Blog – Ganit Science https://ganitscience.com Thu, 02 Sep 2021 12:48:02 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.2 How to foster motivation? The material equation. https://ganitscience.com/how-to-foster-motivation-the-material-equation/ https://ganitscience.com/how-to-foster-motivation-the-material-equation/#respond Tue, 03 Nov 2020 05:16:00 +0000 https://ganitscience.com/?p=9120

In the previous article on motivation, we saw how to destroy motivation. In this article, we discuss what fosters motivation – but from the predominantly material side.

I have run teams that have measurements of performance being very easy: sales; very difficult: teachers; and every other type in between: software engineers and data scientists. I am sure, many of us consider money as the prime mover for performance or output. Is there a proof? Does it really happen so? Let us examine an experiment. I have again taken some creative liberties:

The Experiment:

The experiment was conducted in a semiconductor manufacturing facility. To that extent, it was not a lab setting that most managers have a gripe about. All employees worked in a 12-hour shift of four-day work cycle and took the next four days off.

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The employees were randomly divided into any of the four groups:

  • Money: On the first day of the work cycle, the employees were greeted by the manager thus: “Good morning! If you reach or exceed X chips today, you will receive Rs. 1,000 in cash. Good luck."
  • Pizza Voucher: On the first day of the work cycle, the employees were greeted by the manager thus: “Good morning! If you reach or exceed X chips today, you will receive a voucher for pizza. Good luck."
  • Compliment: On the first day of the work cycle, the employees were greeted by the manager thus: “Good morning! If you reach or exceed X chips today, you will get a text message from me: “Well done!”.
  • Control: In this case, the employees received no note and were offered no cash or kind bonus.

I am sure most of us are thinking that the largest production came from Money, Pizza, Compliment and doing nothing was disastrous last. That is true.

The Money, Voucher and Compliment did far better than doing nothing. But the magnitude was somewhat surprising. The pizza voucher (6.7%) did as good as compliment (6.6%)! Cash came third with 4.9%. But hey, what about the performance in day 2, 3 and 4?

On day 1, 2, 3, and 4, influence of money on production was like my current Airtel signal: fluctuating erratically between 4G, H+, G, E and nothing. As I said earlier, it had increased by 4.9% but dropped by 13.2%, 6.2% and settled about 2.9% lower than control over the next three days. Overall, there was a drop of 6.5% over control.

Compliment had an increase in production on day 1. But it drifted lower towards the base.

Pizza voucher too dropped but it settled somewhere between Money and Compliment.

Clearly and surprisingly, the winner is Compliment.

Money as a Motivator:

I always had reservation about cash as a motivator for increasing output. In my personal experience, over the long run, cash brought the productivity to pre-cash levels. If pressed for techniques to increase productivity, managers would suggest throwing even more money. Innovation here is pathetic. Managers try lots of variations: hourly bonus, daily bonus, weekly bonus, along with monthly bonus and what else not – they never let money go from thinking that it was the prime mover of productivity. It rarely produced lasting change in attitudes and behavior.

Managers behave as if they have caught a proverbial tiger’s tail. Any amount of cajoling to drop money as a motivator would come with threats of “then don’t ask me for numbers”. Is it that bad? It appears not. A US midwestern company suddenly eliminated money as an incentive that was in place for several years. Expectedly, productivity dropped in the short run. But over a period of several weeks, the productivity climbed back to old levels and sometimes even exceeded it.

Too little money does irritate. But that does not mean more and more of it is good.

Here is a very interesting article in HBR on why money as a reward is such a bad idea!

Pizza Voucher:

That it languished alongside (ok ok: slightly above) Money as a motivator is to me really surprising (but still does not work). Some of my managers have tried gifts of all kinds: Amazon Vouchers, Tupperware, Clocks, and what else not. While the administration department worked more and spent more to ‘innovate’ in type of Gifts, the productivity rarely went up.

I must also inform you all one small experiment that we did. We asked what employees wanted and was in the range of the budgets that we had in mind. We bought them up as non-cash incentive and it appeared to work. We thought it helped the employees visualize what they have wanted, asked and would get. But strangely, the administrative pain made managers drop the program.

The dark horse: Compliment:

But what is surprising is the performance of mere ‘Compliment’. But this should not have surprised me for whenever, I have chats about past glories, employees had always remembered what compliments they got and not what money they earnt.

We have been wanting to come up with some really genuine expressions of ‘Compliments’. I have maintained that what comes from the heart as a true word on the floor, in a town-hall meeting and in personal notes go a long way. Unfortunately, most managers don’t seem to believe in the power of compliments.

