Recap: Aligning Rewards with Behaviors

I would like for us to reflect on the key takeaways, key aha moments, I sometimes call them, from this entire week. So first is, recall that in addition to understanding absolute levels of rewards,

and what rewards people value, our needs and wants, we also need to manage equity. Which is, we need to attend to relative ratios of inputs and outputs. We need to recognize and address that we can fall prey to the folly of rewarding one thing while expecting something entirely different. And this is where the Michigan Model of Leadership can be helpful. So for example, we can aspire to innovate and be in the green quadrant, but in reality a reward conformity in compliance with the existing systems and structures, which is your red segment.

We need to emphasize positive reinforcement. It’s by far the most effective way. To help people maintain high levels of motivation and performance. Sustainable motivation and performance too.

Recall that it’s not just the absolute level of reward and the relative level of reward that matters, but also when and how that reward is distributed. The schedules of reinforcement.

Variable schedules of reinforcement are very effective in terms of helping us stay more motivated. And increase our performance. So, consider using a variable schedule of reinforcement over a fixed schedule of reinforcement. Variable interval over fixed interval. Variable ratio over fixed ratio. Think of a lottery for your employees. Manage performance feedback. We talked about how challenging and difficult it is to conduct performance appraisals. One of the challenges is that performance appraisal couples evaluation with development. So one of the useful things you can do is to separate evaluation and develop it into two separate meetings. Keep in mind also, that performance appraisals are fraught with numerous cognitive biases, and we discusses several of these keys biases, such as the fundamental attribution error.

The illusion of transparency and the self-fulfilling prophecy. And finally don’t wait for that next performance appraisal. Don’t wait for that performance feedback to come to you. Proactively seek feedback, constructive, critical feedback.

Thanks so much for staying with us. I’ll see you in the next course.