About a month ago, I came into work one morning and found a 12-pack of Mountain Dew sitting on my desk. No note, no bill, just sweet caffinated yellow beverage. I eventually learned that it was courtesy of the PM, as a means to stay awake during a two-week crunch period prior to a client presentation.
I was thrilled, and every time I pulled a can out of that box over the next week I appreciated the gesture that had been made. I was a happy employee.
I compare this with another project I transitioned from about 8 months earlier — a pretty good team for a easygoing client but a nightmarish technical environment. I received a small award ($100 and a plaque) for my work on that project, and I was quite happy to get it. While I definitely appreciated the fact that somebody took the time (admittedly, 15 minutes) to put me in for an award, within a couple of days it had pretty much left my mind.
In both instances I got something for my effort: the latter was more generous but the former had a greater impact for me. Why?
Because my PM knew I liked Mountain Dew.
Isn't that stupid? Yet, it was an incredible motivator. That isn't to say the $100 didn't make me feel good about my work and the people I worked with, but hey…everybody likes money. If you take the time to find out what I like and use that in selecting some kind of incentive for me — no matter how trivial — I guarantee it will be far more effective than a company mug or a $25 gift certificate at the company store.
I refuse to believe that I'm an unusual case here, and this doesn't seem hard to understand. Why, then, does this seem so rare? If a subordinate likes baseball and you want to give him a cheap but more personalized "atta boy", pick up a pack of baseball cards and leave it on his desk. If they're a coffee afficianado, stop by Starbuck's one morning on the way to work and grab them something exotic. If they like animals, take five minutes at a Hallmark's and get them a thank-you card with an appropriate picture on the front.
The simple explanation for the rarity of this kind of thing would be that managers are assholes. Granted, there's a lot of anecdotal evidence to support this: in the last 3 years I worked on two long-term projects and didn't get so much as a "thanks for all your work" from the leads despite the fact that I busted my ass and we made our deadlines. I'm sure you and your friends can supply plenty more anecdotes.
An incident similar to the one I mentioned at the begging of this post happened to me in 1992. I was in the Army at the time and we were part of a joint Army-Marines field exercise in hellishly hot Twentynine Palms, California. My squad was on the night shift, meaning that we worked during the freezing Mojave night and tried to sleep during the scorching Mojave day. When we moved our position, we had to sacrifice our down time to strike and pitch tents and drive vehicles. When we didn't move and could sleep through the heat, we were frequently awakened by F-16s flying low over our position.
Our company S-3, a Major by the name of Robert Beaver, took it upon himself one day to show up in our tent and drop off a case of ice-cold sodas as thanks for our hard work. My friends and I talked about that for the rest of the field exercise. And it was such a minor, yet effective incentive that I remember it today about 14 years later.
If something like that can take place in an organization that is as slow to change and rife with horrible management as the United States Army, then why isn't it taking place more often in supposedly agile and professionally-managed companies all throughout the IT industry?
I think the real reason is that for the most part in the IT industry, managers aren't crafted or nurtured or tutored but rather churned out by colleges, universities and PMI-certified organizations. Know how to use PowerPoint? Project? Word? Outlook? Outstanding, here's a team to manage.
Working smarter doesn't just mean compiling ROI reports and ensuring that everybody has an IM client installed; it means knowing your people and giving a damn about their job satisfaction. If you're a manager, take the Mountain Dew Challenge. If you've got a manager who has the potential to be a great manager, then forward this post on to them.
Postscript: Remember, everything in moderation. After three months of nonstop Dew, baseball cards, double-roasted Himalayan choco-tofu-lattes and cute pictures of kittens, this technique is going to get old. If you've got a superstar on your hands whom you have to reward, go with something like a company shirt as a type of bonus sorbet in order to alleviate creative incentive fatigue.