Zinger Classic: Motivation – Take Your Carrot and Stuff It
August 23, 2008 by David Zinger
Filed under Business
An earlier version of this post appeared in November of last year. All the management motivation books with carrots on the cover were driving me nuts. There is nothing like something driving you nuts to get you to take action. This post was a big step towards my primary focus now being employee engagement. Click here to visit and participate in The Employee Engagement Network which has swelled to over 400 members in 6 months. With over 130 forums this network is demonstrating on a daily basis a respect and appreciation for why and how people engage in their work.
STOP!
No more books about employee motivation with a carrot or batch of carrots on the cover.
I am sick of carrots and sticks used in reference to humans and their work.
Don’t treat me like an elephant.
Carrot and stick (also spelled “carrot-and-stick”) is an idiom used to refer to the act of rewarding good behavior and punishing bad behavior. The carrot represents the edible reward, while the stick refers to a punishing switch.
This is no way to treat people so why would we use this tired worn out metaphor to look at motivation.
People (and elephants) are complex. Let’s acknowledge this by getting rid of motivational cliches.
Don’t ask me to win one for the Gipper…the Gipper was from the 1920’s, find something more relevant in 2008.
My hope is that the term employee engagement will help us to appreciate and encompass the richness, diversity, and complexity of how people work and that the influences on work are both internal and external – involving the self, leaders, organizations, customers, and the nature of work itself.
David Zinger eats carrots because he likes them not because someone tossed him one for doing a good job.
Photo Credit: This carrot is for you by http://flickr.com/photos/tambako/633358039/
So true and I definitely agree. I hear this term among colleagues at work even and it makes me kinda depressed. There is apparently a LOT of teaching still to do about employee engagement and there is just as large of a momentum behind the carrot and stick attitude to break!
You mean if you are nice enough to people, self discipline works – for real?
These days, the only thing using a stick gets you is turnover; as to the carrots, authenticity, respect and chocolate work far better.
Same thing. You cannot motivate people but you can not demotivate them. Motivating implies changing the persons behaviour. Not demotivating them is allowing them room to work. Carrots or chocolates will not work.
I wonder sometimes that carrots and chocolates seem so tangible and we are doing something concrete yet human behavior has so many intangible facets that we should stop searching for the holy grail or carrot!
I respectfully and absolutely disagree regarding motivation/demotivation. Managers actions do have the power to do either—very few people are completely self-functioning entities unaffected by those surounding, let alone leading, them.
I’d also like to point out that I specified authenticity and respect as the basis for motivating/managing people today. The chocolate was just for fun.
I’m curious if we changed the carrot to a reward if you would feel it any better to folks?
Realistically, we do need rewards to continue or we won’t keep working. Whether it’s a piece of chocolate when we’re hungry for it, a trip to Hawaii, or just a pat on the back, ignoring your associates is the most sure-fire way to disengage them.
I agree that the old “carrot and stick” analogy is a tired one, but as long as some managers continue to lead that way, it will still be used.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to go poke someone on Facebook. :)
Eish. Say what you mean and mean what you say. So the “carrot and stick” are considered essential by Miki and Phil. (I did not realise that respect was an optional extra) I was considering becoming a manager but now I am having second thoughts.
Corinne, The authenticity and respect are essential, whereas the chocolate is optional and the stick is used only by those who want low productivity and high turnover.
Thank you Miki
It is just that I have seen Consultancy motivation workshops have ZERO impact for the simple reason that there was no follow up on standards expected so in effect nothing happened. Chocolate galore – effect nul. Congruency and standards are measures that I have seen that have worked. (That stick is there even if you keep it hidden most of the time.)
Corinne, No argument from me on the need for follow-up. Unfortunately, the only measure I’ve seen for authenticity, respect and similar stuff is turnonver.
The changes you’re talking about are ones to MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy™) and MAP changes do NOT respond to chocolate or sticks, hidden or not.
Hi Miki
Thanks. For an interesting incident of needing a stick is Paul Ritchie’s comment on the Blog – Worst Management advice ever. I will definitely study one of two fields next year, still deciding which one.
Regarding the “Carrot and Stick” … As I recall it was drawn with a person having a carrot dangling off the end of a stick in front of a mule. If the person riding the mule is a manager then what does the mule represent??? I don’t like the idea that employees are viewed as mules – a beast of burden!
CK, I’mnot crazy about that interpretation of the mule version, but it is only one of dozens of graphic renderings for carrot-and-stick.
