Reading is so 2010. Listening is all the rage now with kids. You need to jump on board.
Over on TLNT.com today is a 26 minute podcast I did with Lance Haun (@theLance.) We cover the incentive industry, why HR is more interested in rewards today - why engagement is key to success and how that has affected how incentives and rewards are positioned. We hit on the "AIG Effect" - patriotism versus mercanaries - cash vs. non-cash - all the biggies.
Basically, it's a bar conversation without the bar (insert sad face here.)
Pop over - spend a few minutes and let us know what you think.
One week from today I’ll be rolling into Sandusky, Ohio – home of Cedar Point – winner of the “Golden Ticket Award” as the best amusement park in the world and of course…the 2011 Ohio SHRM (Society of Human Resource Management) meeting. While I won’t be rollin in like Guy Fieri in a cherry 1967 Camaro SS – I will be looking for a guy who makes pizza. And that would be Steve Browne (@SBrowneHR), HR leader for LaRosa’s Pizza in Cincinnati OH, intentional human and good mood virus for the rest of us lesser men (and women.) Steve is helping plan and operate the Ohio 2011 SHRM Chapter meeting September 21 – 23, 2011 in Sandusky.
The #OHSHRM will be 750+ attendees strong and will feature great speakers such as –China Gorman (@ChinaGorman, previous COO of SHRM Nataional), Mark Stelzner (@Stelzner), William Tincup (@WilliamTincup), Bill Boorman (taking the long trip from the UK, @BillBoorman), Jennifer McClure (@CincyRecruiter), Michael VanDervort (@MikeVanDerVort), Benjamin McCall (@BenjaminMcCall) – all great friends, great resources and overall great people.
And then, you have moi. I’m also on the docket on Friday morning – but I’m just there so the others look really, really good by comparison. ;-)
But enough of the introductions…
Old-School = Great Engagement
I am writing today because yesterday I was on a conference call with a few hundred or a few dozen people (who knows – doesn’t matter) who are attending the #OHSHRM conference. It wasn’t a planning meeting for speakers. I wasn’t a special get-together for those behind the scenes. It was a meeting for those who are simply – attending.
Steve put together two (2) conference calls prior to the meeting and invited ANYONE who is attending to call in and listen to him and the planning team talk about what to expect, how to dress, what to look for and to personally invite each attendee to seek him out and introduce themselves to Steve and the crew. Attendees could then ask questions and get more information on the event. Right there. Right now. Personally. Gasp – what was Steve thinking – actually connecting with the audience directly?
See… Steve is all about being intentional… doing the work and making the effort – nothing happens without an intentional decision to do it and this little phone tete-a-tete was one such intentional effort on Steve’s part to make sure all were welcome and knew what to expect.
How Does This Apply To Incentives and Rewards?
Simple. Most programs are launched and managed by email/snail mail/youtube, etc. They are “mass-launched” – but what Steve’s little phone meet-up told me is that we should consider personal introductions to our incentive programs and have PEOPLE introduce them – and have conversations about them – in real time- supported by social media tools if you have the right audience.
I know over the years companies have done away with intro meetings and ongoing get-togethers due to cost pressures and the fact that many workforces are geographically dispersed. But that’s what makes this “old-school” idea so great. It uses a simple and cost-effective technology (conference calling) and creates that human connection around your incentive and reward activity.
Specifically…
Sales Incentive Program Launch
Have the sales leadership host a call with the team immediately before the program launches – have a twitter hashtag and intro the program, the rules the awards, etc. This gives the participants the chance to ask questions and also (and this is a big one) shows the participants that the sales leadership is on board and agrees with the plan. They are a united team.
Employee Program Launch (Annual Relaunch)
Exec team has a call – same twitter backchannel idea – with the various division managers/directors, whatever. Same results – participants get first hand info and a chance to ask questions – leadership is positioned as a united front. All good stuff.
Before Group Travel Award Operation
Getting 300 Dealers and/or Distributors to get with a program can be daunting for the operations team. And for participants – a new country or destination can be a real question mark for them. What to wear, what to bring, etc. I know the travel company sends this stuff out in the “welcome” packet – but no one reads that stuff. But if you have a few times set up in advance where a group can call in, talk to the sponsors and the travel staff it could go a long way toward making them feel comfortable with program.
As an aside – the travel company could learn a lot about the concerns of the participants and be able to help them on site with those issues.
Those are only three ways I can see taking an “old school technology” like a “conference call” and turning it into a customer service and customer engagement activity.
Think about all the ways you could use a simple conference call to “personalize” your next incentive and reward program.
