Loved this video from the RSA for a while and never got to the point of posting. Do greater monetary incentives motivate us?
Not going to say at the top of the post so watch the video first before reading more…
So it turns out that for manual tasks the obvious assumption of greater incentive equates to more output is true.
However the inverse is true for cognitive tasks (with the caveat that the money paid means that it is no longer an issue – ie enough is being paid)
The video goes on to list three factors that lead to better performance and satisfaction:
- Autonomy
- Mastery
- Purpose
This talk is from Dan Pink and I’d urge you to follow his blog here.
Concentrating on Purpose…
To put this in to real world context then it is clear that the whole organisation needs a purpose (and I argue would that a positioning statement is one the components required). How else can an employee (or even possibly the owner) relate to a purpose if that purpose is not articulated and continually communicated. This I would say is through statements, story telling and nudging through judgement de-briefing.
That means a document that states the purpose. That means communicating stories about how this works in real work decision making. And if autonomy is to be pursued then talking through why decisions were made and how they relate to the positioning (purpose?) statement.
Once purpose can be related to, ie it has been developed and communicated, then you can start building the organisation to allow autonomy which require mastery at an individual and company level. A good start to help you think about positioning is this video from Michel Porter.