Have you heard this story? It illustrates what we’re learning about incentives and motivation. A slightly different version is found in Alfie Kohn’s, Punished by Rewards – The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A’s, Praise, and Other Bribes.
For months, an old man endured the insults of a group of boys as they ran across his yard. One afternoon, after listening to another round of jeers, the man came up with a plan. He met the children on his lawn and announced that anyone who came back the next day and yelled rude comments about him would receive a dollar. Amazed and excited, they showed up even earlier on Tuesday, hollering insults with enthusiasm. The old man came out and paid everyone saying, “Do the same tomorrow and I’ll pay you twenty-five cents.”
The kids thought that was still pretty good and came out on Wednesday to taunt him. At the first catcall, the man again paid his hecklers. “From now on,” he announced, “I can give you only a penny for doing this.’” The kids looked at each other in disbelief. “A penny?” they repeated scornfully. “Forget it!” And they never came back again.
Have you seen the effects of incentives backfiring? What happened?
Laura Lewis-Barr
I love this story Laura – really makes the point clear “with a twist.”
I talked a bit about this same concept in The Motivation Iceberg about how we need to match the right “motivation” to the desired outcome.
I must thank Laura for posting this piece. This is really an emotionally intelligent way to “kill motivation”. EQ breeds innovation and this taken positively is innovative but it also brings to mind what we as leaders need to avoid if we are not to kill motivation with the supposed incentives to bolster motivation.
This is a great article, I myself as a Director experience a case on how managers kill motivation with the work space, EQ is lacking in our companies today. This has been submitted to all my line management to take heed. Thanks , keep up the excellent thought processes
thank for this blog..
Thanks for reading it and for your comment