The Power of a Random Reward to Motivate

When I was performing magic at a theme restaurant early in my magic career, I learned something about how to create a feeling of excitement. The manager had hired a clown, a magician, a belly dancer, and a juggler to perform in the nightclub. I of course was the magician in the bunch. The manager being like most managers wanted someone on the floor entertaining at all times. He saw the structure as a good thing. So each of the entertainers were required to be on twenty minute schedules. Twenty minutes of performing and then ten minutes on brake. It seemed on the surface to be a very good plan. But after a brief comment from one of the customers one evening, I realized that what the manager was trying to achieve was actually counter productive.

One of the customers said to me, "When I first came I here, I was blown away because the first thing I saw was this clown running out of the kitchen yelling, 'TRY THE VEAL!! TRY THE VEAL!' and I thought it was hilarious. But after a couple hours of this guy running out every ten minutes yelling 'TRY THE VEAL' quite frankly he's driving me nuts. I think I'm going to have to leave."

I asked him, "What about the belly dancer?" He said, "oh yeah I saw her last week, she was pretty good." (She had also been performing that night.)

What happened? Repetition creates three things, invisibility, irritability and boredom. By making the clown come out every ten minutes, what was first time interesting and exciting, soon became boring and even in the case of the clown, "irritating."

Our minds crave something new. We love it and the word "new" is plastered in advertising because advertisers know this. Randomness is newness to the mind. When we see something that is out of place, we are drawn to it to discover why it is, where and when, it is happening. Curiosity is built into our brains as a method of survival. And randomness captures that curiosity.

What does this mean when motivating employees? It means that giving a person a commission for each sale is simply not enough. It will soon become the clown yelling "TRY THE VEAL!!" This is why a random reward works so much better. Take slot machines for example. Put two machines side by side. One that pays a four percent return every time, and one that pays a random thousand dollars. Who would want to play the one that paid the constant return? You put in a dollar and it gives you a dollar and four cents. You might sit down and pull it a few times, maybe even a hundred, but you'd eventually say, it's just not worth it, I'm bored.

Then the guy next to you who has been pulling his slot lever for ten minutes, suddenly yells, "JACKPOT!" and has a thousand dollars. How long do you think it would take before you switched machines? The  power of a random reward is the most powerful motivational force you can use to motivate your employees. When you find them doing something good, randomly, give them a random reward. Make it something unique and you'll be ten times as affective. Try this today. If one of your employees does a great job, give him or her a copy of my book, THE MAGIC LIFE. Now that is random.

Motivated Flight Attendant

What motivated flight attendant, Steven Slater, on Jet Blue to blow his cool, curse out a passenger, grab a beer, open the exit chute and jump ship? Well, maybe his farewell address was telling? (I think it may have been a little sarcastic myself.) Before he left the plane he aparently said over the intercom, ""To the #@!$ing $#@!hole who told me to $#@! off, it's been a good 20 years... I've had it. That's it.”

Having flown many flights in and out of JFK over the years, including many Jet Blue flights, (which I can say is one of my favorite airlines, bye the way) I've seen how abusive and uncooperative these passengers, especially in New York, can be. I can't even begin to imagine having to put up with these idiots day after day, after day, after day. It is bad enough when I have to put up with it when I fly.

Flight attendants are trained to handle pressure situations and chosen because they are good under pressure. Take the reactions of the flight attendants when flight 1549 went down in the Hudson. They were cool as the water they were sitting in. But evidently the pressure of receiving verbal abuse over twenty years seems to have pushed Slater right over the edge. We should all take a lesson when handling employees from this example. We have a situation more commonly known as "going postal." We all know to what that refers. It is when after years and years of complacency somebody finally lets out all that pent up frustration in one final act of violence. We've all seen or worked with a manager who can be abusive. I hope it isn't you. Such things as a reprimand in front of one's peers or customers, verbally belittling someone for a mistake, or name calling, these are not meant for the school yard, let alone in a workplace.

