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Incentive Intelligence

Incentive Intelligence
Discussions on helping align individual and corporate goals through incentives, rewards and influence.

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Articles

I... Can't... Help... Myself... Aaaaargh!
2007-12-19 15:42:00
I've been looking for this and it finally showed up.... Tiny Bubbles...

Local Isn't Place-Based
2007-12-18 17:36:00
A recent article on Business Week Online was about appreciation and employee loyalty and the resulting customer loyalty. The article talked about Oprah Winfrey's favorite things, one of which is appreciation."Winfrey said that while material things are nice, the greatest gift you can give a person is to communicate how you feel about them." The article then goes on to say that good managers communicate their appreciation to their employees and that ... According to a Maritz Research poll of 1,300 full-time employees released in October, 2007, managers who are honest, caring, and generous do the best job in motivating employees to deliver great customer service and thereby increase customer loyalty. Researchers call this manager the 'caring mentor.' " Nice words... and common sense. I'm glad we have a survey to prove it and new buzzword to put into manager job descriptions. But I digress. My point of this post is to highlight a very important p...
More About: Local , Place , Loca

The Oracle Speaks
2007-10-18 11:20:00
Sometimes it's just better to let someone else do your talking for you. And they say recognition is overrated. Only need to watch the first 60 seconds (but it's all good.)
More About: Oracle , The O

What do you do when clients outgrow an industry?
2007-10-16 11:58:00
Each year in September the "incentive industry" has their biggest trade show of the year. Held in Chicago at the McCormick Center (for as long as I can remember), it theoretically covers everything that's fit to print about the incentive and motivation industry. I went last year and posted my thoughts here. Didn't go this year and it looks like I didn't miss anything. An article on the Manage Smarter website sums it up... "Motivation Show Slowdown." The gist of the article was the lack of attendance and the much smaller numbers of exhibitors. Here's my take (again without going) - the industry is still selling the "award." Whether that be merchandise or debit cards, or trips. The clients however are buying something else entirely. Client s are buying results - they are buying the connection between behavior and "the thing that influences that behavior." They are buying the thinking behind the designs...
More About: Industry

On Aggregation
2007-10-11 12:41:00
For those of us who read blogs - and our numbers are growing, and for those of us who write blogs - and those numbers are growing, the issue of finding good stuff gets harder and harder. As Chris Anderson said in his book The Long Tail (blog here)-aggregation of information is the future. Sifting through the multitude of opinion and commentary in today's hyper-connected and increasingly user generated knowledge-base, is critical to finding the information you need to make your mark, make a difference and make a decision. Technorati tries to help by ranking via linkages to other blogs - similar to Google's algorithm. But those strategies are soulless. They merely tell you that things are connected not valuable. The human touch is needed. Kris Dunn at HRCapitalist fills that void for those of you searching for Human Resources resources. His newest HR Power Blog list is up on his site. Kris does the heavy lifting for you. Read...
More About: Greg

Employee Reports - Five Stars?
2007-10-10 13:03:00
I am in the nexus of a business hurricane! Good stuff! I am never one to complain about helping clients and we are getting requests left and right. Nothing makes you appreciate success like success. However, this has caused me to curtail some of my normal blogging activity. So I'm being lazy today - just a note and a link to an interesting blog post. Alexander Kjerulf publishes the blog "Chief Happiness Officer" and he has a post on a new service/company called Revyr which is, in a nutshell, a site where employees can go to rate their workplaces. Potential employees can then see what a company is like before submitting a resume. I predicted this (shameless I know) about two years ago. When customers start rating products it was just a matter of time before employees started rating companies. Is this the start of a "consumer reports" for companies? Will your company get a five star rating? All you HR folks...
More About: Stars , Employee , Ports

Good management advice from the wildest sources...
2007-10-05 10:33:00
I am a huge believer in following your strengths and putting failsafes in place to handle your shortcomings. In my professional life - anything I wasn't good at I'd find a way to outsource it. Whether that be hiring an assistant who complemented my strengths or offloading work to another department that had the competency to do what I couldn't (with a promise of reciprocity of course)- I try to eliminate my weaknesses. A great post from the most unlikely source - Scott Adams of Dilbert fame (subscribe to his blog - sometimes crude but always entertaining) - highlights how focusing on strengths really drives performance. He has a great example from when he took a Dale Carnegie public speaking class. I won't repost the entire post here but the gist of it is...the Dale Carnegie approach to teaching public speaking is to compliment the speaker for whatever he or she does well, and never mention any flaws. From the post by Scott:Most of my classmates in the Dale ...
More About: Advice , Management , Good , Sources