And this isn’t just for launches – think about quarterly updates (public companies do conference calls with the financial world – they find value in the conversation in addition to all the paper they generate) – think about a conversation with the participants broken out by performance (top, middle, bottom)… imagine the info you might gain from a conference call about the program.
I know we’re all “a-twitter” about new social media tools… but a group conference call specifically about your next engagement activity could do more to communicate how much you really care about your audience than any Facebook “like” or twitter retweet.
Net-Net = I took 1,000 words to say “pick up the freakin’ phone.”
Similar in that they are both focused on “influence.” Different in that one focuses on you personally being more influential, the other on how the programs you design can be more influential. Serendipitously, one helps the other and vice versa.
So that you have it straight from the sources themselves…
Here is Paul Hebert describing his session:
“My session will be about the various subtle, yet effective ways an HR Professional can use social psychology, motivation and behavioral economics to increase the effectiveness of the many programs HR is responsible for. From ‘recognition’ programs, to simply getting more folks signed up for benefits or 401K programs.
There are many tactics and techniques that have been proven to increase the number of people who will respond to a request. These tactics are critical if HR wants to have real impact in an organization. Based on the responses I got on my recent poll on my site - it looks like I’ll walk through a few of the techniques and then take some “problems” from the crowd and show how these tactics can be used in real-life situations to increase participation and compliance to HR requests.”
So that’s Paul H’s “influence” session.
The cool thing is that the same techniques that help HR Pros design company initiatives to be more effective are the same techniques that can be applied on a personal level to increase your own influence.
And that’s where Paul Smith comes in....
“My session is based on the closing session at last year’s HREvolution in which Laurie Ruettimann made the comment that everyone in this room should be in high-ranking HR positions making $200,000 a year. As much I was in total agreement with this, especially the money part, I think the gist behind her comment was each of us needs to be in positions of influence in our organizations or our communities. I think this was a great takeaway for the end of HREvolution 2010. But I was left with some questions.
How do I become an influencer? What does it mean to be an influencer? What is influence?
There is no one size fits all for success in being an influence. Each person has to find that within themselves and the life they lead. However there is one constant: after HREvolution 2011 comes to close, there are hugs and good-byes; there are hotel check-outs and airplane rides back home. And Monday morning will come and we will step back into our jobs. The attendees will feel changed. No one else around them will. Everyone needs their own call to action….but what is it? What is the recipe for success? How do we evolve and become more empowered?
Alongside my dynamic co-facilitator, China Gorman, we will explore how anyone at any level can be more influential. “
So here’s the pitch to all you HRevolution attendees... we think the two sessions:
One focused on how HR can design better programs within their company by upping the “influence” quotient…
and...
…the other on how YOU personally can be more influential…
...dovetail nicely for a complete “influence” package.
But...Houston - we have a problem.
Our sessions are at the same time. So unless you’ve figured out how to bend the space-time continuum, you can’t do both. But we really think you should.
So...we’re working to see if we can get the Big Kahunas at HRevolution to move some of the sessions around without pissing anyone off so you can attend both. We’ll let you know when we think we’ve got this worked out.
If the schedule doesn’t change, you’ll have to decide which session will influence you the most…
May serendipity be with you. Yours in the revolution...
This is my third time at #HRevolution - a "learning, laughing and linking" conference. I shudder to even call it a conference. It is more like a mash up of say... The Hangover and a Science Channel documentary (without the tiger and without Morgan Freeman.) Still major cool though.
The main idea behind this track to help HR professionals learn some of the tools they have available for influencing behavior in their organization. After all, HR is continually tasked with guiding behavior in the organization through recognition strategies and communications efforts targeting all employees.
I want to help you do that more effectively and more efficiently.
But First ... I need you to help me help you.
If you're going to HRevolution I'm asking for input.
HRevolution was built on the concept of the audience driving the conversation. This is a meeting about you and your needs. I want to be sure I do that right.
So ... below is a short, 5-question, survey that will help me get my head around what it is you want to get out of the 90 minutes we have together.
Feel free to add anything in the final text box... remember - this is YOUR session... I'm just priveldged to be allowed to be in the room with the cool kids.
(If the form doesn't show up in your RSS feed or your email subscription - try the post on the web site here. If that still doesn't work - try this link... somethin's gotta work no?)
The next few months will be a bit busy and I thought you all might like to know where you can interact with I2I either online or in person.
