> 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.
The attributes necessary to form such a high-performing team are?
Alignment behing a well-defined goal,
that is challenging,
non-trivial,
involves some growth
Mutual respect and understanding,
Non-Intrusive environment,
Clearly understood standards/measures
What else? (I'll admit, that I'm cribbing from _People: Productive
Projects and Teams_ by Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister).
> 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 think that's an explanation for some of the performance variations seen
when extrinsic motivators are applied. They are taking up space in
people's brains, pushing out the task at hand.
> I was in the Navy when we started to pay young nuclear trained
> officers a
> bonus to extend their service beyond their obligation.
. . .
> 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.
HR/Performance literature talks about hygenic vs. motivating factors.
Absence of a hygenic factor de-motivates. Once over a threshold, they
don't seem to matter any more. For software professionals, the threshould
seems to be in two steps: "enough" meaning to eliminate basic concerns
about supporting lifestyls, followed by "fair".
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--James Bullock <jbullock@pipeline.com>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>