Even though this book is mostly aimed at managers anyone can benefit from it, as all of us have people around whose behavior we want to influence. Mr. Sims drives his points home with many stories and examples. They illustrate both approaches that work and those that do not.
One of my favorite examples was from experiment held in 1927 in Hawthorne Works factory in Cicero, Illinois. The researchers wanted to study the effects of lighting on the worker's productivity. During the first week they dimmed the lights by 10% and closely monitored the worker's productivity. The productivity increased. Each week as they continued to dim the lights the productivity continued to increase. During the entire period the workers were aware of the experiment and were given feedback on the number of parts they produced. After the lights got very dim the researchers returned the lights to their full strength expecting to erase all productivity gains only to find that the productivity increased again. Their conclusion was that it was not the lights but the feedback the workers received that were the cause of the productivity gains.
Another interesting observation of the author is that in typical company there is usually less than 3% difference in the pay between under performing employees and the highly motivated ones. This makes it clear that money is not the only thing that motivates people. Often that extra something is the recognition of people's contributions.
The lack of recognition has the opposite effect. It made me think of one of my least favorite bosses. We were working particularly hard for several months trying to satisfy a totally unrealistic deadline he set. We worked weekdays and weekends to get things done. During one of the meetings we asked him if after we deliver the product we could get some time off to make up for the long weekends at work. His reply was "Be grateful you are getting a pay check." That totally deflated our enthusiasm, after all we did not have to work weekends. Very few people came in the weekend after that meeting.
Positive reinforcement has to be tailored to a specific person. Mr. Sims uses another amusing story to drive this point home. One employee complained about her boss "Every morning I get a message from my boss telling me I am doing a great job, and that I am the best." What's wrong with that? Turns out when she talked to her co-workers she learned that they all get the same "You are the best" messages, so they considered their boss to be insincere and did not take his messages as positive reinforcement.
At the end of the book the author puts positive reinforcements in three categories: tangible, social, and self. Tangible awards are cash, stock options, gifts, and so forth. Often, the catch with tangible awards is that they are based on employees salaries more than the specific contributions each person have made. Social rewards are employee-of-the-month awards or team cook-out events. The catch of social awards is that you cannot reward someone by your presence if they hate your guts. If your least favorite boss has a cook out you are likely to find an excuse not to be there. Self reinforcement rewards is only something a person can do for himself. Some people are very self-motivated about work. It is hard to teach self-motivation, but it is fairly easy to destroy it by demoralizing, downsizing, cutting pay, and giving more work to fewer people. Which kind of reinforcement is best? All of them.
As much as I enjoyed this book, there was one minor thing that I found a bit annoying. Many chapters had references to the author's web site, where you can read additional details of a story the author is telling. I am typically reading a book away from the computer so having references to a web site in the middle of story felt like a tease. Why can't those memos from Tiger Oil owner be included in the book? If this additional information was included in the appendix rather than part of the main story line, I would just think of it as bonus info. Well, perhaps the author is experimenting with another behavior modification technique on his readers.
Table of content:
One: The Little Rebel
Two: Why Did He Do That?
Three: Changing Attitudes and Self-Motivation
Four: Does Punishment Really Work?
Five: The Church of Here and Now
Six: Why Does R+1 Work
Seven: Blinded by the Light
Eight: Why Cash Isn't King
Nine: The $3,000 Jacket
Ten: Behaviors We Haven't Learned to Observe
Eleven: Why Do I Have to Recognize People Anyway
Twelve: "Stop Recognizing Those Employees!"
Thirteen: A T-Shirt for a Million Dollar Idea?
Fourteen: Who Killed the Work Ethic?
Fifteen: Daughter of the Month
Sixteen: Most Likely to Succeed
Seventeen: "You Can't Positively Reinforce People If They Hate Your Guts"
Eighteen: Teacher's Pet Syndrome Nineteen: Pink Cadillacs Twenty: CAVE People: One Size Does Not Fit All Twenty-One: "Business Is Behavior" Twenty-Two: Stuff That Rolls Downhill Twenty-Three: "Feel-Good" Recognition Twenty-Four: Not Another Baseball Cap Twenty-Five: Isn't a Paycheck Enough? Twenty-Six: Is Cash Really King? Twenty-Seven: I Hate My Boss! Twenty-Eight: Is It Positive or Punishing?
Twenty-Nine: Don't Drink the Pink Kool-Aid
Thirty: Chocolate, Vanilla, or Strawberry? The Great Debate
Thirty-One: Empowering Employees is R+1
Thirty-Two: What Makes a Great Leader?
Thirty-Three: Why Green Beans & Ice Cream?
I enjoyed reading this book. If you want to change people's behaviors in a positive way this book will help you do it. I recommend it.
You can find this book on Amazon by following this link.
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Ali Julia review ★★★★☆
I received a review copy of this book to provide an honest and unbiased review.
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