This post is inspired by a TED talk, I recently watched, by Dan Ariley. I enjoyed the talk so much, probably because it involves Lego, that I even went and read some of his original papers. The talk really made me think about motivation and productivity in the workplace.
I won't recount the full details of the talk here because, I wouldn't do Dan's talk or paper justice. However, in a nutshell Dan and his colleagues ran an experiment on two groups who were paid to make lego models. In both groups before the participant made a lego model (which had 40 pieces and took about 10 minutes to make) they were offered an amount of money, starting at $3.00 and dropping by 11 cents after each subsequent model was made. The difference between the two groups was that one group would get given a new set of lego each time, whilst in the other group the lego they had made would be destroyed in front of them and given back to them to rebuild. The difference between the groups was meant to create a sense of meaningless work. What they found was the people in the group without meaning, stopped making lego models sooner.
In their second experiement participants where asked to mark two consecutive letter "s" on a sheet full of random letters. There were three conditions in this experiment, which you can see below on the graphic.
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The study found that those participants who had their worked ignored, i.e. there papers were simply put in a pile face down, and those participants who saw their work shredded in-front of them with no-one examining it, had the pretty much the same productivity levels. I think this is quite shocking, we all know or at least have a general feeling that having your work ignored makes you less productive, but I wouldn't have thought to the same extent as someone destroying your work in front of your face! What does this mean for HR practitioners and what can we do?
1. We need to tell managers and supervisors this story - this is a powerful story. Asking a manager have they ever taken a presentation or report that an employee just submitted and shoved it straight into a shredder? I hope 99% will say not. Then ask them have ever not gotten around to looking a report or presentation submitted by an employee - to which I am sure many will say they have done this. Explaining that both these scenarios have the same effect on productivity I think would surprise managers and make them think twice in future.
2. We need to change structures and process to ensure employee's work isn't ignored. There have long been methods of doing this, probably the most crude being "employee of the month" however now there are much smarter, quick and most importantly more meaningful ways to do this - through technology such as GiveAWow app and other organisational systems which the long standing consulting firm OC Tanner help with.
3. Ensure that managers and employees talk regularly, to me this a no-brainer. If managers and employees talk and communicate often, then work is much less likely to be ignored. Hopefully this could be in a one-to-one, or it could just be over coffee or even a quiet corner of the shop floor. I worry much less about the mechanics of the interaction and much more about the meaning, employees and managers should be talking regularly and often. Check out my one-to-one meeting plan for help.
Tell me what you think, do you agree with the above or perhaps you have other ideas?
I won't recount the full details of the talk here because, I wouldn't do Dan's talk or paper justice. However, in a nutshell Dan and his colleagues ran an experiment on two groups who were paid to make lego models. In both groups before the participant made a lego model (which had 40 pieces and took about 10 minutes to make) they were offered an amount of money, starting at $3.00 and dropping by 11 cents after each subsequent model was made. The difference between the two groups was that one group would get given a new set of lego each time, whilst in the other group the lego they had made would be destroyed in front of them and given back to them to rebuild. The difference between the groups was meant to create a sense of meaningless work. What they found was the people in the group without meaning, stopped making lego models sooner.
In their second experiement participants where asked to mark two consecutive letter "s" on a sheet full of random letters. There were three conditions in this experiment, which you can see below on the graphic.
1. We need to tell managers and supervisors this story - this is a powerful story. Asking a manager have they ever taken a presentation or report that an employee just submitted and shoved it straight into a shredder? I hope 99% will say not. Then ask them have ever not gotten around to looking a report or presentation submitted by an employee - to which I am sure many will say they have done this. Explaining that both these scenarios have the same effect on productivity I think would surprise managers and make them think twice in future.
2. We need to change structures and process to ensure employee's work isn't ignored. There have long been methods of doing this, probably the most crude being "employee of the month" however now there are much smarter, quick and most importantly more meaningful ways to do this - through technology such as GiveAWow app and other organisational systems which the long standing consulting firm OC Tanner help with.
3. Ensure that managers and employees talk regularly, to me this a no-brainer. If managers and employees talk and communicate often, then work is much less likely to be ignored. Hopefully this could be in a one-to-one, or it could just be over coffee or even a quiet corner of the shop floor. I worry much less about the mechanics of the interaction and much more about the meaning, employees and managers should be talking regularly and often. Check out my one-to-one meeting plan for help.
Tell me what you think, do you agree with the above or perhaps you have other ideas?
