Push the lever get a reward. Skinner’s operant conditioning or the old ‘carrot and stick’ behavioral theory. This motivational theory continues to underpin most of the management tools the business community mistakes for good business and leadership practices. Does your company reflect this theory? “ Today there is a mismatch between what science knows and what business does”. [Dan Pink]
I recently came across this statement regarding the use of this theory in companies. “Operant conditioning is a way to apply standards fairly within an organization. By offering the same rewards (think money) and consequences to all employees, companies can avoid favoritism. This allows high-performing workers to receive the fullest benefits and get ahead within the company.” [Reference for Business]. Ugh!
There is a lot of talk about ‘how to’ motivate employees however a look just below the surface in most companies uncovers just the opposite. People behave according to the system or environment they have to operate within. Different systems motivate or drive certain behaviors. One of my graduate professors used this business analogy for Skinner’s theory. He said think of the ‘box’ as the building employees come to work in every day. The lever is the work they are required to accomplish, and the food pellet is money.
As a Leader when was the last time you asked yourself the following questions relative to how your company tries to motivate employees? What are your basic assumptions about employees and what motivates them? Does your management hold these same beliefs? When was the last time you looked at your business operating systems to see if they reflect this ‘carrot and stick’ theory?
Different systems motivate or drive certain behaviors. How you design rewards, jobs, customer service approach, etc. reflect your views on how to motivate people. What do I see? The carrot and stick approach. Money is the carrot with different types of negative consequences as the other side of the equation.
Let’s get the basic money/motivation question answered, does money motivate employees? Yes, at a basic level. Does the ‘carrot and stick’ or ‘if this than this’ approach work? Absolutely. However, it works only in very limited situations and less in today’s businesses. Money as a motivator works best for a narrow band of work where the goal is clear, timeframes are short and it’s ‘mechanical work’. As research has found increasing the reward can even have a negative effect. [Federal Reserve Study]. If you want high performing employees, you need to change.
If nagging, money, or punishment isn’t the answer to fully engaging employees what’s the answer? Today’s work is becoming more cognitive, ‘right brain’ than ‘left brain’ mechanical or piece work. Too many jobs are structured and treated if they are mechanical but really should be thought of as cognitive. Cognitive work by its nature requires companies to tap into intrinsic motivators if you want high performance. Piece work motivation is easy to construct but even then as one employee told me “if I hit the target I get the money, if I don’t not only don’t I get the money I get people coming down on me.”
Take a look under the surface at what motivates entrepreneurs, inventors, high performing teams, etc. They are motivated by four very clear characteristics; they have a very clear PURPOSE (goal) and they have AUTONOMY in how they achieve it. They view what they are doing as IMPORTANT, and they find it INTERESTING. Emergency room trauma teams perform at a high level because of these characteristics. I worked with an successful entrepreneur who designed a medical device. She wasn’t an engineer or a businessperson. However, she was intrinsically motivated to design a device that made a significant improvement in peoples lives.
Creating intrinsic motivation requires ‘hard work’ but it can be accomplished. Lockheed designed the ‘skunkworks’ structure, Google and Apple leveraged the same idea. The challenge today is to take the fundamental principles of intrinsic motivation and design them into jobs outside of the R&D environment and integrate them into the fabric of the organization. Easy? No, but as my mother said, “really good things don’t come easy”.