Sarcasm Alert – Rewards Are All that’s Wrong With The World

This could become a full-time job – responding to all the negative press about using rewards to influence behavior.  I've posted three times in the last few weeks about "studies" and "opinions" that flat out say – "Rewards don't work." (here, here, here)  But when you read the studies and articles – they don't say that at all.  They say rewards don't work in this situation or they say monetary rewards don't work.  Or they say structured this way in these situations they don't work as well.  Or they say they cause unintended consequences (which is the same as saying they work too well.)

Where is the critical thinking in today's world?  Why do people believe and transmit faulty, if not outright false, information? 

First of all…How Many Sales People Draw?

The studies and evidence provided center around the use of rewards on those who have an intrinsic motivation to do a task.  One recent study highlighted children who like to draw.  Those given rewards do less drawing than those that weren't.  They transferred their intrinsic motivation to an extrinsic reward.

K… show of hands… how many of you hire children to draw in your business?  Okay… you three win.  You're right.  Giving awards to children who like to draw is a bad idea. 

The other 1,297,331 of you hang around – 'cuz I'm guessing the vast majority of your employees don't draw – or love doing all the things they have to do to get their job done. 

So you have two choices for these people – let them find meaning in their job on their own – or guide them toward what you want them to do WHILE you connect their activity to something they like to do.  You might want to "reward" them for that – give them real clues as to what you want and what you value.  Or you can let them guess what behaviors you value and want them to repeat. 

Your choice – go ahead -we'll wait.  Oh… the reward folks are done.  Great – let's move on.  We don't have time to wait on the new-agers with employees wandering the office halls looking for meaning like Bill Murray in "The Razors Edge."  We got bills to pay and revenue to generate.  This ain't kindergarten – this is business.

Second… All Nuclear Physicists Raise Your Hands

But wait you say – Dan Pink showed proof that rewards don't work with complex, creative tasks – so we shouldn't use them – at all. 

Okay folks – another survey.  Those of you with employees that ONLY do complex, creative tasks all day, every day raise your hands.  Okay – you guys on the west coast working out of your Mom's garage can leave – you don't need rewards (unless you're counting the desire to build a business, go IPO and retire as rewards – I would – but I'm crazy that way.)  The rest of you – hang around.

Free advice here – listen closely – when you have a team of people working on a complex, creative project – DON"T GIVE THEM AN INCENTIVE!  It won't work – as well – as an incentive.  K?  We cool?  Now, for the other 7.5 hours they work each day, alone, connected by computers, with less and less real-time, real-life, social interaction – they just might need something more than a paycheck to get them connected to the organization.  Like recognition from fellow employees – like a share in the success of the company – like a note from the division/department/company top dog. 

Just maybe – they want to be validated for the work they do outside of the imaginary and invisible paycheck that get's magically dumped into their checking account every two weeks – and rarely do they even see the amount (most of them are just hoping it is more than they've spent in the last fortnight.)

Mercenaries Are Made – Not Engaged

And to end this all – most of the studies are focused on monetary rewards – and you know what – they are right about one thing – if you continually pay people for changes – they expect to get paid for every change.  Mercenaries are created by poor incentive systems (just ask Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner.)

But – when the rewards are social – say recognition – or the rewards are non-monetary – say additional time off, vacations, group travel – they don't have the same affect as monetary rewards.  So most of the cases you're reading about don't freakin' apply to the majority of incentive, reward and recognition programs offered to the majority of employees in the country. Good reward systems get people engaged.

All these studies shown is that…

1. Humans are complex (sometimes irrational) beings – motivated by different things
2. Designing incentive and reward programs takes an understanding and level of expertise that most people don't have  – (that's why there are so many poor examples used to bolster irrelevant studies)
3. Academic studies provide good direction information – but lousy, real-world, Monday morning advice on the best way to run a company, engage people, be successful and compete in business.

I've said it before and I'll say it again – if you want to ignore the effect incentives and rewards can have on your business – good – just let me know who you are 'cuz I'm targeting you – it will be an easy win – short-term and long-term.