The Difference Between Crazy and Driven
2007-10-04 11:14:00
Here's a riddle for you. What would cause someone to invest US$25 million to get a return of US$10 million? Sounds ridiculous. Who in their right mind would take this bet? A negative return of 60%? Well - it seems that a few would - and it has spawned a movement. I'm referring to the X Prize and it's derivatives. Originally established to spur entrepreneurs to develop a reusable vehicle that could fly to the edge of space twice within two weeks, it now includes a US$20 million payday for anyone who can put a robotic lander on the moon, take a spin across the lunar landscape, and beam back visuals - sponsored by Google. And The X Prize Foundation isn't the only one looking at contests as a way to spur innovation... Netflix Prize for building an algorithm that predicts movie preferences more accurately than current alternatives Amazon.com is offering the the Amazon Web Services Start-Up Challenge where you can win $100,000 in cash and AWS cre...
More About: Crazy , Difference , Ween , Diff

Kid Nation Episode Two - Chicken Wars
2007-10-03 10:44:00
I posted last week about Kid Nation (new CBS reality show featuring kids without adult supervision developing a town from scratch in the "old west"). I think there are organizational dynamics from the show that can be applied to the "grown up" endeavors we face everyday in our work environments. From a motivation an influence perspective I think there is some real "gold in them thare hills." The core themes in this past week's episode were: to kill a chicken or not, ingenuity with a water pump, whether beauty queens should do dishes and would Greg get the gold star. I have three lessons from the show but first I have a general opinion on the show itself. Which came first... the chicken or the Greg? The main hubbub of this episode was whether the kids should kill a chicken for food. Talk about a ratings grabber - "See kids kill their own dinner!" I really think this tainted the rest of the series...
More About: Episode , Wars , Chicken , Kid Nation

Follow Up on Middle Ground
2007-10-02 11:16:00
I posted on September 26 about assigning percentage goals to your top performers and how that could actually "demotivate" and put undue burden on your best customers/sales people. In reviewing the post it seems that I left out some information - how do you make the program a bit more equitable for your top performers? Simple: Create your own performance index by multiplying the percent increase by the unit increase. The chart below illustrates this... In this instance, the lower volume Dealers have a much higher percentage goal than the top Dealers. You now have a way to rank performance that is more equitable than simply ranking by percentage growth or unit growth separately. Not perfect - but much better than just using one metric.
More About: Ground , Middle

Team Spirit Part Deux...
2007-10-01 10:45:00
Last month I highlighted an article on Selling Power Magazine in which I was interviewed about the transition from individual-based incentives to team-based incentives. Part II of that is out now. Part I Link Part II Link As the old joke goes... "that's my story and I'm sticking to it."
More About: Team , Spirit

Sometimes you get the bear - sometimes the bear gets you
2007-09-28 10:37:00
I laughed, I laughed, I laughed. 'Nuf said... For those reading this within email - go to site for an embedded video.
More About: Bear , Some

HR Power Blog Rankings Are Out!
2007-09-27 17:11:00
Kris Dunn from HRCapitalist has his newest HR Power Blog Rankings available on his site. You may notice a familiar name in the #2 spot. I've made a steady climb from #19 to #9 to #2 - but the competition keeps getting tougher! Kudo's to Kris for taking the time to put together this hub of information. I urge you take the time to not only read Kris' thinking - but the rest of the quality thoughts he highlights.

