In Information Technology, it seems you can’t buy employee commitment.
In fact, when it comes to encouraging people to work cognitively, on brainpower tasks that require creativity or abstract thinking, cash is more of a de-motivator than a motivator.
Don’t believe me? Take ten minutes to watch this surprising video.
“Bottom line: If we treat people like people, instead of like horses…”
The conventional wisdom is that you “pay for performance.” The truth is, well, something else altogether. Instead of inspiring quality effort, extrinsic monetary rewards actually discourage high-quality work.
So much for extrinsic motivators. To learn about a very effective system of intrinsic motivators, click here, then come back and answer these questions.
Questions:
- Leaders/Managers: On your team or project, or within your organization, which extrinsic incentives (e.g., money) have you used to motivate people? Which have worked? Which haven’t?
- Everyone: Which intrinsic motivators best inspire you in your professional pursuits? Do you work within an organizational culture that understands and respects this? If so, how is this expressed in that culture? If not, what do you think management can/should do to correct it?
Very interesting and well-presented. I wonder which Myers-Briggs types make the best leaders (& followers) in the environment described?
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting, Anonymous. We've been researching that, and we've uncovered some interesting statistics re: personality type (the Myers-briggs xxTJ types, in particular) and maladaptive behavior in Information Technology. We'll present those findings in a future post.
ReplyDeleteOMG. I watched this video twice. All the while jealous that I can't find a work environment that adopts and aligns this type of thinking and behavior. I guess it would take an IT village to make it happen.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting your comment, Joe. For some reason, perhaps especially in IT, management often perceives risk in adopting the "right" approach to managing people.
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