Incentives

Today is a good day at work. This morning I was plugged in, starting my Bible listening while I worked through some e-mail, when my boss peeked around the corner. She had that good news, head bobbing walk and in her hand she was holding, or rather waving, a single piece of paper. Wen she flipped it over, I knew exactly what it was, by the format. Our incentives were in. Based on the goals last year, the company was paying each of its employees a little share. This is awesome because, hey, extra money. More importantly, I got to print the incentives for my team and hand deliver them. I imagine I had my own head bobbing swagger. It's fun to make people happy, even if it is just for a moment.

Anyway, this had me thinking about incentives, these and others. While I know these have been given out because of my work and the work of the company, it feels very remote from me. It was 5 months ago when I close my last task which would potentially help these incentives and I am only one piece of the pie. So, while I do like the financial nod, if feels pretty disconnected from me. In some ways, it feels more connected to the work I'm doing right now, although it will be a year before they produce the same fruit, if they do at all.

Not that long ago at home, we had what might be considered an incentive problem. Everyday, immediately following any meal, the kids would all begin asking, can I have candy? At first this was just the way it worked, it was a kind of sugar control, but over time it got a bit obnoxious. No, you can't have a candy bar immediately after your high sugared breakfast... Or any breakfast. If I just told your sister yes, why would I tell you no. No, you can't eat a whole chocolate bunny. The problem was not with the children, the problem was with the incentive. See, there was no penalty for asking at ridiculous times, or pushing the reasonable limits and if you didn't ask you didn't get any candy. So. It makes since to ask as often as you can and work to get candy constantly. The system rewarded the persistence, which was starting to grate. So, we had a dinner meeting on it and talked about what was reasonable and the kids decided that two small or one large candy a day was reasonable. They then made the agreement that they would limit themselves to that limit and if found violating that rule, they would forgo candy for a couple days. The incentive shifted, there was no value in asking, the limit was set and they could have the candy when they wanted.