The passengers on that flight should just consider themselves lucky that he chose to exit rather than take a different approach. We should remember when we are flying that these attendants have to put up with idiots like that on a daily basis. Next time how about showing a little patience or, watch out, "I'll go stewardess on your $#@!!"

Motivation According to Maslow

In 1943 Abraham Maslow published his paper, Theory of Motivation and termed the phase "self actualization." His motivational theory has been studied in psychology courses ever since, no doubt because it seems to carry a great deal of validity. Maslow believed that mankind possesses a hierarchy of needs. First the base needs must be filled before those above it can be concentrated upon. As an example, the need for air is probably the lowest need on the hierarchy. As you will simply discover by holding your breath and diving into the deep end, you find that all other needs will be put on the back burner so to speak until the need for air is satisfied. Once you have air, then you can start to work on such needs as hunger and thirst. Of course when you have those satisfied, you will be able to look for shelter, such as a warm place to sleep, to ensure your safety. This diagram is an easy explanation of Maslow's theory.

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I believe that most of us who have employment, live somewhere in the middle of this depiction, always searching for friendship, family, sexual intimacy and above where we are looking for self-esteem, and respect of others.

So what can we learn from this about how to motivate your employees? You must remember that according to Maslow, people can't concentrate on the motivational forces above their current position until they have fulfilled those in the lower area. So if you are trying to use those forces such as self-esteem building, confidence, or respect of others, (which most managers are using in one form or another) you need to make sure that your employees are fulfilled in the more base areas.

I'll give you an anecdotal evidence. I recently spoke to a manager who was having trouble motivating her sales staff to sell and telling me that she had done all of the right things, i.e. creating a positive work environment, giving positive feedback to her people, creating competition, and creating a goal oriented reward structure. I was at a loss until when in the same conversation she mentioned that the air conditioner wasn't working and the sales room was "hotter than bloody hell." hmmmmm?

According to Maslow, the people couldn't concentrate on fulfilling any of their higher motivations, because their physiological needs were not met. So remember, motivation starts from the ground up, or the cool air down in this case.

Motivational Poster for the Day

Sometimes it takes more than a poster.

Motivational posters usually have a fantastic image attached to them, and I suppose for some that combined with a catchy saying, might seem inspirational. However, I don't think that a beautiful motivation poster even in a fancy frame will move your sales or leasing team to work harder. But they do make a nice decoration in your office. I just made this poster from a photo which I took of a dog. He was sting on the sidewalk with his master and laying back on another dog. They owner of the dog stuck the cigarette in his mouth as a joke. I thought it was a funny shot, but it makes the perfect background for my motivational saying of the day.

Motivation is Fun and Games!

There is something new in the world of motivating your employees. They are called "Motivaids". A name no doubt derived from Motivational Aids. A Motivaid is a giant sized game board to set up your company sales incentive program. I used to make things like this for my sales people when I worked in the Apartment Industry. Games like these are hard to make when you are trying to make one for each of 40 properties. However, they are worth the trouble, because they work so well at motivating your sales or leasing people. However, at around $50 each, you can't afford the time and materials to make something like these.
One of the most interesting and clever parts of the games are what they call the "Prize Stops." The manager can set up prizes for the sales people to win along the route. These are hidden away by their patent pending "stick-on-scratch-off" which makes it easy to create and a whole lot of fun to motivate your employees.
These pre-made sales contests are created by a company called MVP Squared LLC, (Motivational, Visual, Performance Programs) which is located in Plano, Texas.
They have four designs, one is a race to climb a snowy mountain, called "King of the Mountain." Next is a game they call "Race to the Winner's Circle" which is a car race around a winding road. The third is "The Heat is On!" which is a race climbing up a thermostat that is getting hotter with each move. And the last one is a horse race, called "Ride to Victory." They can be found at Motivaids.com.
Here is a demo explaining how they work: