For two reasons…first, is the more pragmatic of the two…since I run my own business, taxes force me at least once a year to really look at where my revenue comes from and where my expenses go to (I do have a business tracking spreadsheet that is updated monthly – but not to this level of detail). . Yes – I know I should do this more than just once a year and sometimes I do. But that isn’t where my passion and thus my motivation is…so I put it off. So being the procrastinator I am, I am thankful that taxes force me to do this at least once a year…
Second, and more philosophically, I appreciate that paying taxes is what allows me to have things such as roads and laws and security and safe water/products/air and education and a host of other things. Too often we discount how much we depend on public goods and services. Yes, government could be more productive and efficient. Yes, government could be smaller in some instances. But as my economics 101 class taught me a long time ago, public goods should and need to be run in a way that they are not just for the wealthy among us.
Here is a little bit of psychology that most of us know intuitively. People hate vacuums. No not the kind that you use for cleaning your carpets…the kind that exist when there is an information void.
Our brains work overtime to fill in any vacuums that they encounter.
This is a good thing mostly since it has helped us survive, such as when one of our ancestors filled in this unknown, “hmmm….I’m not sure what the growling noise is, but I bet it’s not good so I better run.”
We fill in these blanks all the time – often at a subconscious level. In the 1930’s, Gestalt psychologist conducted a number of experiments that focused perception and filling in missing information. They named this phenomena “the law of closure” famously demonstrated by the Kanizsa Triangle where there are no triangles or circles in the image – yet that is what we see.
Kanizsa Triangle
So What?
While filling in missing information has often helped us, it can also be very detrimental. Take for instance what would occur if your company made a statement to employees such as “we are going through some difficult times and some changes will be announced next week.”
Not knowing what those “changes” are, people will automatically tend to fill in the blank…and what do you think they will fill it in with? Positive thoughts on the future…probably not.
In fact, we can pretty much guarantee that different people will interpret this differently. Some positive, some negative, and others not even registering on their radar. Psychology shows us that ambiguous stimulus will most likely be translated into multiple perceptions by different people – based on their current emotions, past experience, personality make-up, and a variety of other factors.
People will also fill in the blanks based on information they can gather – thus, the “changes” are associated with “difficult times” so the conclusions they will draw will probably be focused on what they have seen or been part of with other changes in difficult times.
But what a company wants is to make sure that a large proportion of people are not filling in the information with negative or wrong information. For instance, the above statement probably would cause a number of people to go back and start talking about the “layoffs” that will probably occur next week – even though nothing of the sort was said.
So what does one do?
While we can never fully make sure that everything is 100% clear and absolutely understood – we can do things to mitigate the negative aspects of this:
1. Eliminate as much ambiguous information as possible – be as clear and complete as you can in both verbal and written communication
[This article was first published in September of 2009]
It has been interesting how much attention has been paid to Dan Pink’s latest message on motivation that was presented at TED. The number of tweets, blogs, and other messages about this have been huge. We ourselves highlighted the speech here on this blog a couple of weeks ago (http://wp.me/pypb9-31 ).
What I find interesting and a little worrisome, is the idea that many are taking from Dan’s presentation that all incentives (or at least most) are bad. I disagree 100% with that concept. I would like to expand the conversation to explore why.
The debate about intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation has been going on for a long time. The candle experiment presented by Pink was done in the 1950’s. Deci & Ryan research from 1970’s and 1980’s suggested that extrinsic rewards can decrease intrinsic motivation. Alfie Kohn wrote about how he thought extrinsic rewards were bad in “Punished by Rewards” in the 1990’s. All of this research suggested a negative correlation between extrinsic rewards and intrinsic motivation.
However, that is not the only research out there! Research based on both real life corporate performance data and academic experiments show a different side to this debate.
First, performance data from a number of sources points to an increase in performance when incentives are used. Stajkovic and Luthans’ meta-analysis of 72 contingent based behavior programs found that money incentives increased performance by 23%, social recognition increased performance by 17%, and feedback increased performance by 10%. BI, a performance improvement company, has shown increases of over 300% between a control group and an incentivized group in sales performance.
Those are hard numbers to ignore!
Also, Paul Hebert does a nice job of highlighting research by the International Society for Performance Improvement that indicate a 22% increase in performance for individual incentives and 44% for team based incentives – (see it here http://tiny.cc/nHfAj – he also discusses some other arguments around Dan Pink’s message).
