When To Use Recognition VS Incentives – Advice for 2012

No predictions here – nothing to see – move along. 

No recap of 2011 – nothing to see – move along.

No top 10 lists (I know – bad SEO karma.)

Just the simplest and most important piece of information relating to incentives, rewards and recognition.

After 20+ years doing this stuff, reading about it, doing it, writing about it, dreaming it, living it – it really boils down to these two simple, easy sentences. 

This is what I tell clients, friends and strangers at the bar…

It really is that simple.

Everything I’ve written about in over the past six years and about 1,000 posts can be summed up in those two sentences.

Caveat

The caveat is:  You have to know which behaviors you want to maintain and which behaviors you want to change.  And that is where most companies fail.

Most problems arise from recognizing behaviors you don’t want to continue… and motivating behaviors with excessive incentives you should simply be “maintaining.”

Gentle nudges keep the ball rolling in the direction you want.  Need to change the direction of the ball?  Give it a shove until it is on the path you want.  Then gentle nudges. 

Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

You’re welcome.  

Be kind rewind and have a great 2012. 

Related articles

• Incentives That Shouldn’t Work (i2i-align.com)
• Should You Run an Incentive Program? Free Download. (i2i-align.com)
• How Much Ambiguity Is In Your Incentive Program? (i2i-align.com)