And most corporates spend over 5% of the topline on just Money as a motivator. Clearly, the material side of the equation is zero.

]]> https://ganitscience.com/how-to-foster-motivation-the-material-equation/feed/ 0 How to destroy motivation? https://ganitscience.com/how-to-destroy-motivation/ https://ganitscience.com/how-to-destroy-motivation/#respond Mon, 02 Nov 2020 05:32:00 +0000 https://ganitscience.com/?p=9129

I recently met with a couple of past employees in a public place. We will name them, for now, Rajesh and Sujesh. I always had good opinion about them. I had interviewed them and thought they should be extremely good at work, team playing and achievement orientation. Yet we had lost them. Was it better pay with a competitor? I thought this may be a good opportunity to find out.

After some very awkward pleasantries, I suggested coffee. More out of deference, they both agreed and we settled in a coffee-shop. I asked them what they were doing. They seemed happy. They sang paeans about the new workplace. After more banter, I dropped the question in my mind rather quite bluntly: "Why did you both leave?"

I knew the first several lines of answers would never be the real answer. So, with every answer, I compared and pointed out that our organization had the same if not better score. Finally, the answer did come out. And I remembered Dan Ariely’s work.

Dan Ariely, a world-famous behavioral decision scientist, conducted a very unique experiment. I have taken some liberties to change the original script:.

Participants in the experiment were handed a sheet of paper filled with typed letters and paid Rs. 10 for finding ten instances of two consecutive ones. They will be paid Rs. 9 for analyzing a second page, Rs. 8 for a third page, and so on. Participants perform the task under one of three conditions.

  • In condition 1, the subjects were asked to write their name on each sheet prior to starting the task. The instructions explained that after completing the task, they would hand the sheet over to the experimenter who would carefully examine it top to bottom. The experimenter would smile, nod, and keep the filled sheet to the left side of his desk. Next, he would ask if the subjects would like to attempt one more paper for Rs. 9 (and less for each succeeding attempt). If the subjects declined, they would be paid the amounts for the papers already submitted.
  • In condition 2, the subjects were not instructed to write their name on the sheets, and in fact none did so. Moreover, the instructions explained that, after the subject completed the task, the experimenter would place the sheet on a high stack of papers. The experimenter in fact did so without examining the completed sheets. There was no smile, no nod and asked if they would like to attempt one more paper for Rs. 9 (and less for each succeeding attempt). If the subjects declined, they would be paid the amounts for the papers already submitted.
  • In condition 3, very similar to condition 2, except that the instructions explained that the completed sheets would be immediately put through a paper shredder. As the subjects turned in the sheets, the experimenter shredded them without a glance. They were asked if they would like to attempt one more paper for Rs. 9 (and less for each succeeding attempt). If the subjects declined, they would be paid the amounts for the papers already submitted.

Now, I am sure you are guessing under which condition would maximum output occurred? While you are at it, let me digress a bit.

Being really good souls, you may have missed a possibility that in both the conditions 2 and 3, the subjects could have simply submitted additional sheets without real attempt and made a lot of money. No? Now, let us get back to the experiment.

Here are the results:

In condition 1, subjects stopped when the pay per paper reached about Rs. 2.50; that is, they attempted about 8 sheets. In condition 3, it stopped at about Rs. 6.00; that is, they attempted no more than 5 sheets.

Clearly, condition 1 has some acknowledgement of the work. There is a name on the work, the experimenter is examining the work carefully, nodding, smiling and so on. Therefore, subjects attempt almost 8 sheets before giving up (possibly the payoff was not worth another fresh attempt).

In condition 3, there is no examination, nod, smile and so on. On the other hand the paper is immediately put in a shredder. Recall, subjects could have cheated rampantly. Yet subjects quit after about attempt of 5 sheets. I am sure you all understand what ‘shredding’ in the context of the workplace means. Demeaning an employee, improper examination of work, and more is similar to ‘shredding’.

Now, you may ask what happened to condition 2? That should be in between 1 and 3? It turns out no. Note that in condition 2, there is no examination, nod, smile and so on. But neither is there shredding. The experimenter just ignored the subjects. Turns out ignoring is more dangerous than shredding. The subjects stopped when the pay per paper reached about Rs. 7.00; that is, they attempted no more than 4 sheets.

Clearly, my friends at the coffee table were unwittingly in the condition 2. Their immediate superior had seldom looked at their work; even if he did, the manager’s mind was not in it – it was very short, and cursory. Possibly he was busy. Possibly he did it on purpose. I would never know. One even said, “I decided to quit when by chance I saw three mails of mine, with my work output, were not even opened by my manager.” They were so negatively motivated that they simply quit.

