición ignorada? Pareceríase máis á recoñecida ou á da trituradora, ou sería un punto medio? Aconteceu que foi case igual que a da trituradora.
Now there's good news and bad news here. The bad news is that ignoring the performance of people is almost as bad as shredding their effort in front of their eyes. Ignoring gets you a whole way out there. The good news is that by simply looking at something that somebody has done, scanning it and saying "Uh huh," that seems to be quite sufficient to dramatically improve people's motivations. So the good news is that adding motivation doesn't seem to be so difficult. The bad news is that eliminating motivations seems to be incredibly easy, and if we don't think about it carefully, we might overdo it. So this is all in terms of negative motivation, or eliminating negative motivation.
Isto supón boas e malas novas. As malas novas son que ignorar o traballo da xente é case tan negativo como triturar o seu esforzo diante dos seus ollos. Ignorar ten consecuencias moi negativas. As boas novas son que simplemente mirar o traballo que alguén fixo, examinalo e dicir "ahá" semella abondo para aumentar considerablemente a motivación da xente. Ou sexa, as boas novas son que aumentar a motivación non semella tan complicado. O malo é que eliminar motivacións semella ser tremendamente sinxelo e se non pensamos nisto con xeito, poderiamos pasarnos. Todo isto é en termos de motivación negativa ou de eliminar a motivación negativa.
The next part I want to show you is something about positive motivation. So there is a store in the U.S. called IKEA. And IKEA is a store with kind of okay furniture that takes a long time to assemble.
Na seguinte parte quero mostrarvos algo acerca da motivación positiva. Sabedes que hai unha tenda nos EE.UU. que se chama IKEA. IKEA é unha tenda con mobles aceptables que leva moito tempo montar.
(Laughter)
(Risos)
I don't know about you, but every time I assemble one of those, it takes me much longer, it's much more effortful, it's much more confusing, I put things in the wrong way -- I can't say I enjoy those pieces. I can't say I enjoy the process. But when I finish it, I seem to like those IKEA pieces of furniture more than I like other ones.
E non sei vós, pero a min, cada vez que monto un deses mobles, lévame moito tempo, moito esforzo, é unha lea moi grande. Poño as pezas ao revés. Non podo dicir que desfrute montándoos. Non podo dicir que desfrute do proceso. Mais cando o remato, semella que eses mobles de IKEA me gustan máis que ningún outro.
(Laughter)
Hai unha anécdota sobre preparados de torta.
And there's an old story about cake mixes. So when they started cake mixes in the '40s, they would take this powder and they would put it in a box, and they would ask housewives to basically pour it in, stir some water in it, mix it, put it in the oven, and -- voila -- you had cake. But it turns out they were very unpopular. People did not want them, and they thought about all kinds of reasons for that. Maybe the taste was not good? No, the taste was great. What they figured out was that there was not enough effort involved. It was so easy that nobody could serve cake to their guests and say, "Here is my cake." No, it was somebody else's cake, as if you bought it in the store. It didn't really feel like your own. So what did they do? They took the eggs and the milk out of the powder.
Cando apareceron os preparados de torta nos anos 40, consistían nun po que viña nunha caixa e o que tiña que facer a ama de casa non era máis que botalo, engadir auga, remexer, meter no forno e voilá! A torta estaba lista. Pero resultaron ser un fracaso. A xente non as quería. E consideraron os máis diversos motivos de fracaso. Pode que non souberan ben. Non, o sabor era estupendo. O que descubriron foi que se precisaba demasiado pouco esforzo. Era tan doado que ninguén podía servirlles a torta aos seus invitados e dicirlles: "Velaquí a miña torta." Non, non, non, era a torta doutra persoa. Era como comprala xa feita da tenda. Non daba a sensación de ser túa. Entón, que foi o que fixeron? Quitaron os ovos e o leite do po.
(Laughter)
(Risos)
Now you had to break the eggs and add them, you had to measure the milk and add it, mixing it. Now it was your cake. Now everything was fine.
Agora tiñas que romper os ovos e engadilos. Tiñas que medir o leite e engadilo, mesturándoo. Agora a torta era túa. Agora todo ía ben.
(Laughter)
(Aplausos)
(Applause)
Now, I think a little bit like the IKEA effect, by getting people to work harder, they actually got them to love what they're doing to a higher degree.
Penso que é un pouco como o efecto IKEA: pedíndolle á xente máis traballo o que acadaron foi que a xente desfrutase máis do que facía. Como tratamos esta cuestión de forma experimental?
