Reward Excellent Failures, Punish Mediocre Successes
By Jay Forte, Humanetrics, LLC
Color in the lines, follow the rules. Time after time, we are encouraged to see the world the way everyone does. Rules are created to standardize procedures; lines insure that the artwork is intelligible to others. But by doing this, we are doing what everyone else already is doing. Where is creativity, where is innovation?
Managers who do not encourage their employees to step “way out of the box” limit both themselves and their employees. Employees are hired for their contributions; they are hired to complete the job. But rarely are employees encouraged to think creatively or innovatively. Instead, many managers would prefer to have employees think similarly – to all be on the same page. The real value can be found in our employees when they are allowed to think freely and creatively – and to bring up any and every idea to management – to improve service to customers, quality of products, the workplace environment. With the right focus, an employee should be allowed to try things to see if they work. Employees should be encouraged to take (calculated) risks to see if what lies at the other end is significantly better than what is currently in place. Managers should reward and celebrate excellent ideas that may not eventually be implemented. They should discourage ordinary successes – seeing the same things in the same ways. They should punish the normal and the predictable in favor of those things that may set a new trend, new product or a new idea.
Value can be a vague word, and although we have a sense of what it means, we are aware that it means different things to different people. Employees that have a value focus – to be able to define it and provide it everyday, all the time, will naturally take greater risks. Providing value requires risk – the risk of knowing a customer well enough to know what he truly needs and values – and then providing it – even if it isn’t done anywhere else. Sometimes the results will be successful, other times not. But in all cases, the focus on continually providing value encourages the employee to reach a little higher and go a little deeper. This response moves a company from average to exceptional.
I define value as “doing the right thing for the right person, everyday, all the time”. That means value for a customer means to provide the right thing for that customer, every day, all the time. In order to do this, the employee will need to be creative – to try things that have not been done before. This is where the effort and the vision are successful. This is where a company moves from good to exceptional to world class. Successful companies don’t need better employees, they need better value-creators. And that frequently means employees who are greater risk takers, employees who are more personally involved and employees who allow themselves to be innovative by being creative. Many times it is management that needs the reminder. Many employees are willing to approach their job and careers as value-creators, intent on knowing what a customer determines value to be and then providing it everyday, all the time. It is frequently management that encourages employees to stay on the same regular approach, the same consistent response. Things feel generally more in control when everyone does the same thing. But the business will never be truly exceptional doing what others do. Success comes to those with little fear. Remember the quote, “leaders are employees without the fear….”
Our success is in the freedom to think clearly, creatively and innovatively. This does not happen without risk – but this risk can provide exceptional returns. Encourage employees to see what can be instead of what is. Insist on open and honest communication when dealing problems or issues. Require all suggestions for improvement not to look like the things that have already been done. Then we can achieve what Maslow has on the top of his pyramid of his hierarchy of needs – self actualization – to be all that we can be. This is where the company becomes world class.
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