If you read my earlier post on Incentives Don’t Work, then you know that Dan Pink’s TED video raises some interesting questions about incentives. In particular, he raises questions about the role of external incentives and their impact on non-routine, creative, or innovative work performance. His point is well made. Research has long known that there is a difference between “intrinsic” and “extrinsic” motivation. Intrinsic motivation comes from performing the task or activity itself. For example, someone who is “into” woodworking gets personal satisfaction from building and creating things from wood. Extrinsic motivation, on the other hand, such as money or other forms of compensation, comes from outside the task or activity and is given by others to the performer for doing the task or activity. What is particularly interesting in this research is that offering extrinsic motivation to someone for doing something they find intrinsically motivating can actually reduce their intrinsic motivation. A woodworker who makes things for friends, for example, is likely to find woodworking less enjoyable if the friends insist on paying for the work.
The idea behind offering incentives is that they make a task or activity more attractive than it might otherwise be and thus increase the likelihood that people will do it. But, as Dan Pink indicates and the research supports, extrinsic offerings don’t always work and in fact may actually make the activity less attractive. But does this mean that incentives don’t work? No, it means that what you offer someone as an incentive may not be an incentive. Whether or not something is an incentive depends on its effect on the person to whom it is offered. Incentives are meant to incent – to arouse or encourage. If they don’t do this, then they aren’t incentives even if you call them incentives.
Whether or not something is an incentive, therefore, depends on the person to whom it is offered. To offer workers who want more money more time off is unlikely to occur as an incentive to them. In fact, you are likely to hear someting like “What kind of incentive is that?”, or “That’s no incentive?” Since whether something is an incentive and works as incentive depends on the person to whom it is offered, using incentives is a tricky business. In fact, many managers have found attempting to use incentives frustrating because they can’t seem to find “what works” and what they can provide isn’t always sufficient. This is one reason why books on recognition, such as Make Their Day! Employee Recognition that Works, have become popular because they focus on things managers can do other than offer incentives.
One way around this issue is to ask people who are hesitant to do soemthing you want done “What would it take for you to do this?” and then determine whether or not you are willing to “pay the price”. Another way around this issue is to build the level of integrity in the relationship so that people are accountable for what they say and know that they will be held accountable for what they say. Surprising as it may seem, most people truly value their word and do not want to gain a repuation for being someone who “says yes, but does no”. Giving people the opportunity to operate consistent with their word, and then operating consistent with their word, reduces the “guessing game” of incentives. Then, when you do want to use incentives, you can ask people and they will tell you what will work.
