Dan Pink Surprising Science of Motivation

Dan Pink on the surprising science of motivation This pitch was in my opinion really good. Divided in three parts with a sum up at the end that enforce and give power to what he said. The first part was when he gives facts, states experiences and its results. In the second part give credibility of results fund during the experiences, explain those results and shows that most important economists of the world agree with those results and found the same.

The third and last part is about giving example that are currently applied in the world and illustrate perfectly his theory that traditional rewards are not as effective as we think, it is even the opposite. Both ethos, logos and pathos were used and used at the right moment, in the right proportion and the result is that he caught people’s attention and give credibility to his speech.

Ethos: His way to tell his speech as if it was a “lawyerly case” as he said it. And to involve quickly everyone he talks to them as if they were a jury (“ladies and gentlemen of the jury”) and this until the very end of his speech finished by the sentence “I rest my case”.

At the end of the explanation of the second experience that gave illogical results and to consolidate his results and give his speech more credibility, he affirms that for him too that is illogical and that he is exactly like everyone in the room (“I am an American (…) that is not how it’s supposed to work”) This example and the fact that at the beginning of his presentation he tells everybody that he did not get good results from his law university are really clever from him. Saying that he is getting more trustful to people, imperfect side of him make him more human for others.

Logos: He has a very strong logos during the whole presentation. And at the beginning of his speech he said directly that his facts are true, proved. He has a PowerPoint used only for his logos that help the explanation of experiences made with the candle, show the important words of his speech. He also used scientist results and conclusions given by the most important economists worldwide (such as the conclusion made by the economists of LSE). And in his third part he gave an explanation based on three words, illustrate by example and repeated several times to give them more impact on the audience.

Pathos: Begin with a story, more than a story it is like he is going to confess something that he is not proud (“I need to make a confession”). Saying that he makes people trust in him, because he exposes himself. But it is fact a joke, which is also really good because humour is always a good way to catch people’s attention. And during the whole speech, he will have a lot of humour. His speech was like him dynamic, enthusiastic and totally engaged with his audience. With this combination of ethos, logos and pathos Dan Pink make an informative speech and the audience easily receives its message.