Kid Nation - or - What I Learned at Summer Camp
2007-09-27 11:06:00
Kid Nation - a new Wednesday night CBS reality series about 40 kids ages 8 to 14 set in an abandoned old west town and their efforts to build a society free from adult influence has raised some eyebrows. I'm posting on the Thursday after the second episode but this post is about the first episode. Articles and points of view abound....LA Weekly Already, editorials condemning CBS have appeared in The Baltimore Sun, New York Daily News and The Boston Globe, which urged viewers to boycott the show and ??????reestablish the line between entertainment and exploitation.?????? This Blog Sits at the Intersection of Anthropology and Economics This is a measure of the desperation and panic induced in the old media by the new. Sending children into the brink. I mean, really. Even for a network executive, this is low. Fast Company The show, according to Nielsen, won its 8 p.m. time slot among viewers aged 2-11 and 18-49 and attracted 9.4 million viewer...
More About: Summer , Camp , Summer Camp , Kid Nation

Middle Ground
2007-09-26 11:43:00
It is a common incentive program strategy to assign a percentage growth target as an objective for a distribution channel or sales person. It's easy to do and is simple math anyone can do. If you did 100 units and your stretch is 10% you need to sell 110 units to hit your goal. Simple and quick. And flawed. The math isn't flawed but the application is. Percentages are funny things. They let us compare and contrast changes and allow us to "normalize" various pieces of data to draw conclusions. But they also cause some very important errors. Specifically as it relates to goal setting and incentive programs. If you think about the distribution of Sales People, Distributors or Dealers - typically there is a some sort of 80/20 rule or 70/30 rule or some place in the middle. The novice would think that assigning percentage goals would normalize the incentive and make it equal for all. But it doesn't. As an example let's ...
More About: Ground , Middle

Being a Participant VS Participating
2007-09-24 11:35:00
Reading a post on in the training section of the Manager Smarter website a light bulb went off. However, it was one of those light bulb experiences where it is more like a dimmer going up than an immediate flash of full wattage. Something I think I knew instinctively, but never actively connected the dots. The article entitled "Straight Talk - Generation Why?" is about the author's experience with some twenty-somethings on a quick sailing adventure on Lake Superior. The author thought it would be fun to explain the ins and outs of sailing and using the navigation tools such as nautical charts, compass, etc. To his dismay they were all non-plussed about the whole thing. However, the next day - when he turned on the GPS - with it's color screen and buttons - the group was agog over the exact same information. The author leaves us with the words..."No conclusion, no generational theory to advance. I'm just saying it was a little spooky."...
More About: Artic

Give Your Audience a Head Start to Greater Performance
2007-09-19 11:00:00
I've been accused of being a Cialdini fanboy but heck - when something works - it works. Dr. Cialdini is a Professor at Arizona State University, has a consulting practice called "Influence at Work" and is the author of "Influence, Science and Practice." Cialdini's recent "Inside Influence Report" newsletter highlights an interesting strategy for loyalty programs - and by extension - I would include incentive programs. Specifically, they did a test where a car wash company ran a continuity program and customers were given a card, and if they paid for eight washes, signified by a stamp on the card, they received a ninth wash free. One set of cards simply showed the eight spots for stamps to be affixed when the customer got a wash. Another set of cards had ten spots on it - with two of the spots already stamped - showing the customer that they were already 20% toward the goal of ten washes. Remember - the number of washes is exa...
More About: Performance , Start , Give , Head , Audience

What would put you out of business?
2007-09-18 16:33:00
One of the questions I ask myself - over and over - is... "what would have to happen to put me out of business? "I not only ask that of myself, but I ask that question of my clients. My goal in the question is to more fully understand their business model. Based on their answer I can really understand what is important to them and their company. I can also understand where their competitive threats are coming from since many times unseen competitors lurk in those areas where you fear to tread. Take my own industry - performance improvement, incentives, motivation - whatever the buzz phrase du jour is. If you asked the leading companies (mine included) what would put us out of business they would say something along the lines of.... Travel became impossible - much of our industry's revenue is tied to incentive trips and meetings Points became illegal - in other words - companies couldn't give additional non-cash incentives to employees ...
More About: Business , Sine

Maximize Overlapping Desires...
2007-09-13 13:08:00
It seems like you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a magazine article, a post on the web or a newspaper story about Generation Y, Millennials, Boomer retirements, labor shortage, etc., etc. I realize the changes in the employment picture are challenging. Mostly because the new employee (or channel partner and consumer for that matter) looks at the world differently. They don't follow the same thinking process that the previous generation of workers did. They care about social issues, they care about family, they care about ethics and transparency. They care period. One of the difficult parts of putting together initiatives to influence behavior is figuring out what will get an audience's attention - what will make them sit up and notice? In the past we looked at our audience and said - "hey - let's give them a bonus, that will get their attention." Or we said - "let's let them earn a trip where we can throw parties and ...
More About: Maxi

