Competitive Juices

With apologies to Alfie Kohn - competition does not stifle motivation. 

I know he has studies, etc. that "prove" competition decreases intrinsic motivation - and there may be some truth to the studies he's been involved with or analyzed.  However, sometimes the real world  provides evidence that places doubt in the results.  That happened to me today. 

Kris Dunn writes the blog HRCapitalist.  His post today lists what he calls the "HR Blog Power Rankings."  For those of you that don't read Kris's blog I urge you to subscribe.  The blog is a great source of intelligent and timely HR commentary.  His blog is listed on my "Other Intelligence" list to the right.

His post today lists his "top 25" blogs relating to HR.  Shameless plug - Incentive Intelligence made the list - number 19 (with a bullet!)  But that's not my point.

Here's my point.  The mere fact that he ranked his favorites influences the people on the list - and anyone who wants to get on the list.  In fact, my very first thought when seeing the list was... "I've got to do some work so I can move up the list - I want to be in the top 5 at least."  My behavior will be influenced by the competition.  It is a friendly competition.  But competition non-the-less.  If I fall out of the list - (fingers crossed I don't) I won't stop blogging.  In fact it will motivate me to think harder, post better, etc. 

In addition, one of the first comments on the post  said the same thing - "...If we make the grade in future (and we hope we will)..."  In other words, just doing the ranking influences the behavior of those being ranked (as well as all the wannabes who didn't get any mention.)

And Kris did this right...

• First of all Kris has created a blog with value and therefore immediately has credibility when doing the rankings.  If he was just some schlub with a blog - it wouldn't matter - but he has authority (read his bio)
• He listed the criteria up front - told you how to achieve the goal
• Listed those that made the cut and provided a ranking number - giving a relative standing
• Listed those that didn't quite make it but were still valuable - providing a pool of potential listees - and providing recognition for their effort increasing the scope of influence.

And for you psychology fans - all these elements fall into Dr. Cialdini's (my influence soul-mate) list of things that influence behavior -  Authority, Social Proof, Liking and Scarcity.

Kudos Kris!  Great job!  (and thanks!)