If you reward a behaviour, you get more of it.
If you punish for a behaviour, you get less of it.
Right?
Well, no, actually.
This fantastic video reminds us that the time is now to get past the ideology of carrot and stick.
Now it’s true, that if a task involves only mechanical skill, then monetary rewards work. For simple, straightforward tasks with a ’if you do this, then you get that’ monetary rewards are great, they’re fantastic.
BUT.
If the task required even rudimentary skill, it has been show time and time again, in study after study from the richest to the poorest places on Earth, that a larger reward led to poorer performance.
The best use of money as a motivator is to pay people enough to take the issue of money off the table, so they’re not thinking about money, they’re thinking about work.
Once you’ve done that, science shows there are three factors that lead to better performance:
- Autonomy
- Mastery
- Purpose
Have a watch.
Andy.