Mike,
On July 19 you wrote
>William,
Please, William is a bit more formal than I wish. Bill is preferred.
>I flatly disagree. You can no more make this statement:
>
>A bonus, or free trip to Hawaii or other extrinsic rewards are not
>effective in these cases.
>
>Than I can make the statement that "A bonus, or free trip to Hawaii, or
>other extrinsic rewards are effective in these cases."
>
>WE DO NOT KNOW WHAT IS EFFECTIVE IN THESE CASES UNTIL WE TRY OR WE MEET
>THE PERSON WHO HAS ALWAYS WANTED TO GO TO HAWAII!!!
OK, so I failed to qualify my statement well enough. Every, without
exception, high performing team I have ever encountered didn't need a trip
to Hawaii. We have many examples of exceptional people contributing of
their time and talent endlessly for little extrinsic reward. I offer up
teachers in our school system. How about the thousands of people who show
up in floods or hurricanes to work on leavies. What for, the soaking to
the skin, soggy sandwiches and no sleep?
The person who works for a trip to Hawaii is focused on that trip. The
person who works to build the best widget because he or she believes that
that widget will be a tribute to their competence is focused on the
widget. You get better widgets.
I was in the Navy when we started to pay young nuclear trained officers a
bonus to extend their service beyond their obligation. Before the bonus
those officers said, "...money can't buy me." But many of them did re-up
(serve more years). Several that I knew said that the money did not match
the sums they were offered in the civilian market. But the bonus did make
it so that they felt more secure for their family so they could go on
doing what they liked to do, in the Navy.
I am not sure how to interpret this situation. I prefer to think that the
bonus didn't buy them back as much as it removed a barrier from their
staying with the Navy.
Surely I threatened and bribed our children. And in the Navy I punished
where I thought it was needed. But none of them were as effective in
obtaining high energy performance as finding and pushing the buttons of
people's intrinsic motivation.
Try it Mike. You'll be surprised pleasantly.
--"William J. Hobler, Jr" <bhobler@worldnet.att.net>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>