So how do we look at this question experimentally? We asked people to build some origami. We gave them instructions on how to create origami, and we gave them a sheet of paper. And these were all novices, and they built something that was really quite ugly -- nothing like a frog or a crane. But then we told them, "Look, this origami really belongs to us. You worked for us, but I'll tell you what, we'll sell it to you. How much do you want to pay for it?" And we measured how much they were willing to pay for it. And we had two types of people: We had the people who built it, and the people who did not build it, and just looked at it as external observers. And what we found was that the builders thought that these were beautiful pieces of origami --
Pedímoslles a unhas persoas que construísen figuras de papiroflexia. Démoslles instrucións de como crear as figuras e démoslles unha folla de papel. Eran todos principiantes e construíron figuras máis ben feas... nada de ras nin de grúas. Entón dixémoslles: "Mira, esta figura perténcenos a nós. Traballaches para nós, pero vouche propoñer unha cousa: podémoscha vender. Canto pagarías por ela?" E medimos canto estaban dispostos a pagar por ela. Tiñamos dous tipos de persoas. Tiñamos as persoas que a construíran e tiñamos persoas que non a construíran e que eran observadores externos. O que descubrimos foi que os construtores achaban que eran figuras preciosas de papiroflexia
(Laughter)
e estaban dispostos a pagar por elas cinco veces máis
and they were willing to pay five times more for them than the people who just evaluated them externally. Now you could say -- if you were a builder, do you think [you'd say], "Oh, I love this origami, but I know that nobody else would love it?" Or "I love this origami, and everybody else will love it as well?" Which one of those two is correct? Turns out the builders not only loved the origami more, they thought that everybody would see the world in their view. They thought everybody else would love it more as well.
que a xente que soamente as avaliaba de forma externa. Se vós construísedes a figura, pensariades: "Encántame esta figura, pero sei que a ninguén máis lle vai encantar"? Ou pensariades: "Encántame esta figura e aos demais tamén lles vai encantar"? Cal das dúas é correcta? Resultou que aos construtores non só lles gustaba a figura moito máis, senón que tamén pensaban que todo o mundo tería a mesma opinión. Pensaron que a todo o mundo lle encantaría.
In the next version, we tried to do the IKEA effect. We tried to make it more difficult. So for some people, we gave the same task. For some people, we made it harder by hiding the instructions. At the top of the sheet, we had little diagrams of how you fold origami. For some people, we just eliminated that. So now this was tougher. What happened? Well in an objective way, the origami now was uglier, it was more difficult. Now when we looked at the easy origami, we saw the same thing -- builders loved it more, evaluators loved it less. When you looked at the hard instructions, the effect was larger. Why? Because now the builders loved it even more.
Na seguinte versión tentamos acadar o efecto IKEA. Tentamos facelo máis difícil. A algúns démoslles a mesma tarefa. E a outros puxémosllelo máis difícil agochando as instrucións. Na parte superior da folla puxemos pequenos diagramas de como dobrar a figura. Pero, nalgúns casos, eliminamos esa parte. Co cal agora era máis difícil. Que aconteceu? Pois sendo obxectivos, as figuras eran máis feas: fora máis difícil. Cando analizamos as figuras fáciles, vimos o mesmo: aos construtores gustábanlles máis, aos avaliadores gustábanlles menos. Cando analizamos as figuras difíciles, o efecto era maior. Por que? Porque agora aos construtores gustábanlles aínda máis.
(Laughter)
Esforzáranse máis en facelas.
They put all this extra effort into it. And evaluators? They loved it even less. Because in reality, it was even uglier than the first version.
E aos avaliadores? Gustábanlles aínda menos. Porque en realidade eran máis feas que as da primeira versión.
(Laughter)
Por suposto, isto dinos algo sobre como avaliamos as cousas.
Of course, this tells you something about how we evaluate things.
Now think about kids. Imagine I asked you, "How much would you sell your kids for?" Your memories and associations and so on. Most people would say for a lot, a lot of money.
Agora pensemos en fillos. Imaxina que eu che preguntara: "Por canto venderías os teus fillos?" As memorias, as asociacións etc. A meirande parte da xente diría que por moitos, moitísimos cartos...
(Laughter)
nun bo día.
On good days.
(Laughter)
(Risos)
But imagine this was slightly different. Imagine if you did not have your kids. And one day you went to the park and you met some kids. They were just like your kids, and you played with them for a few hours, and when you were about to leave, the parents said, "Hey, by the way, just before you leave, if you're interested, they're for sale."
Pero imaxina se isto fose un pouco distinto. Imaxina que non tes fillos e un día vas ao parque e coñeces uns cativos que fosen como os teus fillos. Xogas con eles unhas horas. E cando estás a piques de marchar, os seus pais dinche: "Oes, por certo, antes de que marches, se che interesa, están á venda."
