Effort VS Ability

A new twist on the best way to get the most out of people comes in the March/April issue of Standford Magazine in an article entitled "The Effort Effect" summarizing the work of Carol Dwek and her new book "Mind Set – The New Psychology of Success."

I originally found this through Guy Kawasaki’s blog.  There is also a good discussion on Disorganizational Behavior.  All three of these sources have great summaries of the concept so I won’t go too deep but in short the concept is:  If you believe you have a set intelligence level you will be less successful than if you believe that you can learn and grow.   It goes on to say we can fix that mind-set through
recognizing and rewarding the process of experimentation – attaching
value to mistakes that move you closer to the solution.  I continue to
agree and have posted on the idea of rewarding steps versus outcomes (here and here.)  MORE…

However, when I read through some of the comments on Guy’s blog (I suggest you do) the conversation moves from the focus of the
article (mind-set) to one of effort – of trying hard – not whether you
think you can learn and grow.  In addition some of the comments cite
Alfie Kohn who believes that once you put an incentive  in place to
achieve tasks you damage the intrinsic motivation for the task.  However, the author of the article highlights the fact that we should
praise and reward learning and mistakes.  Somehow during the comment
thread the concept of a mind-set for learning  increasing your chances
for success moves to a discussion around too much emphasis on
achieving and rewarding outcomes.  As if one was wrong and one was right.  I don’t
think these are mutually exclusive. 

As a parent I definitely agree with rewarding and recognizing effort
and the process of learning with my own children, but as a business
person I don’t have the luxury of waiting until someone learns
something at their pace and then rewarding them for the process -
regardless of the outcome.  Business requires a more balanced
approach.  We need to create cultures and environments where results
are respected and admired and where learning, experimenting are
rewarded and recognized.  Neither is unimportant and neither is the
only important thing.

As a society we have continued to remove results from the equation and focus only
on the process.  This has created an environment where everyone gets a
trophy, grades don’t matter and people expect raises because they
followed the process.  Kohn has written a few books on the damage
incentives and recognition do to children and it has been used as
evidence that companies shouldn’t have recognition and rewards in their
compensation strategy.   If you believe anything by Kohn I highly
suggest you read Rewards and Intrinsic Motivation:
Resolving the Controversy by Cameron and Pierce.  It too has some
issues as the Amazon review will tell you, but it does provide another
perspective.

When looking at developing incentives and recognition don’t let a single opinion on motivation drive your design.  There is no unified theory of motivation… yet.