How to return interest to work to subordinates

The bear goes along the river bank. This day was a good one for him, he found raspberry thickets, was fortified with tasty roots and even pulled a fat chipmunk out of his mink. The bear ate. He idly looks into the water of a mountain stream and sees: salmon splashing on the thresholds.

Why would a raw bear crawl into the icy water for fish, because for him there is a lot of food on the shore. By the way, the bear’s diet is 75% plant food. But the bear jumps into the river and catches salmon. This fish will help him accumulate fat for the winter and, eventually, survive.

How does a bear know that winter is ahead, and he needs to save fat for hibernation? It is unlikely that he even knows what fat is. He just follows some of his instincts and dives into the water.
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For a long time I did not give rest to the question. Why are the students ready to study the characteristics of hundreds of heroes of their favorite MMORPG, calculate the most complex strategies and spend hours completing the quest “collect 1000 wolf skins and get the achievement”, but with great difficulty force themselves to solve some simple examples from their homework, although knowledge will bring them more benefits than numbers on the screen.

Why are office workers ready to gather peas for days on a fun farm, but they constantly postpone their work assignments, for which they are paid salaries and bonuses.

It would seem that the promotion in the real world should be motivated more strongly than the ephemeral "games" of computer games. It should be more profitable for a person to spend his time on improving his professional skills and performing work tasks, because his material gain directly depends on it. And grown zucchini on the "farm" can not bring anything but the feeling of wasted time. What makes people move from the real world to the virtual?

Nature has tried its best so that living things enjoy not only the process of food, but also its prey, sometimes in unpleasant conditions. Otherwise the bear would never recognize the taste of fresh fish, the cat would not wait for hours for a mouse, the protein would not collect nuts (most of which it would never eat).

For this, nature has invented dopamine - the pleasure hormone while waiting for a reward.

Since childhood, everyone is familiar with the feeling of an approaching holiday. Soon Christmas, there will be a lot of sweets and gifts, parents promised to donate a bicycle. It is easier to wake up in the morning, and the lessons do not seem so boring.

Sometimes, waiting for something good is more happiness than the reward itself. People are ready to freeze for hours on a fishing trip in order to catch a pair of crucians. Or a few days to climb the mountain to put a tick on the map. Well, or to get up in the middle of the night for weeks to harvest crops in a computer game.

Let's go back to the office. Sits a man writes a report. So he finally finishes the job, and what does he hear? At best, "Yeah," and a portion of new tasks. And if the task is not completed on time, he is provided with strict comments and a promise to deprive of the prize.

The words that money does not motivate employees are true. No matter how high the salary is, it is fixed, and it is paid strictly according to the schedule, it does not depend on the achievements. But the hormone of happiness is produced, if the reward depends on human activity, and not on the number in the calendar. And the size of the award is of secondary importance, the most important thing is the fact of receipt.

Animals do not reason: “so, if I catch salmon, I will get 4000 calories. However, if I enter the icy water, I will lose about 1000 calories. The probability of catching salmon ... ". The bear would sit for hours and colorize. Therefore, nature decreed that if the animal does not die of starvation, the size of the treat does not affect the production of dopamine and, consequently, the desire to dive into cold water.

Imagine a different situation. A person writes a boring report, late. Finally, he comes to the boss with a ready report, and he says: “Thank you, the report is well done. I expected to get it a bit earlier, but it's not so scary. I hope next time you make it faster. Now you can relax for 10 minutes and drink tea with chocolate, and then you will need to prepare the overhead. ”

Be sure, the chocolate will do its job no worse than huge premiums or interest on sales. While you spend money on team building, others force your employees to spend their working time on watering the beds and even pay money for fertilizers only by constantly saying: “what a good fellow you are, collected 10 squash, collect 30 more and get 5 coins”. It is important for a person to receive an award immediately after completing the task

But there is another curious phenomenon. Even those employees who receive a percentage of closed projects do not always feel interested in the work. Strange, a person has a guaranteed reward, which directly depends on his activity, but does not inspire him at all.

It is explainable. There is another important motivational factor: excitement. Have you ever wondered why roulette is so popular?

I used to think that “gamers” in casinos are not-so-distracted people who are completely unfamiliar with the theory of probability and who want to get rich quick. While he himself was not there and saw the process of the game with his own eyes.

In Singapore, the most expensive city in the world is the most expensive hotel in the world, known for its rooftop pool. The hotel has a casino. A Chinese man comes up to the roulette, in his hands he has a handful of chips of $ 1000 each. He carefully studies the playing field, carefully arranges the chips. And then calmly goes to another table and put chips there. He does not watch with an anxious look behind the ball, does not get upset because of losses, does not jump for joy at winning. It is unlikely that he hopes to break the jackpot and carry away a suitcase with money from the casino. He just gets his dopamine dose. Put the chip and wait for the reward. This is a “fun farm” for the rich. People love pleasant surprises and are willing to pay a lot of money for it.
Scientists have found that monkeys have a maximum dopamine level during activity, when the probability of receiving a reward is 50%.

If the reward is guaranteed, then the interest in the activity gradually disappears. But it is necessary to introduce an element of chance, as there is a sharp release of dopamine. Indeed, if a person completes the boring quest “collect 1000 wolf skins” and suddenly knocks out a valuable sword (not every wolf carries this in his pocket), then a storm of positive emotions from the game process is provided. If an office worker writes boring reports and suddenly gets a chocolate bar, he will write the next report much faster.

Why not use it with benefit. Games and social networks steal your employees from you - use their own weapons. Get a system of achivok: "500 made calls", "20,000 written lines of code", "10 retarded TK", "50 fixed bugs". Come up with a system of levels, hold competitions, make surprises, put a plus sign, give chocolates. If this seems childish, then think about how much money the owners of casinos and online games earn.