By Theresa Witham
Common sense tells us that dangling a reward in front of an employee, like a bonus, is a great way to get the performance you want. Seems logical to me. But then I stumbled upon this nifty animated presentation on YouTube that showed why that is not the case. It is a talk by Dan Pink, Wired contributing editor and author of several books, including the newest one Drive, on which the video is based.
Well, OK, he says, according to an MIT study, the dangling-carrot reward system works for certain tasks that only require mechanical skill. But for tasks that require even a rudimentary amount of cognitive skill, it doesn’t work at all. In fact, it can hurt. The study found that a larger reward led to poorer performance. The study, funded by the Federal Reserve Bank, was repeated in
Pink argues that three factors lead to better performance:
- autonomy,
- mastery, and
- purpose.
He mentions an Australian software company that tells employees that for one day, once a quarter they can work on whatever they want, however they want, with whomever they want. All the company asks is for employees to report results at the end of the 24 hours during a fun meeting. This one day has produced ideas for new products and fixes for existing software.
How cool is that? It sounds really appealing to put aside all current projects and have time to dive into that thing, that idea that floats into your head every so often but gets pushed aside for more pressing deadlines. What would you do with one day, once a quarter?
Check out the video. The points about purpose are very applicable to credit unions. You’ve got a purpose that will appeal to talented and dedicated employees. But do you overlook it when thinking and talking about motivation?
Theresa Witham is a CUES editor.
