你喜欢你的工作吗?
Do the people you lead find their work meaningful and rewarding? After all, the average working American spends one-third of his or her time at a job.
Shouldn’t we spend that precious time doing something rewarding?
每年疯狂三月来临时, I am taken back to when we at Barry-Wehmiller first discovered the power of a simple game to change the culture of the team and the way the members felt about their work.
It was March 1997 and we had just acquired Hayssen (now BW柔性系统)，位于南卡罗来纳州格林维尔. The first meeting on my agenda that day was with the Customer Service team.
At that point no one recognized me so I was able to hang out by the coffee pot for a few minutes quietly observing the associates before the start of their shift. The NCAA March Madness college basketball tournament was in full swing and the associates were passionately discussing their teams, 办公室池, 他们会赢多少钱, 等等....... They were smiling and laughing; their body language showed that they were having fun. 当时钟接近8点的时候.m. start time, 然而, you could just see the fun draining from their bodies.
这让我思考:为什么商业不能变得有趣呢? Why do people work to make a living just so they can leave to have fun?
During the few short steps into the meeting room, I came up with a plan.
“大家听好了，”我说. “We’re going to play a game and here’s how it’s going to work: the person who sells the most parts wins, 如果球队实现了目标, 球队赢了. 外围十大菠菜app每周都会玩这个游戏.”
They had no idea what I was talking about—and neither did I since, 受到他们疯狂三月的鼓舞, 这是我突然想到的. 外围十大菠菜app一起决定试一试. The results from this simple game were astounding: the very next week, their orders increased 15 percent and stayed there! 更戏剧性的是, 然而, was the change in their feelings about their roles and their daily work that resulted from simply establishing goals to aim for and then celebrating their achievements.
As leaders, our responsibility is to define “winning” at work. When people are inspired to achieve, they almost always do so. When people feel a sense of “winning” the dynamics of the environment change, 人们开始玩得很开心. 整个团队文化发生了变化.
Since that first simple game inspired by March Madness, we have rolled out motivation programs in 34 companies. We do it even before we close on an acquisition and, 34次中的34次, we’ve seen a significant increase in our revenues.
有一次, we brought the program to a customer service team of a newly-acquired $200 million company that had $100 million in aftermarket revenue. 这个团队, 然而, 感觉被打败了, unmotivated and unappreciated We offered them this: the top seller each week gets $100 如果球队实现了目标, 团队中的每个人都得到100美元. Their sales went from $714,000 a week to $763,000 a week immediately!
People have an incredible capacity to respond to leadership. You don’t need to change the people, you need to change your leadership of the people. The problem in America is not the American worker; the problem in America is the absence of true leaders. Through these simple games and motivation programs, we have seen unbelievable results from ordinary people–because they felt inspired rather than managed.
The simple lessons learned from these games are the foundation of our culture today. When we acquire new organizations that face the need to change, we know that the future of the business is in the hands of these people. 他们只是需要正确的领导.
Over the years I have asked customer service team members how these programs made them feel. One replied, “Well, my daughter is getting married, but she has champagne taste and a beer budget. With these extra earnings, I’m going to be able to give her a nicer wedding.”
Another team member shared “One Friday night when I knew we had made it, 我打电话给我丈夫说, “今晚, 我买. 我要带你出去吃饭.’” She was immensely proud of her accomplishment.
Another team member, who had been with the company for more than 30 years, offered this story. “我91岁的母亲和我住在一起. She isn’t up when I go to work so I go home at lunch to see her. My mother and I have talked about this program a great deal. The other day when I went home at lunch, I walked in and asked her how she was feeling. Instead of answering me, her first question was, “Have you made your numbers yet?’”
晚些时候, the VP of customer service at her company shared with me that she had really struggled before we rolled out the incentive program. 之后，她成为了世界第一. 我在公司里表现最好. 她受到鼓舞，要好好表现.
Ordinary people motivated by simple games, goals and rewards can create extraordinary results.
The potential of our people is limited only by our ability as leaders to inspire them. What do you do to inspire the people you lead?