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On the Edge: Time to Take One for the Team?
October 06, 2008
By Paul Hebert
There is no lack of commentary about the changing workforce. From the retirement of Boomers, to the reported narcissistic tendencies of Generation Y, to the business impact of social networks, new industry developments are creating challenges for those of us who are tasked with motivating and rewarding today's diverse and hyper-connected group of workers.
But let me throw a couple of more logs on the fire: In an effort to do more, do it better and do it with less resources, many businesses are partnering with companies that either offer a specific skill set or provide a lower-cost, more efficient process in order to remain competitive. Further, as we move to a knowledge-based economy, the capital constraints needed to build a business that used to exist are disappearing. Now anyone with a new idea can get something started—innovation arrives faster, and it's becoming the competitive differentiator for many organizations.
The end result is a business environment with an employee base that is more diverse, thrives on connecting within electronic networks and businesses that interface with many different partners in order to satisfy current and future customer needs.
Businesses—and the people who run them—are now more contributors than producers of a final product or service. Collaboration is the new black. To bolster this point of view the April 28, 2008 issue of Business Week offered these statistics:
• 82% of white-collar workers partner with co-workers
•46% of white-collar workers are motivated to collaborate because they learn form others when they do so
• 30% collaborate to accomplish a specific task
• 19% collaborate because it is required of them and 4% to get ahead
• 51% of women like working together so that they can learn from others in comparison to 40% for men
• 18-24 year olds like working together the most (60%), followed by the 25-64 year olds (44%) and finally only 28% of the 65+ enjoy collaborating.
• 9% prefer working in groups of two, 54% like groups of three, 27% like groups of four or more and 10% are happiest working alone
This signals a huge shift in the way that business needs to get done, and it will directly affect the way in which we motivate and influence behavior. Managing our internal and external business resources has moved from "command and control" to "networking, influence and partnership." Success will be the result of how well a company collaborates internally, as well as how well they collaborate externally.
Where Does This Lead Us?
The fact that business is now driven more by the quality of connections creates a stronger need for team-based programs.
For as long as I can remember, incentive programs and recognition programs primarily focused on the individual. Sure there are some programs that provide "team recognition," but the majority of the initiatives companies put in place have by far been focused on individual goals and objectives. From individual standings reports and progress statements to competition that pits one person against another, we've focused on the contribution of the individual.
It has been much easier to measure output from a single person so we default to that level. But as collaboration begins its dynasty in the business world, we need to think through how we will measure and reward the behaviors and processes necessary to build, manage and lead a team.
"We" Not "Me"
The future of incentives and recognition will be turned on its head—more focus on team-based incentives and less on individually directed awards. Incentive and recognition programs need to be structured in a way that takes advantage of the natural tendency of employees to collaborate to get things done. Team-based reward and recognition programs will drive greater performance than individual incentive programs. Given the tendencies the prior mentioned statistics indicate, it might even become counterproductive to conduct individual programs in many situations.
One of the major hurdles we need to overcome is the lack of investment in measurements and systems that focus on team performance. Until that happens we will default to the measurement system in place and continue to reward individuals. I'm not saying we shouldn't reward individual effort; simply that the preponderance of rewards and recognition needs to move toward team efforts and team results.
Think through your business. Look at how you make money, how you advance the company and how you get things done. I'm guessing in today's world individuals have less power to make that happen and teams are the driving force. Recognize it and do something about it.
Where Do You Start? Ask a Team.
Gather some folks together, tell them you think teamwork is the driving force behind success (I think they will agree) and ask them for the best way to measure team effort and team success. Use that input to create a measurement system. Create your programs around the new metrics.
The key is to look at the reward program in a way that provides me with awards, you with awards and "us" with awards, but much more skewed to the "us" side of the equation.
INCENTIVE online columnist Paul Hebert is currently the Managing Director at i2i, an influence consultancy, (www.i2i-align.com). Over the past 20-plus years, Paul has worked with many Fortune 100 clients to develop non-cash reward and recognition strategies within an overall audience engagement plan. Paul writes a monthly online column for Incentive on incentive industry trends, and he blogs about the incentive industry and how to best engage your target audiences at his own blog, Incentive Intelligence.
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