A hundred years ago, it was much easier to motivate people. You could switch people from an hourly rate to a piece-rate system, where they would be motivated to do repetitive tasks faster. But in the knowledge or creative work economy, those tasks are becoming rare.

Richard Ryan and Edward Deci pioneered the self-determination theory, which states that people are motivated when they can determine for themselves what to work on and how to do it.

Competence refers to our desire for control and mastery. Competence is about our natural desire to feel like we are learning and making progress towards a set of objectives.

Creating a sense of competence has more to do with what you don't do. Instead of only focusing on c...