YOU Are the Reason Your Recognition Program Failed

On the internet no one knows you’re a dog.

That now famous caption to a cartoon by Peter Steiner ran in the July issue of the New Yorker in 1993.  Not much has changed in almost 20 years.  You still need to know what you’re dealing with on the internet.  The internet can be a boon or a bane depending on who uses it and how it’s used.  It can help and it can hurt.  The internet has no conscience.  It has no right or wrong.  It just is.

Like any tool, any inert object, how we use it defines its value.

Recognition and reward programs are the same.  They do not have value in and of themselves.  They are only a tool to be used by people. 

And when people are tools, the tool fails.

Your Mechanic is Not a Surgeon

I’ve used this analogy before.  If I need a medical procedure best done by a surgeon I go to a surgeon.  Just because my mechanic can cut a steak doesn’t mean he/she should cut into me.  The scalpel is a tool that is best wielded by a trained surgeon not a trained mechanic.  Same with recognition and rewards.

Lousy Advice from Consultants

I ran into this post the other day and offer it as a cautionary tale.  The post is entitled:  ”7 Reasons to Run from Employee Recognition Programs – Fast!!”

The author runs (or works at) a consultancy that is ostensibly about helping companies get the most out of the employees in an organization.  The advice is some of the least informed and worst I’ve seen yet from consultants on how to engage a workforce.

The entirety of the post is below in red – with my comments in black following his uniformed commentary…

Why I highly recommend NOT doing formal employee recognition programs: 

1) It can easily be put on the back burner and then become a source of resentment and loss of trust in management

– That my friend is a management issue not a recognition program issue.  If you don’t fill out expense reports you don’t blame the spreadsheet.  If we bagged every business process that humans screwed up due to lack of understanding and/or lack of participation we’d have no processes at all.

2) If you do (not) follow-through on a regular basis, it can become stale and lose its intended effectiveness

– See point #1 – again, the logic escapes me – because I do it badly, don’t do it.  Hey – why do it right when I can just remove it?  I don’t do sales well so I’m not going to do it any more.  WORST. ADVICE. EVER.

3) It creates an us vs. them within your employee base instead of a team atmosphere (VIPs vs. non-VIPs)(those who are teacher’s pet vs. those who aren’t) – in the worst cases I’ve actually seen high achievers become lower achievers because they don’t want to be singled out from their friends/co-workers and seen as “better than”

– Can you say poor culture?  Can you say management is implementing it wrong?  Can you say the rules obviously are set up incorrectly if you create two classes of employee?  Recognition isn’t about creating classes – recognition is about creating direction for behavior.  Again – bad design does not mean you should abandon the tool.

4) There will always be those who wonder why you recognized that person vs. themselves or someone else

– Only if your management sucks.  Read that again.  That is the ONLY reason this would ever happen.

5) Taking someone out of the High Achievers Program will not be a motivator

– not even sure what that means!

6) If everyone gets to be in the club it’s no longer special

– Recognition is ALWAYS special.  It’s the act not the outcome that is valued.  Everyone wants to be validated and recognized.  If you create a “club” you’re doing it wrong.  Yes, you should you have a way to highlight those that are living the values and goals – absolutely.  But ultimately it’s about exemplars – that’s what you create through recognition – not gods.

7) By creating “winners,” you also create “losers”

– Only if you do.  People don’t win programs (except lotteries) they earn them.  Since when is recognition a zero sum game?  If I earn an award through my behavior did you lose?  Nope.  You just didn’t earn the award.  That is not the same as being a loser.

You know the old adage that the road to hell is paved with good intentions…this is one of those roads.

No my friend… this road is paved with ignorance. 

You are the reason the program didn’t work.  A good craftsman never blames his/her tools. 

Related articles

• Recognition As Social Lubricant – Connecting Silos in Your Company (i2i-align.com)
• Gamification of Incentives and Recognition (i2i-align.com)
• Recognition or Incentive? Carrot or Crystal? It’s Not Really A Choice (i2i-align.com)
• What the Girl Scouts Can Teach You About Innovation (i2i-align.com)