ADVISORY COLUMN: How to give video game-quality feedback
THERE’S A good reason games.millennials spend so much time playing computer These programs are designed to deliver fast, consistent, and objective feedback after every action a player takes, helping them to make rapid improvements. When they also offer carefully crafted levels of achievement, it’s hard not to become addicted.
Given their success, what you can you as a manager learn from them in engaging your staff?
In my article published October 9, 2016, we saw that companies crowd out employees’ intrinsic motivation when they rely on carrots and sticks. While managers think that these contrivances work, they are weak and unsustainable in the long term.
The truth is that most companies don’t want fickle employees who must be incentivised at every turn. Instead, they want self-starters. Unfortunately, most do little to encourage them along this path.
As a young AT&T consultant, I found myself with a new boss after a reorganisation. Tanya was a smart, likeable professional whom I had admired from afar. However, she didn’t know that I had quietly made a big decision.
A few months prior, my colleagues and I learnt that the difference in raises between the best and worst performers worked out to less than a dollar per day.
We were stunned. Until then, performance review was held as an important indicator of success. Individual efforts to improve one’s rankings involved acting to be noticed by the ‘right’ people. Now, the gig was up. As I explained to Tanya in our first meeting, I no longer cared about the results of the rating process. I would only focus on doing a great job that met the needs of my clients.
She nodded politely, but when we met a few months later, I had to remind her of my decision. As we sat down in a New Jersey cafeteria for my annual performance review, she appeared nervous. To put her at ease, I brought up our prior conversation.