How to increase motivation

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.