First off...HR.com Rewards and Recognition Virtual Workshops - March 30/31, 2011
This week on March 30 and March 31, HR.com is offering a two-day virtual workshop on rewards, incentives, and recognition. The two days are sponsored by a couple of friends of I2I (meaning companies that are doing interesting things in the incentive/recognition industry) Globoforce and i love rewards as well as Terryberry. We (meaning me) are doing a session on March 31, 2011 at 12:30 pm EDT – 1:30 pm EDT entitled: "Recognition and Incentives - Do You Know the Difference?" Surprisingly – most don’t.
A teaser for our session:
Designing programs to influence behavior in an organization are not as simple as “do x get y”, or installing a Peer-2-Peer program. Incentives and Recognition are two different animals. While recognition and incentives may be of the same family but they are as different as horses and zebras.
Strategic intent, program design, earning structure, communication and measurement, differ widely between a well-constructed incentive program and a great recognition program.
Check out all the sessions and if you want (and you know you do) listen in on our session on March 31, 2011 at 12:30 pm EDT.
#HRevolution - April 29, 2011
I’ve written about my experiences with #HRevolution before(here, here) – and I can’t say enough good things about it. The next one is set for April 29, 2011 and it is SOLD OUT. And this time it really is sold out. Initially it sold out but they had so many more requests they added a few more spaces –and they sold out as well.
It’s going to be a great experience for all attendees (including me.)
If you’re attending – I’d love to see you in the room when we host the session entitled: Designing for Influence. I’ll be talking about all the ways HR can influence behavior in an organization and how to help others in the company drive behaviors that support the company – and – support the employee.
My session runs concurrently with sessions from luminaries such as @ChinaGorman, @williamtincup and @Pasmuz (Paul Smith) - so I need all the support I can get...I know the last two #HRevolution meetings were great! This will be too.
EEA Networking Event - June 1, 2011
Scheduled for June 1, 2011 the EEA Networking event is a new type of conference focused on engagement as a top-level, holistic effort that includes customers, employees, vendors and partners. The premise is that you can be more successful as an enterprise if you look at engagement as something you need in all your business dealings – not just customer facing or just employee facing. Success will come from driving engagement with everyone who affects your business.
There will be some things I’ll be helping with from a social media standpoint but I'll also participating in a few discussions and sessions (not sure what exactly but I’ll let you know when I know.)
I really enjoyed the event last year and would expect the same in 2011. Check it out if you think engagement as an overall strategy is something you think would be helpful for your business. Stay tuned for more on this in the coming months.
I know I’m missing a few other stops over the next few months – but those are the biggies. I hope I run into some of you at one or two of these events and please – wish me luck!
It’s the week of Thanksgiving. Meaning there are fewer days of work but the same amount of work.
Tough week.
Because of the reduced “hours” and not-so-reduced “work” something get’s compressed and that something is this blog.
Today- three ideas – writ short – to compress the work. Hope they make sense in their concentrated formula.
My Conference Schedule 2011… #HRevolution and FOT
Asking questions. Listening to answers. Hearing new points of view. Not talking. Letting conversations evolve. Hearing contrary points of view. Hearing questions from non-experts who just want truth – not sales pitches. Being with people that have a passion for their profession. Watching people actively work on being better at their job and as people.
Those are the things that I want from my professional get-togethers.
That is the oxygen that drives my curiosity and my recommendations to clients.
I urge all my subscribers and anyone who happens across this post to check out their respective sites. If you’re a practitioner in HR – these two conferences will change your life. #FACT.
If you’re in the incentive industry and you’re reading this – you should attend to hear the truth about what is on the minds of HR professionals.Be a sponsor – throw in some dollars and then throw in some time listening. You will be a better company for it in the long run.
Our Legislative Branch – Rewards and Punishments Out of Whack
The recent Charlie Rangel debacle got me thinking. Here’s an elected official to one of the highest levels of our country’s political hierarchy accused of 11 counts of “ethical wrongdoing” (what a euphemism) and the "punishment" is reprimand? Really - "reprimand"? I guess staying after session and clapping erasers was too harsh.
This isn’t a comment on Rangel personally – it is a comment on the disconnect between rewards and punishment.
Here’s my point – when the rewards of a job (like those for Senators, Congress people, President) are large – good salary, good benefits, cars, expense accounts, free mail – can you say Franking Privileges – the punishments for violating trust in that position should be commensurate. However, when the punishment is “reprimand” it seems a bit out of whack to me.
From my experience, the entire equation in corporate America is backwards – the punishment for those at the bottom of the hierarchy are very stiff (mostly getting fired – which is a very big hit) yet the rewards are pretty pedestrian. Compare that to the perks at the top of the pyramid which are typically are excessive and the punishments are at best – inconvenient but hardly damning.