(Laughter)
(Risos)
How much would you pay for them now? Most people say not that much. And this is because our kids are so valuable, not just because of who they are, but because of us, because they are so connected to us, and because of the time and connection. By the way, if you think IKEA instructions are not good, what about the instructions that come with kids, those are really tough.
Canto pagarías por eles agora? A maioría da xente non moito. E isto é porque os nosos fillos son tan valiosos non só por quen son senón por nós, porque están conectados a nós e polo tempo e a conexión. Por certo, se credes que as instrucións de IKEA non son boas, pensade nas instrucións que veñen cos cativos. Esas si que son difíciles.
(Laughter)
(Risos)
By the way, these are my kids, which, of course, are wonderful and so on. Which comes to tell you one more thing, which is, much like our builders, when they look at the creature of their creation, we don't see that other people don't see things our way.
Por certo, estes son os meus fillos, que por suposto son fantásticos e todo iso. O que me leva a dicirvos unha cousa máis: que, igual que os construtores cando miran o resultado da súa creación, nós tampouco nos damos conta de que os demais non ven as cousas como as vemos nós.
Let me say one last comment. If you think about Adam Smith versus Karl Marx, Adam Smith had a very important notion of efficiency. He gave an example of a pin factory. He said pins have 12 different steps, and if one person does all 12 steps, production is very low. But if you get one person to do step one, and one person to do step two and step three and so on, production can increase tremendously. And indeed, this is a great example, and the reason for the Industrial Revolution and efficiency. Karl Marx, on the other hand, said that the alienation of labor is incredibly important in how people think about the connection to what they are doing. And if you do all 12 steps, you care about the pin. But if you do one step every time, maybe you don't care as much.
Permitídeme facer un último comentario. Se pensades en Adam Smith comparado con Karl Mark, Adam Smith falaba dunha noción moi importante: a eficiencia. Usou como exemplo unha fábrica de alfinetes. Dicía que un alfinete ten 12 fases distintas e se unha persoa fai as 12 fases, a produción é moi baixa. Pero se unha persoa fai a primeira fase, outra persoa a segunda fase, outra a terceira e así sucesivamente, a produción pode aumentar enormemente. E de feito este é un exemplo moi bo e a razón da Revolución Industrial e a eficiencia. Karl Marx, por outra banda, dixo que a alienación do traballo é de grande importancia para a forma na que a xente se sente conectada co que están a facer. E que se fas as 12 fases, vaiche importar o alfinete. Pero se fas sempre unha única fase, quizais non che importe tanto o alfinete.
I think that in the Industrial Revolution, Adam Smith was more correct than Karl Marx. But the reality is that we've switched, and now we're in the knowledge economy. You can ask yourself, what happens in a knowledge economy? Is efficiency still more important than meaning? I think the answer is no. I think that as we move to situations in which people have to decide on their own about how much effort, attention, caring, how connected they feel to it, are they thinking about labor on the way to work, and in the shower and so on, all of a sudden Marx has more things to say to us. So when we think about labor, we usually think about motivation and payment as the same thing, but the reality is that we should probably add all kinds of things to it -- meaning, creation, challenges, ownership, identity, pride, etc.
E eu penso que na Revolución Industrial Adam Smith estaba máis no certo que Karl Marx, pero a verdade é que mudamos e agora estamos na economía do coñecemento. E podemos preguntarnos: que acontece nunha economía do coñecemento? A eficiencia é aínda máis importante que o significado? Penso que a resposta é non. Penso que a medida que avanzamos cara a situacións nas que a xente ten que decidir pola súa conta canto esforzo, atención, cariño, canta conexión senten, se están pensando no traballo de camiño a el, na ducha etc., de súpeto Marx ten máis sentido para nós. De xeito que cando pensamos no traballo, xeralmente pensamos en motivación e paga como a mesmo pero en realidade deberíamos probablemente engadir todo tipo de cousas: significado, creación, retos, propiedade, identidade, orgullo etc.
The good news is that if we added all of those components and thought about them -- how do we create our own meaning, pride, motivation, and how do we do it in our workplace, and for the employees -- I think we could get people to be both more productive and happier.
E a boa nova é que se engadísemos todos eses compoñentes e pensaramos neles, en como crear un significado de noso, orgullo, motivación, e como facelo no lugar de traballo para os empregados, penso que poderiamos facer que a xente fose máis produtiva e á vez máis feliz. Moitas grazas.
Thank you very much.
(Applause)
(Aplausos)