Smoking and Incentive Program Design

I've heard that one reason that smoking is such a tough habit to kick is that it is one of the few “drugs” where you dose yourself over 300 times in a day.  If you think about a pack-a-day smoker (20 cigarettes) with an average of 15 puffs per cigarette, that’s 300 “doses.”  300 times in a day a smoker lights up (pun intended) that little reward center in their brain with a jolt of nicotine.  In a normal 16-hour day of “awakeness” the pack-a-day smoker is dosing themselves about once every 3 minutes (16 hours times 60 minutes = 960 minutes divided by 300 = 3.2 minutes.)  

That’s a lot of reinforcement.

Now think about your reward programs and their intervals of reinforcement.

Too Long Between Doses

For most annual programs, it is 12 months.  Your program is pretty much “Do the desired behaviors for 12 months and we will reinforce that behavior 12 months from now.”

If you only received the nicotine reward event from smoking once per year (get the reinforcement for the ongoing “habit”) how many folks would smoke… not too many I’d wager.  This is one reason why I don’t think incentive programs with an end-of-year reward are that effective for changing long-term behaviors.  Great for recognition but not so much for cementing new behaviors.

More Puffs on the Reward Stick

Now think about programs that reward points for ongoing activities.  Now we’re getting closer.  Do some behavior regularly and earn points regularly.  As Michelle Pokorny (@michpoko) reminded me in the comments on my blog post the other day – just the act of earning rewards (real or imaginary) lights up our brain’s reward center.  So programs with ongoing reinforcement are hitting that little reward button in our brain more often.  That is more effective for reinforcing behavior.  We like to be rewarded often.

And we’re getting worse…

This study I found on an incentive company blog (no comments btw – weird) references a research done by SYNERGISTICS Research on what loyalty program participants wanted for rewards.  44% of respondents wanted “quick receipt” awards – discounts, bonuses, gift cards, etc.  Up from 26% a few years back.  

We are becoming more accustomed to, and I think, addicted to, quick rewards.  

I’ve posted before on the fact that our brains don’t handle time well and we discount the value of awards given in the future (Motivation, Incentives and What Wimpy Knew.)  But we don’t discount linearly – we do it hyperbolically – meaning the amount we discount the value of awards in the future goes down faster than the amount of time in the future would indicate. 

Our Lesson?

So the lesson today – to really get attention and create a “valuable” award event for participants – reward often, reward quickly.  

Think of the smoker – 300 doses a day.  How often can you “dose” your participants with rewards?  Hard to say – each program will be different but your goal should be to drive as much reward activity as possible for the return you expect.  (Remember – we’re talking incentive programs here – not recognition programs – big difference in program goals and structures.  Don’t confuse the two.)

Now the HUGE question… 

When do you turn off the reward for the behavior?  

This is where many companies fall down.  They continue to run the same program even after they broken the behavioral inertia and the fear of something new and different.  Once the program has people regularly doing the behavior you desire – it’s time to stop the program.  Some folks may experience withdrawal – that’s normal – but not fatal.  If the program was designed correctly – behaviors should remain without the reward.  

Remember – incentives should be designed to break the inertia of behavior patterns – not reinforce existing behavior.  I don’t believe in treating people like rats, or pigeons – we’re not doing “classical conditioning” – we’re just using a reward mechanism to illuminate desired behaviors that drive individual and corporate success.  

Anything else is incentive malpractice.