In a well run organization shouldn’t the reward/punishment thing be a bit more balanced? Check your own company… do the top dogs get more good stuff and much less bad stuff? I’m guessing yes.
To me an elected official in our top levels of government who is found guilty of 11 counts of anything bad should be shown the door with their box of personal effects in their arms – including that dying plant and their red stapler. Just sayin.
Cash Motivates
I’ve seen a few more posts on some of the Linkedin Groups I follow with more of the “cash don’t motivate” spam coming from providers of merchandise awards. They lump gift cards into that pile since they have dollar denominations on them.
For those that believe that – it’s crap.
Cash motivates just fine. In fact too much. And that’s the problem. Any provider that says cash don’t motivate – check their grammar and then check them out. Cash is an effective motivator if applied correctly (which it rarely is outside of compensation.)
"The study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, identified a brain region about two inches above the left eyebrow that sprang into action whenever study participants were shown a dollar sign—a predetermined cue that a correct answer on the task at hand would result in a financial reward.
Using what researchers believe are short bursts of dopamine—the brain’s chemical reward system—the brain region then began coordinating interactions between the brain’s cognitive control and motivation networks, apparently priming the brain for a looming 'show me the money' situation.
'The surprising thing we see is that motivation acts in a preparatory manner,' says Adam Savine, lead author of the study and a doctoral candidate in psychology at Washington University in St. Louis. 'This region gears up when the money cue is on.'"
Cash is a fungible reward mechanism in our society. Get over it and get on with it.
There are many situations where cash and money are appropriate awards – there are even more situations where it is not. That’s the key folks – right tool, right time.
Don’t take a merchandise or travel salesperson’s word for it – their goal is to sell stuff and they don’t sell cash.
So that’s your Thanksgiving Melange…
Be safe this week and I hope you all connect with family and friends and remember that is the absolute best reward you can get.
Would you work as hard on a project for your company if you knew at the onset you would not, and could not, get credit for the work or the ultimate success of the project?
That thought has been running around in my head for about three or four weeks.
Ask yourself that question. Would you work anonymously on a project for your company that would add value to the company, increase sales, decrease costs, open up new markets, create a new product – but never get any kudos, recognition or reward?
If you would – you are committed.
If not – you may only be engaged.
And is that bad or good? I don’t know. But thought occurred to me after I had a rather disconcerting conversation at the Motivation Show back in October. Here's a long-winded story - but there is a point at the end. Stick with me please...
Incentive Association Inflation
As I mentioned, while I was at the Motivation Show in October I spent some time with a friend who was in town to participate in an incentive industry association meeting. For those of you who don’t know there are quite a few incentive industry associations. I won’t link to each one – but you can see the list here at the Incentive Performance Center.
Their list includes (and this is not exhaustive): The Incentive Research Foundation, Incentive Marketing Association, Performance Improvement Council, Global Incentive Council, Forum for People Performance Management, Incentive Performance Center, International Society for Performance Improvement, Recognition Professionals International, Society of Incentive & Travel Executives, Incentive Gift Card Council, Incentive Manufacturers Representatives Alliance, Incentive Federation – and some associated industry groups such as the Promotional Marketing Association and the Promotional Products Association International. (that’s going to boost my keyword search for surz…)
In other words – there are a crap-load of “associations” whose charters are focused on improving the incentive industry.
But wait… there’s more.
Incentive Industry Power Laws
Now, for some additional background, the incentive industry is, according to the most recent research, about $40 Billion+ – give or take a few billion dollars. That’s pretty big. The interesting thing to me however, is that the industry (from my experience as I’ve not seen any research on this) follows a power law distribution. There are a few very big companies, a bunch of middle sized companies and then a ton of small and very small providers. If I had to guess I’d day the curve looks something like this…
So… we have approximately 15 different associations serving this distribution of providers.
When I look at this situation I see a lot of associations but few companies that can really, truly, afford to spend money and time with them.
This makes me think of my time in Minneapolis when the North Stars professional hockey team moved to Dallas. Yeah, you heard me, pro hockey moved from cold, snowy Minnesota to hot, arid Dallas. The problem was that Minneapolis, while a big city – had pro football, pro-baseball, pro-basketball, and a variety of semi-pro hockey and baseball teams. Not to mention their fanatical support of High School hockey. The net results – the population of Minneapolis couldn’t support that many teams.
As someone said to me when the Stars moved – there weren’t enough sports dollars in Minneapolis.
There Aren’t Enough Incentive Industry Dollars
I’ll say it here – there aren’t enough “incentive industry” dollars to go around and therefore the industry isn't served well. Too many associations, not doing enough good work due to a lack of real support (the dollars, and sense - not a typo - kind.)
