Consider Restraints to Employee Engagement

An article in Freakonomics from last fall titled "How to Launch a Behavior Change Revolution" offered the insight that there are two types of forces that affect motivation:

1.     Restraining Forces - those that prevent you from achieving your goals

2.     Driving Forces - those that push you to achieve your goals

In our experience when organizations consider using recognition or incentives to improve employee engagement or achieve any meaningful goal, we almost always utilize Driving Forces. But, according to Princeton psychology professor Daniel Kahneman:

"Diminishing the restraining forces is a completely different kind of activity, because instead of asking, 'How can I get him or her to do it?' It starts with a question of, 'Why isn't she doing it already?' Then you go one by one systematically, and you ask, 'What can I do to make it easier for that person to move?”

In your incentive and recognition planning start by asking why your employees aren’t doing what you want already?  As Kahneman points out if you want to make changes you will be better off starting by controlling the environment, by just making it easier. Is there an incentive that works against your program objectives? Are there social pressures? Are there any of your people against it? 

Start by looking at your rules structure.  Are they needlessly complex?  We’ve seen time and again where companies work feverishly to design programs with so many minute details that when explain it at launch time your employees don’t want to jump through all the hoops and simply revert back to ‘business as usual.’ 

The second roadblock that can be removed is lack of knowledge and positioning of what you’re really trying to accomplish…the overall picture…along with the small steps your people can take to affect the outcomes you want. People do what they know how to do, what they are excited about, and what they see as a great value proposition. You may not have thought about it this way, but you might consider some minimum rewards to employees for understanding the message.

Another very important point to consider, and often an additional barrier to success, is not to over promise. Set up your program in such a way to reward them for early wins. If you want your employees to change their patterns quickly and meaningfully then use meaningful awards early in the process.

Put yourself in your employees place, drive out as many restraints as you can. It’s difficult to discuss all the external negative restraints that could be in play, but it’s important to consider them.

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