What does this mean for Community Engagement incentives? How should we be motivating people?
Interesting advice based on study from Dan Pink is "Pay people enough to take the issue of money off the table. Pay people enough so that they aren't thinking about money, they are thinking about the work."
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| Watch the RSA Animate Video to See This Drawn Along with the Speech |
Dan Pink says people work better when given "Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose". He makes the point that people want to do a good job so if you get out of their way, they more often than not, will! He makes the point that people seek to learn new skills. As a boss you want your employees to be more skillful. So, let people build new skills. Finally as Gordon Gekko says "Greed is good" but Dan says when greed is not attached to the company's purpose "Bad things happen".
I took from this that PURPOSE and CULTURE are king. Create a culture that is focused around purpose and people will keep the agenda moving forward.
Purpose needs to drive financial decisions. Too often I have seen companies waste time and kill culture by not wanting to "lose" money on an investment. Sometime the investment is dead software that they don't want to scrap because "We have too much invested already". Other times it is employees asking to go to a conference to learn and connect with people and it is seen as a vacation or waste to supervisors or a burden on their time because they will need to find coverage.
Too often I have seen companies "save" money with decisions that didn't make sense to the supposed purpose of the company. More with less is the concept many people are faced with each day. But, when did this become the purpose of a company? If the purpose of a company is great customer service and results oriented problem solving is an automated call center the right solution? Just sayin!
What is your purpose and what is your primary driver? Do they match?
Looking forward to your responses.
Cameron
Cool post, Cameron. And I agree that we should "Pay people enough to take the issue of money off the table. Pay people enough so that they aren't thinking about money, they are thinking about the work" and that "people work better when given 'Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose'. And I suspect that we all have a sense of purpose. But this "purpose" is invariably twarted by capitalism as embodied by private, and to a certain extent, public corporations and institutions. So the issue of "autonomy, mastery and purpose" should always be considered in relation to the extent that individuals have control over their own labor in the workplace and in the society at large. Ultimately, I would argue, you must take the questions you raise in relation to historical, political, economic and social developments in the United States and the industrialized world, in general.
ReplyDeleteSo, for example, while American's are putting in more hours and taking less vacation time, corporate profits are the largest ever, well, at least since we began keeping track:
http://blog.buzzflash.com/node/11990
Yet, real wages have not increased in proportion to corporate profits. This suggests that corporations are not about helping employees to build "autonomy, mastery and purpose." Quite the opposite.
Capitalism is a system designed to objectify labor and to exploit the ability of workers to produce.
In order for us to achieve our "purpose", we need to realize that capitalism does not allow for that purpose to emerge, let alone be exercised. Instead, we need to fight at the workplace to achieve real autonomy through unions and in the broader society with a vision that is collective and conducive to the realization of a full human being who is not "estranged" from his/her own labor.
Peace!
Douglas
Douglas,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your excellent insights. Hopefully this article serves to push corporate executives, CEOs and Small Business Owners to see the benefits of creating a company that values people.
Let's Discuss:
"Instead, we need to fight at the workplace to achieve real autonomy through unions and in the broader society with a vision that is collective and conducive to the realization of a full human being who is not "estranged" from his/her own labor."
Are Unions the solution? The big car companies, "Waiting for Superman" and anyone doing a trade show at Jacob Javits Center or the convention center in Chicago might disagree.
Is fighting as a single employee in a large company the solution? Working along side of "fighters" and being a "fighter" myself I have seen it not work out so well.
So what is the solution? Government? Broader Society?
I would argue that it all starts with education. How do we educate society, Unions, corporations effectively and enough to create dramatic sustainable change?