That may seem backward - but the issue is "real" support. The industry has a lot of associations - with many companies supporting them with few dollars. There isn't enough critical mass to truly develop long-term studies, great industry outreach, fabulous content.
Each association is getting by based on the fact that the companies that belong don't care about advancing the industry - just their P&Ls.
They’re Not Committed – But They Are Engaged
So back to my story about my friend at the industry association meeting... During the meeting he attended they discussed how to grow membership and increase their impact. Someone mentioned bringing in writers, speakers, thought leaders from outside the membership to shake up the conversation and bring in new and different points of view. In other words, add value.
One of the members (a “medium to large” sized incentive company President) said, “Absolutely not. ONLY members of the association get a place to talk here – no new ideas from outside the group.” (paraphrasing here but you get the gist.)
Why do you think that was so?
Here’s why…
Only If My Name Goes On It
That particular President isn’t committed to growing the knowledge base of the industry. He wasn’t interested in doing what he does better for his clients. He wasn’t committed to learning. He wasn’t driven by a need to be better than he was yesterday.
He was driven by his own desire to be richer.
In other words, his goal in being part of the industry association was to be able to put his name on the list, borrow (or steal) some sort of validation and importance from the “brand” of the association and use that to drive revenue and profit for his company. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not against it. It is a way to “market” yourself and your company. Not the best one (IMHO.) (See this post if you want to talk about marketing and incentive companies.)
I’m convinced that the reason the industry has so many different associations is that there are so many players who are trying to use these associations solely to drive sales – not drive the industry. I would guess – and I’m pretty sure I’d bet a whole month’s pay – that if tomorrow all these incentive industry association memberships were made “anonymous” they would lose members like roaches scattering from the kitchen light.
There are no companies committed to the industry.
Sure they’re engaged – as long as their logo goes on the association page, as long as they can be pseudo-thought leaders in the industry and get their name, title and company listed in the byline.
They are engaged but not committed.
Where’s the commitment fellow industry friends?
Anyone want to put together an association geared toward really helping end-user clients drive behaviors where you get ABSOLUTELY NO CREDIT for your effort?
Sorry for the absence this week. Normally I can put a few posts up and still do the "normal" stuff that pays the mortgage but this week I was out of my comfort zone a bit and that takes more energy and attention.
This week reminded me that of all the things that drive performance - working on the edge really makes us feel connected to our work.
We can all go about our jobs pretty much on autopilot most days - but when you get something that pushes you in a new direction - or makes you use new, or less developed skills - that's when the adrenaline goes up a bit.
It's a bit heady - a bit of rush. The thrill and the threat come together so that after you done you just kick back and say, "Whew."
You're happy it's over - and yet you can't wait to do it again. The Yin Yang of performance.
I can say this - it was great. The format was a bit "unconference" a bit conference and all fun. And a challenge. Jason Lauritsen and his crew put together a wonder, full-day of discussion around the practice of HR and how it might be invisioned in the future. The goal wasn't to create a destination - a solution - but to break some inertia and begin thinking about HR differently.
There is blog that will hopefully continue the discussion and I'm sure there will be more conversation amongst the attendees. It was a wonderful time.
I presented a session called "Zen and Art of Human Maintenance" - a riff on how the thinking, philosophy and ideas found in the book "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" can be applied to the practice of HR. (The image below is a visual summary of the session - there was one drawn up for all the different presenters. A better version will be available in the future.)
I say "presented" - but it was more of a conversation. No PowerPoint, no cameras, no darkened room, no space between me and the audience. Just a few friends chatting about how HR needs to manage to the emotional and the analytical.
For those of you who present regularly you know there is something comforting about the slide deck - the little outline on the screen that keeps you on track - reminds you what's next - gives your audience something to focus on other than you. No here. Not this time.
Just me, and idea - and a flip chart.
There were moments of silence. Sickly, horrible silence. Then there was discussion. Interaction. Thoughtful postures, smiles, nods, frowns, disagreement. We asked questions. We challenged assumptions. We wondered if our quest for systems and efficiency gets in the way of effectively managing people and the big question - does it really matter?
It was fun.
It was hard.
It was even uncomfortable at times.
It was the perfect yin yang of performance - a little bit of planned and familiar and a little (lot) bit of unplanned and unfamiliar. That's what made it a challenge. That's what made it interesting.
I ask you this - what are you doing in your job and the jobs of those that work for and with you to make them a bit uncomfortable? What are you doing to inject a bit of unknown into the daily routine?
What are you doing so that everyone will sit back, say "whew" - talk about how hard it was and then say...
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