Second researchers have found that the way that incentives are structured has a significant impact on their performance as well as on the impact they have on intrinsic motivation. Work by Eisenberger, Cameron and Pierce show that extrinsic rewards, if structured correctly, can actually increase intrinsic reward. They state, “The findings suggest that reward procedures requiring ill-defined or minimal performance convey task triviality, hereby decreasing intrinsic motivation. Reward procedures requiring specific high task performance convey a task’s personal or social significance, increasing intrinsic motivation.” Specific to creativity, Eisenberger and Cameron “concluded that decremental effects of reward on intrinsic task interest occur under highly restricted, easily avoidable conditions and that positive effects of reward on generalized creativity are readily attainableby using procedures derived from behavior theory” [emphasis added]. Yet Dan Pink does not reference any of their work in his book (see here for some research articles that point to how extrinsic rewards can increase creativity: Eisenberger, Armeli, and Pretz,Eisenberger and Rhoades, and Eisenberger, Cameron and Pierce)
In our own work, we’ve seen that when individuals are given a choice in choosing levels of goals and subsequent rewards, they have an increased motivation to choose (and achieve) higher goals than what management would have given them.
That being said, Dan Pink has gotten the discussion flowing on this – which I think is very good. He has also highlighted the fact that most organizations only see one lever to pull when trying to impact employee motivation – i.e. pay systems. As he points out, there are other aspects that influence employee’s motivation. This is vital. To improve performance, creativity, and accountability businesses need to look at more than just rewards! I hope that this will help expand the use of other motivators!
Dan talks about Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose – these fit right into the Four Drive Model of Employee Motivation. Autonomy and Mastery align with our Drive to Challenge and Comprehend, while purpose fit nicely with the Drive to Defend. What Dan leaves out is the power that the Drive to Bond has on motivating employees.
Overall, I think the discussion that will result from Dan’s presentation is great, I just hope that it doesn’t get boiled down to the simple sound bite that “incentives are bad.”
UPDATE APRIL 1, 2011
Let’s start with the positive: Dan’s book has done very well and has helped focus people on the the need for looking beyond the pay system to help drive motivation throughout the business. This is a very, very positive impact.
Now for the bad: the mantra that “incentives are bad” has been one of the larger themes to arise from the success of his book. This is not a positive impact. It has led to a number of non-experts jumping on the bandwagon expounding their personal belief that all pay-for-performance measures should be gotten rid of. That incentives themselves are bad. And that people will be 100% fully motivated if we can just figure out how to make jobs more autonomous, provide mastery and have a purpose. Of course, this doesn’t really account for a lot of what really happens in the world as we know it.
Moving forward, I would like to propose that the discussion around this topic is good – as long as we look at all the research and at how incentives should / should not be used. We need to look at all the tools in our tool belt – that includes things such as Mastery, Autonomy and Purpose – but also includes other things like rewards.
Let me know your thoughts – click on the comment section below!
We just became a Value Added Reseller for the Electronic Maze! I know, strange huh?
I fully believe it was serendipity which according to dictionary.com is:
ser·en·dip·i·ty
/ˌsɛrənˈdɪpɪti/[ser-uhn-dip-i-tee]- noun
1. an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident.
2. good fortune; luck: the serendipity of getting the first job that she applied for.
The story goes like this. We have been using the Electronic Maze since the first day of business at The Lantern Group. We’ve done hundreds of events that have utilized the maze with great success. Thousands of people have gone through it. I wrote about 5 great insights from the Maze back in August (click here to read). We’ve highlighted it as one of our key team building events on our Lantern Group Web Page (see here).
But I never thought that I’d be selling it.
Then the phone calls started happening.
The first was a few months ago – out of the blue, I got a call and somebody wanted to buy a maze from us. I told them politely that we use the maze as one of our key team events, but we don’t sell them…sorry. I didn’t think much of it at the time. Then the second call came – same inquiry, “can I buy a maze.” Again, sorry, we don’t sell them, but here is the website for the company that makes them.” It seemed a little curious, but nothing more than a fluke. But then the third and the fourth call came and I thought – wait, this might be something.
Apparently, when you Google “Electronic Maze” we are the second highest rated web page.
I thought to myself – cool! I love the product – really do (we’ve owned them for over 14 years – with only needing to replace the batteries). I think they can be used to address a number of team and leadership issues for a variety of participants (we’ve had CEO’s go through the maze, a group of women educators, assembly line workers, and managers from across the globe – to name just a few). And now I’m getting calls about them.
I contacted Interal – the manufacturer. I spoke with Boyd the President of the company (we had a great long talk about the many different uses of the Maze and how I’ve loved it for a long time). Now we are a Value Added Reseller of the product. You can contact us and we can sell you the Electronic Maze at cost (612-396-6392 or kurt@lanterngroup.com).
Serendipity at its best.
Insight # 6 from the Maze: Always be open to new opportunities!
I feel that it is important that we take time for ourselves to recharge. When I say that, I mean more than just finding the ten minutes a day to have some quiet time or even an hour a day to exercise (although both of these things help).