I am sure this comes as a shocker to many of us who think the modern millennials would hardly bother about such things and continue to work so long as pay is market beater, incentives are world class, work place is jazzy, and there is flowing coffee, games, and eats. These are important. No doubt. But not sufficient.

Ignoring an employee can lead to some clear tell-tale behavior of the employee. Did we discuss the possibility of cheating in condition 2 and 3? Yes. That did emanate in different ways in our case. Sujesh continued “My boss did not even notice that I came late and left early”.

So how to destroy motivation? Ignore. If you can’t ‘shred’ their work. It is the best way to drive employees out. Or kill a partnership.

Until then, a rat should seriously consider whether it wants a kitten for a pet.

]]> https://ganitscience.com/how-to-destroy-motivation/feed/ 0 WFH – forget Coronavirus – lock-down and isolation can kill. What can be done? https://ganitscience.com/wfh-forget-coronavirus-lock-down-and-isolation-can-kill-what-can-be-done/ https://ganitscience.com/wfh-forget-coronavirus-lock-down-and-isolation-can-kill-what-can-be-done/#respond Tue, 24 Mar 2020 05:54:00 +0000 https://ganitscience.com/?p=9155

WFH is not as easy as it sounds.

To most the 'H' in WFH possibly means 'Home' - a home with a family of parents or spouse or children. But we were astounded to find the proportion of employees in our own company, city and the country - who all live by themselves. Migrated from home. Many have not been able to make back to their homes and after a lock-down, it is all really only Work From Hostels..

Fears of folks in hostels are even more real. An emotion acerbated by family members who order, demand and beseech them to head back home, come what may! If they have survived such emotional appeals, they are greeted with isolation. And then there is cold work to do. Nothing more can be a recipe for disaster.

There are both mental and physical consequences of such WFH. The things we take for granted: meeting people, friends and colleagues are suddenly gone. Or physical work such as taking a walk to a colleague, water cooler, cafe, bus stop, shopping, or some such. That tea or snacks or lunch served is also gone. All gone. One just faces a laptop or a pc, internet connection and a very silent room. It is fine for a couple days. In fact, employees even welcome it. But current situation in Italy - employees indoors for now weeks - suggests otherwise.

People appear to suffer from sleep disorders, eating disorders, weight gain, depression and more. "I feel caged / jailed" is a common refrain.

It is an unavoidable common sacrifice that the nation is forced to make. But it can be managed. What can be done? Here are some simple things that came to our mind:

Communication side:

  • Communicate more: being more connected over Skype, hangouts and such is critical. We mandated team leads or HR to have random two minute calls with each employee twice a day - with no work related items in the agenda. Two minute time is important. That is the time enough to elicit lurking problems the employee may be facing.
  • Video calls with four or more employees together is a great way to alleviate isolation.
  • Encourage two or more employees to talk regularly with each other. One team lead found a simple way. He will ask question to employee 1 whose answers lie with employee 2.
  • Request employee to take video calls twice a day with close friends / relatives. Also find out if they have done so and their well being.
  • Ensure speed dials are in place for emergency, family and team-lead.

Physical side:

  • Encourage employees to take mandatory walks within home every one hour. When there is a call with team leads, both are encouraged to walk while talking.
  • Check if employees have exercised. 4-5 Suryanamaskar is awesome. One can do it thrice a day some times together both facing the camera.
  • Allow time for employees to cook their own meals. So work time starts earlier than office time and it also closes a little later. For e.g. if office timing is 9 am - 6 pm, WFH starts 8.30 am and ends 6.30 pm. There are three mandatory breaks: the first at about 10 am for 30 minutes for making a smoothie or brewing tea/coffee and fixing a snack. The second at about 1 to 2.30 PM for cooking lunch and eating. The last between 5 and 5:30 PM for evening brewing tea and fixing snacks. Nothing can be more soothing than cooking - even cooking ready to eat meals. Nothing can be more soothing than talking about how it went and how it tasted. One is also encouraged to 'eat together' with video-call on.
  • A few hostels may not allow cooking. Suggest ways to make oneself cold snacks and lunches as an alternative.

Mental discipline side:

  • Suggest waking up at fixed time in a day. And start and close work time at fixed times. Allowing employees to work at will leads to poor discipline. Consequently, it may lead to poor sleep timings and in the end to sleep disorders.
  • Get into 'office' mode: dress up and move to a corner in the hostel (if possible) is the work area. Working out of bed can be quite difficult eventually.