Wanna reward people? Do something *truly* meaningful.

Reading through Idea Management Group debate on Linked-in titled “Use contribution rewarding system or not”.

It’s a debate about how to incentivize people (employees foremost, but also external partners, customers, etc) to innovate with the company, so that… so that what? that they get an iPod. Who-hoo.. listen to more music and BE HAPPY. of course, if you have an iPod, you will be happy, no? for a minute you will be – you will project the beautiful moments you will have with your iPod. From all the movies you’ve seen – you must be able to feel like a star for a minute with your iPod..

Martin Seligman talks about what makes people happy in this TED talk. Skip his first 10 mins of long introduction and listen to the rest. There lies your answer about how to reward people. Design the entertainment so that there is purpose embedded therein. And mean it.

Now, I don’t think companies can do it. At least not those that are owned by some external shareholders who hold Board meetings and kick out management or employees who don’t return high profits or increase share value. Any purpose the company may have had is going to be trashed. Money or profits isnt’ the source of happiness once you hit the 10k EUR per year threshold. Until then, you’re almost in poverty, but above – you start looking at things besides – you seek purpose.

So, Peter, who asked how the employees should be rewarded: if you’re lucky, your client is a company where participants believe in its mission and are proud of its existence. They don’t see their jobs as cash cows – but for them work is a way of self-realization. In that case, mere posting of the profiles of the contributors as the “visionaries of the company” should be enough to get a lot attention.

This is backed by a simple experiment, where people’s ambition was measured going after different carrots: in one, the winners got a buck, another one, winner gets 5 bucks, and another one, where winner gets to decide where 10 bucks should be donated – and nothing for him/herself. People work their hardest on the last one. The message is that it is hard to get people to care with a few bucks – but it helps. The big ticket is if you can get them to believe that they can be part of a change bigger then themselves that they believe in. Like religion. Also this short movie can help re-emphasize the message.

Unfortunately (or fortunately?) few if any company can make employees feel like they are the means for the employees to realize themselves. Because they are not – they are there to make money for shareholders. And that cold fact puts off any creative juices no matter how beautifully you package it in your corporate communication. Some companies are better off: if you’re producing wind energy equipments you may look indeed excite your staff thoroughly. But in my experience it is a rare situation that an employee feels that kind of tie to a corporate.

I think, though, cooperatives or civic institutions have a better chance to explore the wisdom and creativity of the crowds.