The Perfect 10 Incentive Program – Ask Dudley Moore

Dudley Moore starred in a movie a few years back (actually 31 years ago –whoa!) called “10.”  The movie documented the comic travails of Moore as he followed his “perfect 10” woman around the world.  Unfortunately, the vision of this perfect woman he had created in his mind died the moment he had the opportunity to consummate his fantasy.  The movie wasn’t Oscar worthy but made huge stars of both Mr. Moore and his co-star Bo Derek.  The image at right is now iconic and oft parodied.  You know you've arrived when you become a parody-worthy (keeping my fingers crossed.)

The point being is that there are no perfect “10’s.”  Whether in love or in your incentive program. 

Most companies keep trying however.  A good number of the programs I end up analyzing for clients are a klugy compilations of every piece of twitter advice pushed at them from the four corners of the blogsphere. 

Unfortunately, the end result in the pursuit of the perfect program is a Frankenstein monster with so many pieces, parts, bells, whistles and add-ons that most participants don’t, can’t or won’t even understand the rules.

Programs Don’t Work For Everyone

Amateurs in the program design space (and I count both client sponsors and some incentive practitioners) believe they can design a program where all the participants will participate, earn awards, be recognized and walk away with warm and fuzzies for the sponsor.

Not happening.

Programs – by definition are for the “audience” not the individual.  The goal of any program is to target a certain segment of the audience that can best influence the outcome of your particular business objective.  Only 1-on-1 management with individuals can truly get into the motivational space of each person – and that’s just not an efficient use of an overall incentive program (don’t misunderstand – both should be used but that is a much longer discussion – call me.)

A program is not a panacea for performance issues – but it is an effective tool for guiding behaviors when designed correctly.  But in the pursuit of the perfect “10” program most companies end up falling way short of where they could if they’d just heed these cautions…

Simplify, Simplify

David Thoreau had it right.  Find the simple solution – complexity breeds confusion.  Confusion breeds inaction.  If I don’t know what to do – I’ll do nothing rather than risk doing something wrong.  Find the core element/behavior that can drive your goals and focus on that.  Trying to reward everything in a program will not only create a measurement and management nightmare but reduce the overall effectiveness of the program.

Incentive VS Recognition

Understand the difference.  Running a program that rewards the top 20% is not an incentive program – it’s a recognition “program.”  These programs don’t create any motivation – except in the top 20%.  The day you announce the top 20% program 80% of your audience checks out.  They know who’ll earn the award before the second day of the program.  

And let me ask this silly little question – who has the most room to grow sales (or other metric) – those that are giving you their best every day (your top 20%) or those that aren’t?  In other words – your top performers probably are giving you all they got – their incremental increase in total will be less than the incremental increase from a larger group that isn’t doing all they can.  Focus where results can be had – not where results are already occurring.

Millions of Award Choices

Hey – I like choice too… but putting too many choices in front of people without the attendant choice-making support system is sure to cause choice paralysis.  Dropping a 1,000,000 item catalog – or a gift card – in front of your audience without helping them determine what they are working hard for is just too much.  Create a way for participants to build wish lists.  Create a connection between their effort and a real and imaginable outcome.  Just providing a slurry of award options creates too much noise and not enough signal.  How do you communicate with that set up?  “Earn awards for your performance.” Or … “Earn that big screen tv you want for the World Cup because I know you’re a big fan of Spain.”  Help your participants target their award choice – don’t just dump it on them and make them find the pony.

Work Toward a Perfect “5”

Like Dudley Moore in “10” – it all sounded so good at first but once he was able to attain his “perfect 10” he found she wasn’t.  

Same with your program.  Target a much more attainable and effective outcome by scaling back your expectations.  Shoot for a 5 – you’ll be happier and so will your audience members.