I mean that we are able to fully disengage from our main line of work for a week.
I just did this – I took a vacation!
Yes, I checked in on e-mail a few times (and even posted here), but for the most part, I took the time off and enjoyed my family, relaxed, forgot about real life and absolutely enjoyed myself.
I recommend this to everyone.
I think it also:
Recharges us – coming back from vacation, I feel much more motivated to do work. It feels new again.
Refocuses us – time off allows us to refocus our energies. I think that it provides a perspective that allows us to better identify the important tasks that we need to do. It helps us prioritize!
Enlarges us – we come back with new experiences that help us look at things differently and I would say more creatively. We tend to grow in different ways while we are on vacation. This gives us a broader
Encourages us – this time for ourselves makes us realize that work is an important part of who and what we are. I tend to miss it when on vacation (or at least parts of it).
Reminds us – of the reason that we work – both the intrinsic aspects that make us appreciate the work we do as well as the extrinsic aspects that provide us the means to take a vacation. It makes you realize that there is more to life than just work – but how important work is to our life.
Inspires us – I had the opportunity to spend a week with one of the nicest, most thoughtful, most resilient people I’ve ever had the opportunity to meet. His life story and his attitude on life inspired me. We get the opportunity when we take time off to be inspired by any number of different elements.
Connects us – to new people, new places, new ideas. We come back from our time away with more connections that can serve us well in the upcoming days, months, years…
So make sure that you take time off to recharge yourself. Make sure that you don’t shortchange your vacation, or miss it, or do too much work over it. Remember…the time off is important to our overall motivation and well being!
I’m sure there are many more positive aspects to taking time off. Please let us know your thoughts on this.
Ok, I might be trying a little hard to find some gratitude on this one, but…
I was skiing last week with some friends while we were working on developing a conference (a cool conference that includes skiing activities that help solidify key insights…yes, the one I talk about in the previous post…but that is another story). On the last run of the second day (after I had written the previous post), I caught an edge, had the tip of my ski catch and flipped over, twisting my knee. At the doctor the next day, they said that I have a slightly torn MCL.
This week I came out to Montana with my family and some friends to ski at Big Sky. We had planned this vacation for months. We were looking forward to having some time away, teaching our kids how to ski, and enjoying the mountains.
Everyone skied yesterday except for me.
I did a little work, took pictures, captured some video, and got groceries. I kept myself busy.
Today they are off again but instead of keeping myself busy I’m all alone watching the snow fall down at a rate of a few inches an hour (fresh powder). I really want to go out on the hill and ski – but my knee is not quite ready (hopefully tomorrow).
But here is what I’m grateful for…I have a day to relax and enjoy. I sat this morning with a cup of coffee watching the snow fall softly and cover the evergreen branches with a white coat. I watched a bird I couldn’t recognize fly into the evergreens and saw the snow cascade down in a torrent to the ground as the birds wings hit the branches. The mountain is hidden in mist and snow, but outside is beautiful. There is a calm quiet that permeates this place which I can’t find in Minneapolis. I’ve been given a day of contemplation. One in which I can think and be grateful for all that I have.
I could be bitter…I could be mad at the fact that I am stuck here now because I was stupid last week. But what good would that do me? So instead I choose to use this time and enjoy it.
I choose to be grateful.
And so…while I would like to be out skiing and feeling the fresh powder under my skis…I am thankful for this alone time in such a beautiful setting.
I am in Colorado working/playing with a few friends planning a future conference. While we have probably been playing more than working (we talk work on the ski hill, but I can’t really call that work) this time has given me some moments of reflection that I wouldn’t normally get. It is refreshing to step away from everyday life to gain some perspective. Looking at the breathtaking vista’s from the top of the mountain really make one thing about how we fit into the world. Feeling the sun in your face as you glide down the ski hill makes me focus on what is really important in life. Having a beer and sharing stories about the day reinforce the fact that we are social creatures.
I find that motivation isn’t usually a problem when you have new, exciting, rewarding or cool work projects. The new client that has a problem that challenges you to come up with a novel solution. The big project that will catapult your career or the company into a new stratosphere. The project that if done well will get the high profile recognition both by the leaders of the company and maybe even the outside press.
Those are the low hanging fruit….
Those are the open layups you better make….
Those are the no-brainers…
It gets harder when the task or project doesn’t have the same “appeal”
Here is the $50,000 question for you – how do you make sure employees are motivated to do the everyday, mundane, boring tasks that lead to better company performance? These are those tasks that do not get your picture in the company newsletter. The tasks that make your mind so numb that you swear you’ve lost half your brain. The tasks that are essential, but you would easily skip to watch paint dry as that would be more enjoyable?
