Driven: How Human Nature Shapes Our Choices

Harvard Business School professors Lawrence and Nohria present a sociobiological theory of motivation directed to the business environment. They claim that humans possess four basic drives to acquire, to bond, to learn, and to defend. The unique approach in their book is the manner in which they apply their theory specifically to the workplace. Historical case studies are used to show that successful organizations are those that give their employees opportunities to fulfill all four of these drives. There are of course a number of competing drive theories from Freud's sexual drive to Steven Reiss's 16-drive theory. The authors, well versed in sociobiology, openly acknowledge that the numbers and exact nature of our drives need further exploration and provide suggestions for research projects. Irregardless of how many more drives one human may or may not posses their theory is enlightening for any reader. While being academic in its approach and presentation it is written with the lay reader in mind so any undergraduate will comfortably assimilate the information provided. This is ideal for any business leader that would like to better understand what not only drives them but also those around them. Driven: How Human Nature Shapes Our Choices (J-B US non-Franchise Leadership)

I had to read this book for my MBA. The first half of it is good, the authors give examples supporting their theory, which is interesting to know about. The second half, however, is full of conjectures and overstatements and I got the impression the authors had nothing new to say but kept outpouring their thoughts.The subject is interesting, but their presentation of it generally treats human nature in a very instrumental and utilitarian way, too Anglo Saxon to my taste :-) (depending on the point of view of objectivity, it may be an advantage). But I can say I came out better after reading this book.

This book just under 10 hours of enduring the most annoying voice to explain a theory that could have been covered more effectively in ten minutes. They covered every piece of scientific data since the dawn of man that lead to their achievement. This lead to their argument being broken and lost in the vast amount of data they presented to cover up the fact that their ground breaking theory amounted to little more than what every middle school child understands about human nature. People want to acquire stuff, friends, knowledge, and then protect it once they have it. The specific way go about this is defined by the prevailing social norms in their area. I guess it doesn't even take 10 minutes to explain.

The 4-drive approach to understand human behavior is easy to follow and easy to put in practice in any social group

Absolutely fascinating and thought provoking! Inspired me to purchase the second book by Lawrence: Driven: Leaders....

Lawrence walks through the 4 basic motivators of humans. If you are a leader and want to know why people do what they do, this is a great book.

Provides a unified theory of motivation! Very interesting.

Very fast shipping - awesome. Thanks!

In my opinion, one of the best motivation theories so far. The book is written in a way that allows you to easily understand the ideas and their application in the real life.

Ouvrage intéressant, qui explore avec pertinence les instincts primaires de l'être humain en prenant ses origines et son évolution comme argumentaire. Le tout est réellement passionnant et instructif, mais diable que ce livre est difficile à dire, même avec un très bon niveau d'anglais. On est sur du pur essai universitaire avec des formulations lourdes et complexes, ce qui peut rendre la lecture parfois malaisée à quelqu'un qui n'est pas parfaitement anglophone.

Great Book on human nature and neuroscience