Daniel Pink: Why Carrots and Sticks Simply Don't Work
 Wednesday's Leadership Institute® Keynote Luncheon gave attendees some valuable business lessons from award-winning author Daniel Pink, whose multiple best-sellers focus on changing the world of work. Pink honed in on the science of motivation, opening his speech with a well-known experiment dubbed 'the candle problem'. "I bring you into a room and give you a candle, thumbtacks and matches," he told the crowd. "Your job is to attach the candle to the wall so the wax doesn't drip on the table." "The solution isn't obvious," he added, explaining that the box holding the thumbtacks provides the solution. "You see the box as a receptacle only for tacks. But the box can have a second function as a platform for the candle." The candle problem is used by social psychologists to test the conditions in which people respond to incentives. Time and time again, the incentivized group solves the problem slower than those without incentives. "Incentives are designed to boost creativity, but they actually do the opposite," Pink stressed. "Fifty years of science says that if-then motivators don't work well," he explained. "When we see these carrot-stick motivators demonstrating that they are not working, we don't say we need a new approach. We say, looks like we need more carrots; need sharper sticks. This is taking us down wrong path." Understanding his audience, Pink focused in on the much less-traveled path with fairness and money at its core. "First, if you violate the norms of fairness, you are toast – money is a motivator and if the same two people do the same function but one gets paid more than other, that is a motivation destroyer," he said. "The best use of money as a motivator is to pay people enough to take the issue of pay off the table so they are thinking about work and not money. Once you do that, there are three things to focus on – autonomy, mastery and purpose." Autonomy: Engagement through self direction When people have autonomy over specific aspects of work – time, tasks, team and technique – they become engaged, Pink explained. And when people become engaged, innovation emerges. "You want people to be engaged," and you engage through self direction," he said. Pink pointed to Google as a prime example of autonomy at work in the corporate business world. "Google does it," he said. "Since its inception, Google has done 20 percent time. Employees spend 20 percent of their time working on whatever they want." Gmail and Google News are two unofficial projects inspired during 20 percent time. Pink also mentioned both Netflix and Zappos.com for offering their employees autonomy where most companies resist it. Netflix gives its employees unlimited vacation time; and Zappos.com runs its call centers uniquely – turning away from the traditional means of monitoring, recording and stale phone scripts that have caused the average call center to have an annual turnover rate of nearly 100 percent. Today, Zappos.com has one of the highest customer satisfaction scores in the country. Even so, Pink doesn't recommend companies jump right into autonomy driven methods like 20 percent time. "It's a huge financial cost, and it's not a risk that most people want to take," he explained. "But you can try 20 percent time with training wheels – try it for a short period. Try 10 percent time. Do it for a small team. Small steps in the way of autonomy will lead to better results and more satisfied people who are doing more creative things." Mastery: Feedback is essential People feel most motivated when they feel they are making progress, Pink said. And often times, progress is made apparent through feedback. "The only way we can make progress by achieving mastery is by getting feedback on our work," Pink explained, adding that there is a problem with the traditional annual performance review – it happens only once a year. "People need feedback." One of Pink's suggestions: Supplement the annual performance review with do-it-yourself performance reviews. At the beginning of each month, set goals. And at the end of the month, complete your own review. For those leading a team of people, Pink said, "Your role is to help people see their progress, to shine a light on progress, to celebrate the progress." Purpose: Because profit is not enough Pink pointed to the shoe company TOMS as a prime example of what happens when purpose and profit meet. TOMS donates a pair of shoes to an underprivileged child for every pair purchased. "Organizations that perform at a high level stand for something," he said. "The profit motive just isn't enough. When the profit motive comes unhitched from the purpose motive, bad things happen – bad things in terms of mediocre, boring, blah products, services and experiences. But when you pair the profit motive and the purpose motive, great things can happen." "We need to challenge this idea that carrot and sticks always work," Pink added. "It isn't true. We respond to more than a sweet carrot or a sharp stick. We have a drive to do things because they are interesting, because they have purpose." The luncheon was sponsored by Pitney Bowes, a document management software company celebrating its 90th anniversary. The company raffled off an iPad that went to NBMBAA member Woody Allen, a finance manager with Cleveland Job Corps Academy. |
Print this articleNational Black MBA Association, Inc. ® | 400 W. Peachtree St. NW, Suite 203 | Atlanta, GA 30308 www.nbmbaa.org |