The manager who lives your image would be/is blessed with the joys of low productivity, high turnover and constant hiring.
CK, I’m not crazy about that interpretation of the mule version, but it is only one of dozens of graphic renderings for carrot-and-stick.
The manager who lives your image would be/is blessed with the joys of low productivity, high turnover and constant hiring.
Well it is one of the many artists renderings that came to mind. That doesn’t mean that is the way it has to be. The idea is to motivate the employee even though the carrot/stick rendering is “dated” I can see where David is going with this.
Motivation should be focused from WITHIN rather than external means. Just as soon as the external means are removed the motivation drops where are the internal would continue.
WOW,
I have been away on vacation and missed this rich conversation.
I love the points of view and would like to enter mine.
Primarily I think what got to me was the simplicity of the carrot and stick model. Human behaviour and organizational behavior is complex…notice for instance Canadian spell behaviour differently than Americans.
I think the approach of employee engagement gets at the richness and complexity of our connections between manager and employees and everyone and their work.
I believe Albert Einstein said make things simple as possible but no simpler. We are in the age of community and conversation with social intelligence and mirror neurons.
In my mind, I’d like to stick the carrot to Bugs Bunny and recognize the complexity of the workplace.
By the way I love chocolate and if you give it to me not as manipulation but as a recognition of my love for something and a tangible expression of your caring I will probably very much appreciate it.
David
After thinking this over, I believe that the important point here is to focus on the stick. Why? Because it is the sticks that ignore engagement, not carrots.
Stick = beating up/abusing your people, which not only demotivates, but also disengages, them.
Carrots = rewards and people like rewards. Even your paycheck is a carrot, i.e., your reward for showing up and working.
I suppose that one can consider a reward, whether in the form of a bonus for something big or a truffle for something small, manipulation, but then thanks and strokes are also forms of manipulation.
Engagement is also a form of manipulation in that the employee has been “manipulated” to feel ownership and the desire to produce at a very high level.
Convincing your friend to go to the movie you want to see is a form of manipulation. Compliments are a form of manipulation.
Manipulation is considered a bad thing, but it’s actually anything we do or say in a way that draws a specific desired response or action.
Manipulation is bad when the result is detrimental to the person manipulated, but when manipulation results in positive effects it’s called leadership.
Miki:
You have seen this carrot and stick in ways I have never thought of. I guess I go more with the word influence than manipulation but that could just be semantic.
There may be trouble with carrots. Alfie Kohn has written well about being punished by rewards.
Thank you for such thoughtful dialogue.
David
But David, semantics are real and words carry the baggage assigned to them by the society they serve.
I don’t think that rewards punish us, we punish ourselves when we allow the reward to become more important than the action required to attain it.
(Yikes, it’s getting deep in here:)
Miki:
A wonderful line: we punish ourselves when we allow the reward to become more important than the action required to attain it.
Well said.
We lose a sense of flow or intrinsic motivation and maybe turn orange because we ate too many carrots.
David
David, Can one really turn orange from eating carrots?
Miki:
Yes you can turn organge:
“Carotene” is the red or yellow hydrocarbon pigment that gives carrots their characteristic cheery color, and also helps to brighten up egg yolks, sweet potatoes, and a variety of leafy vegetables. Intemperate carrot consumption will make the carotene build up in your bloodstream. Before you know it, your skin will take on a sickly yellow pallor, a grisly condition that superficially resembles jaundice.
The big glitch is that you would have to eat a lot of carrots…many more than Bugs Bunny and he never turned yellow.
I don’thave to worry, I’m too much of a maverick and too irreverent to ever get that many carrots:)
A question for everyone …
If it wasn’t for the paycheck (or reward) would you still work were you do? Would you do something else?
One more thing … You can get MORE and BETTER work out of someone who is internally motivated. Everyone is different and each have their motivation factors – have you asked your employees what motivates them at work? Have you tried to empliment those motivators? Try reading “Dream Manager” and see if there is something within your span of control that you can change in your group or organization.
I would do pretty much exactly what I am doing even without being paid. I like to think of it as the lottery question..if you won what would change…I think intrinsic motivators are important and we need to know how we influence people by knowing what is vital for them and establishing mutual respect and purpose.
I enjoy my work but would be forced to leave if they did not pay me. I am going to study for 2 years and leave the present institution. So I am another turn-around stat.