Craig Muller is a third-generation motivator. His father and his grandfather both devoted their careers to devising incentives to get consumers to not only buy from corporations but to also get excited about buying from them.

Now Muller has put a 21st-century spin on the old family business as founder of San Francisco-based MyPoints.com Inc. and Mount Prospect, Ill.-based CultureWorx.

Consumers who view ads through MyPoints.com collect points that can be redeemed for merchandise at participating retailers. Corporations that sign on with CultureWorx can reward employees who meet certain criteria (for instance, help desk employees who remember to thank callers) with points redeemable for merchandise.

In a recent interview with Computerworld's Melissa Solomon, Muller offered advice on how employers can motivate workers despite the layoffs and sinking profits that are crippling IT departments nationwide.

What are the keys to motivating employees? Most companies look at what happens before the behavior. . . . We tell [employees] what to do; we send them an e-mail; we send them a longer e-mail; we shout a little louder. All that does is get the behavior started. It will cause a one-time occurrence of behavior.

But the opportunity we really have is to look at what happens after a
behavior -- what behavior scientists call the consequence. The more positive it is, the more immediate it is and the more certain that the consequence is there, the more likelihood you have of the behavior repeating or sustaining itself.

What are some of the common mistakes people make when trying to motivate employees? Always trying to use compensation in the form of bonuses at the end of the year, because we experience the same kind of motivation when we try to diet. The impact is so far away from the activity or the behavior in terms of timing that it's real hard for us to realize the value of being on a diet.

How can you turn around someone who's bent on being cynical? The best way to do it is, don't react to the sour attitude. . . . When you first stop reacting to his behavior, he actually will act out more, but eventually, he will stop. The behavior will become extinct because he's not getting any feedback that causes him to continue the behavior. Then, the best way to get a change is . . . as soon as you catch him doing something right, you have to [praise him].

All behavior is consequence-based. And if you want to make a good behavior extinct, you can do that, too, by not reacting to him. So if you never give him any incentive or never pat him on the back or never give him any feedback, this is how good employees turn bad. You ignore them because you think, "I don't have to do anything about them; they're doing the job right." Without feedback, you're dead in the water. That behavior will become extinct.

How can you keep people motivated in tough times like these? Employees need to be more motivated than ever, because there's a latent potential that's there that has to pick up for the people that are being laid off. . . . It's really about . . . getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it, not because you're telling them do it.

How do you do that? Companies should have another purpose that employees should be involved in that gives the company a culture. We work with orphans in our company. When [workers] see their company is involved in some sort of socially redeeming effort, it lets them know that they care not only just about the bottom line, but they care about the people.

» posted by ITworld staff

Computerworld

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