How can you increase your employees' motivation? Your first inclination might be to offer some kind of reward or bonusbut Daniel Pink warns that this common practice is likely to backfire.

Pinka world-renowned consultant and bestselling author of "Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us" and "To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others"spoke to a crowd of educators and business leaders Tuesday afternoon during a Towson University Signature Forum.

He focused on the often counter-intuitive science behind motivation, creativity and productivity within an organization.

Here are five takeaways from his remarks:

• Most rewards come in the form of an "if you do this, then you'll get this" situation. This, however, represents a form of control and the result will either be compliance or defiance. Having to choose between the two tends to squash creativity and motivation.

• Giving someone a reward to do something they're already passionate about can sometimes cause them to begin seeing that activity as work or drudgery. Once the reward is removed, they may no longer feel passionate about doing the activity on their own.

• The non-commissioned work of artists tends to be more creative than their commissioned work because it has fewer constraints. Likewise, giving employees some time to work on non-commissioned projects without constraints will also motivate them to be more creative.

• Beware of setting unreachable goals. Remind employees that they probably can't change the whole world, but they can definitely change at least one thing in their own life.

• Workers are most motivated when they feel a sense of autonomy (when they're self directed), mastery (when they're able to progress in their skills) and purpose (when they understand why their work is important).

Full video of the presentation will be made available shortly on Towson University's Signature Forums website.