funktionslust

i spend a lot of time thinking about how the design of social rules and institutions can work together to produce a more loving, fairer society.  people have an inherent capacity for good (or so i tend to believe in my better moments), but drawing good out of people often requires some sort of external catalyst.  properly designed rules and institutions, then, should consistently reference what i’ll call inspirational touchpoints, but which truthfully could be referred to in economic terms as incentives.

looking at life through an economic prism often convinces us that incentives are best utilized when expressed economically (i.e., if you work longer hours this week, i’ll pay you a lucrative bonus).  stepping away from that prism, however, unearths all sorts of non-economic incentives.  sometimes those incentives are expressed in time recaptured (i.e. an extra day off) or in time repackaged (i.e. a day spent compiling a mix tape a friend will love).  sometimes they’re expressible only in ineffable emotional terms (i.e. those people who find reward when following their heart for love, joy, or adventure).  coming to understand someone properly inevitably means comprehending which incentives inspire them.

and the truth is that we’re at our best when we’re achieving rewards.  nailing that client presentation and bagging the sale feels good, but not only because you’re going to get paid.  hitting the ball out of the park feels great, but not only because your team is going to win.  when we do those things, we ignore that the client needed the product and that the park wasn’t exactly major league sized.  instead, we feel pride in creating our own goals and then surpassing them.  in german, there’s a great word – funktionslust – that means the pleasure taken doing something what one does best.  maybe we all can’t pronounce it, but we definitely know the feeling.

what’s interesting is that the word – the state of being – is necessarily personalized.  it doesn’t refer to being the best; it refers to doing something that one does best.  and everyone does something best.  not better than everyone else, mind you; simply better than everything else that person does.  it might be something as simple as peeling carrots.  using chopsticks.  throwing a football.  dancing to great music. what is it for you?

doing those things well reminds us that we are actually capable of doing things well.  and remembering that we can do things well inspires us to try other, riskier things.  becoming aware of our own joy in expressing our capabilities is an incredible motivator towards taking on additional risk.  this is an inspirational touchpoint, although now that i write it i realize that “The Things That Make Life Worth Living” expresses that concept in a far more authentic way.

these days, i hear a lot of people who say that their goal for life is to change the world.  that’s a really great, caring, and loving objective.  and when i hear people set out to change the world, what i really hear them saying is they want to create opportunities where they can be at their best.  sometimes we overlook that we can be at our best every day.  being at our best isn’t a goal to be achieved in the distant future.  it’s here right now, today.  it’s expressible through funktionslust.

so when we think about incentivizing ways to change the world – as friends, as coaches, as teammates, as employers, as parents – we should consider funktionslust.  how do we create opportunities where people can do things they are good at?  how do we create achievable goals within those spheres?  and how do we get people to practice the things they are good at and then capitalize on their inspirational effect to take on otherwise uncomfortable risks?

one final thought.  it would be unfair of me to dismiss financial incentives out of hand: very clearly, we rely heavily on money to purchase valuable goods, to create financial security, to sustain ourselves, etc.  but because money can’t sing, dance, play, or laugh, it can’t be an expression of our funktionslust; we can never achieve that same joy from a financial incentive in itself.  is there a way to recapture the joy?

i want to tell a quick story about a restaurant in india called the seva cafe, which i wrote about here.  the seva cafe runs as a part of the gift economy.  guests were made a promise: the meal would be served by friendly and engaging waiters, it’d be created and served with love, they could eat as much as they liked, and, best of all, the entire meal was free!  at the end of the meal, however, each guest was asked to think of someone like them entering the restaurant the next night and looking forward to the same type of experience – after all, everyone, all over the world, LOVES a free dinner.  in order to pass along this chain of free dinners, each guest was asked to pay it forward; to give a gift to someone who they’d never met.  no donation was expected or asked for: people were only asked to listen to their heart.   amazingly, the restaurant has been running stong, relying exclusively on the gift economy, for several years.

i love how the seva cafe demonstrates a way to reconnect money and joy.  each guest got to experience the profound and exciting pleasure of offering help where it’d be appreciated, instead of expected, to someone who they’d never get to meet.  and i love that this story teaches an important lesson: a good way to accept a free lunch is to say thank you; the best way is to treat a free lunch for someone else.

every day, someone in your city is doing something good.  maybe it’s holding open a door.  maybe it’s singing on the subway to enrich your ride home.  maybe it’s answering a question you’ve recently asked online.  or maybe it’s a free lunch.  if those are the type of experience that you want in your life consistently, then they are worth reinforcing.  next time you come across a good experience, consider how you could reinforce it positively.  or, consider how you could reinforce that behaviour by doing something for someone else. because the design of our city permeates the walls of our homes and our workplaces.  and because the most engaging livable societies are those that reinforce creatively, directly, and thankfully.

what are some good experiences you’ve come across in your city recently?  what are some creative ways that you’ve seen great behaviours reinforced?  what are some ideas about how we could consistently inspire positive feedback?