Daniel Pink wrote Drive, The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. The basic premise is that carrots (incentives) and sticks (penalties) don’t work anymore. What does motivate is the desire for Mastery (doing something well), Autonomy (individual choice) and Purpose (fulfilling reason). Well worth reading if you need to motivate a workforce or even just one person. He uses great examples to illustrate how it works.

I witnessed an extreme case of this in action through one of my clients, a clear example of how one CEO epitomized the compelling communicator. I met this man more than 20 years ago, when he was in charge of operations for a large organization. Nobody could make things run on time and work to precision like he did. He was a numbers guy and could rattle off statistics about how shaving or adjusting a bit here and there could have dramatic impacts on production. I did not see how he got the workers to embrace his ideas until many years later. He was now a CEO at another company, still in the blue collar arena. This organization was going through major change to become more efficient and productive. The board had charged my client with goals that were beyond my comprehension — save millions of dollars and substantially increase productivity by some 30% in three years. Sure enough, this CEO started making major changes and it was rough. There were strikes, closures of facilities, turnover of management, huge system changes and the like. It was working, but the last and most important facility was the biggest stumbling block. Managers had come and gone. Some were even afraid to deal directly with the employees. One earned the nickname “The Ghost” because no one ever saw him. I had my challenges with the employees heckling and trying to intimidate me as I walked on site. Thank goodness I grew up on the east side of town as I learned never to let them see me sweat. Not nice to call me the f**ing downtown PR bitch. They were also stealing from and trashing the place on a regular basis.

Finally, after the majority of changes had taken place country-wide, this one last bastion stood strong and defiant, full of long-term employees, who were so disgruntled it seemed like nothing would work short of a closure of the facility. At that point, the CEO decided to go manage the place himself. He is not a large man, quite soft spoken and a stand-up kind of gentleman, the kind of guy you want for a father or grandfather. I have never heard him curse the way his employees did as we walked around. In three months he took that place from an operational nightmare to something that resembled Disneyland. Aside from his logistical, system changes, his communication and motivation strategies were simple but pure magic.

First, he walked around the facility every day, said hello and got to know the workers as individuals. Then, he started to involve them directly in making decisions about the workplace, with no cash incentives other than a better work environment for them. He did bust the perpetrators of theft but did not reprimand those who were too afraid to squeal. He squelched rumours immediately even when tempers were flaring to the point we were concerned about violence and weapons. He picked up garbage off the floor as he walked when others just walked by. He worked directly with teams to avoid labour issues and strife, bypassing some of his growliest union reps. He started to release numbers about how they were doing on productivity and the decrease of product damage. He involved the workers in helping decide on a new facility and the amenities it would need.

All three elements of Pink’s teachings of Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose rolled up with direct, consistent communication. At the time we nixed any kind of happy communiqués. This was a firm but fair time and there was no need for sugar coating.

I vividly recall the day we went for a walk through the facility and heard everyone yelling out good morning greetings to this man in charge. Three short months of great communications and the place was unrecognizable. During that visit, I stopped in to the ladies’ room and mentioned the horrific sofa inside. He had it replaced immediately. He walked the talk, then talked and talked and talked. Some of the crew never fully left the dark side but overall the lives of everyone improved due to a compelling communicator.

Part of what made this man great was his ability to make decisions, another aspect of good communications. You don’t have to be a boss to make decisions; every day and every time you communicate you are making decisions. We will talk about impacts and processes of good decisions next week with Decision Dilemmas.

In the meantime, any thoughts or stories to share about alternatives to carrots and sticks?