The Long and the Short of It...
2007-09-10 16:38:00
Where should you focus your rewards and recognition program? What behaviors should be targeted when deciding on your incentive strategy? What should you recognize? Great questions - and the ones I get most often from my clients. And here's my answer. Recognize what you don't want to change. Create an incentive around things you think will change. I'm sure you're scratching your head right now. Let me explain. First of all let's define what I mean by incentive and recognition. When I say "incentive" I mean non-cash, non-compensation based rewards. If you've read any posts on this blog you know I focus on the world of non-compensation motivation and influence. So - incentives are non-compensation based. When I say "recognition" I mean public notification and validation of specific efforts relative to a standard of performance. I don't just mean outcomes or results - I also mean behaviors that are valued.&...
More About: Long , Short

Innovation Incentives and the Mind of a Four Year Old
2007-09-06 14:40:00
This is less of a post and more of a stream of consciousness driven by a lack of focused energy. It's more like a kid at Chucky Cheese - bouncing around with no real destination other than the experience of it all. Lately, as I read all the stuff that comes in via my newsreader or through "normal" channels - ie: magazines, newspapers, TV - I see a huge upsurge in discussions surrounding INNOVATION. Companies are obsessed with finding innovative products, innovative business models, innovative employee engagement techniques. The only qualifying question applied to any idea any more is ... "is it innovative?" If the answer isn't a resounding "YES" it gets pushed to the side. Companies don't want incremental improvements - they want INNOVATION! And this is driving management to ask... "How do I get my organization to be innovative? What program can I put in place that will influence their behavior to be i...
More About: Innovation , Mind , Incentives , Year , Inno

My Blog Rating
2007-07-12 11:13:00
Found this on the Fortify Your Oasis web site. Thought it was interesting. The site that does the rating is for an online dating service. Should I "spice up" the language to get a higher rating? You know how it goes in the media world... the worse the rating the more desirable the property.
More About: Blog

Talk not Tell...
2007-07-11 11:03:00
Here's some interesting statistics from the blog The Power Of Influence, to keep in mind the next time you're looking to influence your consumer base. People were asked about where they get information from in order to make decisions about their entertainment options: 62% named âweb sites with user reviewsâ as their top choice. 59% picked âasking a knowledgeable friendâ 52% went directly to the website of the product 25% consulted a newspaper or magazine The next question asked was how a negative media article affects their decision vs a negative user review on a Web site. 2.3% said they would be strongly affected by a negative critical review compared with 45.7% who said it would have no effect at all. 30.5% said they would be strongly affected by a negative user review, while only 16.9% said there would be no effect at all. Third question asked - Influence of a users review vs a friendâs endorsement. 86.9% of respondents said they...
More About: Talk

On Pontification...
2007-07-09 13:31:00
I don't know if I mentioned it before but in June, I was a participant on an industry round table discussion with nine (9) other industry folks. A good time was had by all. The discussion was moderated by Incentive Magazine and the purpose was to get opinions on the state of the industry and its future. I blogged a bit about it when it happened (here.) Friday the magazine released a pared down version of the discussion on their web site. A couple of points... 1.) I look better in person than the photograph shows (really, I do. Or maybe I just think I do?) and 2.) I had a lot more to say than what is printed. I'm not sure why most of my comments weren't print (internet) worthy but I know I thought they were worthy of repeating. Oh well. It was a great discussion and I thoroughly enjoyed the day. I'll alert you when the complete transcript is available.

Incentive Program Measurement
2007-07-03 11:10:00
One of the steps in developing a good incentive program is determining what it is you want to influence people to do. Typically that starts with the overall business objective. From there you determine the audience(s) that have the most impact on that objective and then look for the behaviors that influence that metric. Measure and reward those behaviors. Most of the time the specific metric you want - the one relating to the behaviors - is not captured or tracked. Many companies will take a short cut and go directly to those things they currently measure and use that as a proxy for the real behavior they want to impact. As an example: The company wants to increase sales. They determine their sales force has the most impact on that objective so they target their sales organization for an incentive program. They know that they have a high probability of sale if the sales people follow a specific process. However, they don't track ...
More About: Program , Sure , Gram

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