Give your thoughts in the comment section below (I know, commenting on blogs can be one of those mundane and boring tasks)…
My wife’s company has just gone through a layoff of 125 people. This layoff was announced a few weeks ago and came as a surprise for most people (mostly the employees working there). Of course I had concern for my wife’s job and those of her co-workers…but I also had a curiosity of seeing firsthand from a very close proximity the effects that the layoff had on motivation. This is a qualitative look from my perspective and as such, should be taken with a grain of salt – but still, I think there are some useful nuggets here.
Here are a few observations that I saw:
1. Layoffs suck motivation out of people
From talking to people and listening to my wife, the overarching fact was that this layoff sucked the motivation out of almost all the employees. They were nervous. They were mad. They were making contingency plans. They were talking one-on-one or in small groups about what was going on. They were frightened.
What they weren’t doing was being motivated and productive.
Any company that thinks its employees are going to be motivated because they are afraid of losing their jobs, needs to rethink that assumption. From what I saw, it acted in exactly the opposite way. There was a sense of apathy and one of giving up once the upcoming layoff was announced. People started updating their resume’s, they added people to their Linked-in network (I got quite a few of these from my wife’s co-workers), and they called their friends and acquaintances (either to prospect for jobs or to have a sympathetic ear to vent to).
My wife said to me one day during this, “I feel like I’ve been at a funeral for a week.”
2. Communication is vital
From the time of the announcement of the layoffs to the final layoff occurring took a total of 10 days. During that time, there was a great deal of confusion, fear and anxiety. The communication coming from the company was limited and often led to more chatter at the “water cooler” than it prevented. I would be hard pressed to say that the communication put forth by the company helped much in alleviating any of the discomfort and anxiety that the employees were going through. I know that the company was limited to a degree by certain laws about what they could or could not say, however, that is not an excuse for having people be confused about the reasons for the layoff and how they would happen. I think that any company that is going through or thinking about a layoff needs to think very hard about their employee communications. Specifically, they need to let employees know:
Why the layoff’s are occurring and why this layoff is necessary
What are the alternatives that they looked at and why they were rejected
What the process is for the layoffs themselves
What is the criteria that they are looking at to determine who is going to be terminated
Where can employees go to receive more information
When they can expect more information if it isn’t available now
It is important to communicate about resources people can go to regarding dealing with the stress of the layoff, but that should be just a part of the communication campaign.
Also key to this is to make sure that whatever is communicated is followed through. If you communicate that layoffs are not going to start until next week, don’t layoff directors this week (even if it is only a handful). The damage that does to trust, motivation and stress is significant.
3. The unknowns are the worst
Most of the anxiety, anger and stress that I observed were caused not by what was known, but by the unknown. This plays into much of what I discussed in the communication section – but the entire process would have been better if there would have been more transparency in the process. The biggest unknown that faces an employee is will they have a job or not – but that isn’t the only one. Unknowns also include: what are the layoff criteria? How will the different departments be impacted? What do I do about my on-going projects if people on them might not be here in two weeks? What is going to happen after the layoffs are done? How will we cover the increased workload? What will happen to the people let go?
4. After the fact
The big challenge now comes after the fact. What will the company do now that the layoffs have occurred and the survivors are left. From the few people I’ve talked to (including my wife) there is a feeling of “survivor’s guilt” going around (e.g., “why was she let go instead of me – she has 3 kids and is going through a divorce?”). There is also sense of “is this the end?” Will there be more layoffs in the future? What is going to happen next? How will my job be effected?
This is the moment that the company needs to shine. They have put in place listening sessions with senior leadership (kind of a venting process as much as an information transfer) – this is a good start. There is need for more. They need to communicate their plan for growth to ensure that this will not happen again. Employees need to feel like they are not just numbers in a big machine that are expendable at any moment, but instead feel like they are a vital component to the success of the company. They need to be heard and appreciated. A new energy needs to be instilled – one that drives motivation up and not down.
There is an opportunity over the next month or so for the company to do this. If it doesn’t happen, I fear that it will be a long climb back to the level of engagement and motivation that was there prior to the announced layoffs.
Have you gone through a layoff? Let us know what you feel about how it impacted motivation – good, bad or ugly.
Most winter days, I drive my wife into work. Often, I’ve already started on something by the time my wife is ready and she yells up to me in my office “Time to go.” I stop what I’m doing. I go downstairs. I grumble about the hassle of driving. I put on my coat and grab the keys. I drive her in and drop her off.
It takes about 9 minutes for us to make it downtown to her office. That is 20 minutes out of my day.
I can’t think of a better use of 9-minutes. This is our time. We talk about things. We discuss our plans for the day or week or month. We share some gossip. We make some decisions. I tell her to have a good day. She kisses me goodbye.
This 9-minutes each day is ours and I treasure it.
ənˈdɪp
