Fun and Gains
Can fairy godmothers, office poetry and treasure hunts motivate workers?
By James Temple
When a college professor asked Nance Cheifetz about her career plans, she replied, without a trace of sarcasm, "I want to be a fairy godmother."
But, as in most professions that increasingly favor specialists over generalists, Cheifetz found she had to settle for a niche role: 'corporate' fairy godmother.
Through the company she founded in 1998, Sense of Delight, Cheifetz has already sprinkled her brand of fairy dust across many Bay Area businesses, typically while donning ruby slippers. She developed a mock Academy Awards ceremony to recognize Visa employees, personalized fortune cookie goals for Wells Fargo workers and encouraged Pacific Bell's people to play with Styrofoam building toys (Naturally, they created a 'deregulation deflector').
Her programs are conspicuous because of their levity and mirth, but Cheifetz, who earned a master's degree in education and expression therapy, says there's a serious business philosophy underlying their design: To motivate employees, you must recognize their contributions. Managers have long relied on the carrot or the stick (money or penalties) approach to improving employee performance, but Sense of Delight and other creative business consultants say those are only two instruments in a large tool chest of options, and the bluntest ones at that. They're employing treasure hunts, poetry and pastries, among other things, to encourage teamwork, improve problem solving and boost morale.
"There are two things people want: Praise and appreciation," said Cheifetz, who charges between $1,500 and $3,000 for her two- to three-hour programs. "If you understand nothing else about business besides that, there will be no stopping you."
Such novelties grew and prospered during the flush late 1990s, but even in a downturn, there remains a market for motivational programs that can deliver proven value. "Every survey I've seen says that money is not what interests people the most," said Jeffrey Pfeffer, Professor of Organizational Behavior at Stanford University and author of "Competitive Advantage: Unleashing the Power of the Work Force". "It doesn't tap into people's basic types of needs, emotions and values in the best possible way."
Take a walk on the creative side
Mark Gelade believes that the best route for tapping into employee's inherent creativity is via poetry. Through his San Francisco firm Poets in the Workplace, founded in 2001, Gelade leads company seminars in which he demonstrates the process of writing a poem, invites employees to take a stab and shows how the same 'metaphorical' thought process can be applied to solving business problems.
The idea is that thinking better, through the use of poetry, is more effective than the longer or harder thinking encouraged by traditional managerial techniques.
What I'm proposing is a structured way for companies
to allow their employees to experiment, discover
and build confidence in their creativity.
-Mark Gelade, Poets in the Workplace
"All companies want people who can solve problems," said Gelade, who recently held seminars at Birkenstock and MissMoney.com.
David Blum, founder of San Francisco-based Dr. Clue, shows businesses how to create similar structures, or as he puts it, processes for building an effective team.
Through carefully designed off-site treasure hunts, he forces each team to rely on the strengths of their co-workers to accomplish a series of tasks. In turn, they — ideally, anyway — come to recognize every
one's individual talents and, with Blum's guidance, develop ways to take advantage of them after they return to the office. "We want them to see how effective you can be when you recognize who has what knowledge and what the ground rules are," said Blum. "And along the way, they get to know each other better, and see things about people they might not have known."
But doesn't this happen in the workplace anyway?
Blum believes that the frantic pace of hiring, the continual employee migration into and out of teams and the persistent focus on completing short-term projects, all converge to prevent companies from taking advantage of their workers' unique abilities and using teamwork effectively.
CHEIFETZ: Workers respond to a wand, she says
Worth the money?
So are the programs worth the money? Sense of Delight customers, at least, seem delighted with the results. The Permanente Medical Group, a division of Kaiser, selected Sense of Delight's French Boulangerie program — basically a pastry cart that rolls throughout the office handing out goodies and employee accolades along the way — to reward the recruitment department's efforts during 2001, when they brought 500 new physicians on board.
"I think it made a lasting impression," said Wayne Allen, the physician recruitment manager who booked the company. "I definitely feel that employees like to know that their work is being recognized beyond just their compensation." And Pacific Bell Regulatory Services executive Jan Hewitt said her department would "certainly use (Cheifetz) again."
Indeed, few businesses would argue that these ideas are off-base. But many don't find them good enough — or proven, for that matter — to actually pay for them, an attitude that's especially pronounced during an economic downturn. Rather than paying for an outside group, for instance, San Francisco-based Internet search company LookSmart has opted for an internal recognition program called LookSmart Gold. The program allows employees to nominate their co-workers for recognition every quarter, and winners are given prizes such as gift certificates or hotel credits. "It's definitely more economical" to handle the program in-house, according to Gwen Minor, vice president of human resources. "In our case, we're not paying any mark-ups for the administration or development of the program." Gelade, who charges around $250 for a one-hour session and $1,200 for four, is the first to admit that poetry in the workplace is an especially tough sell.
'This is one of the hardest things I've ever tried to do," he said.
And all three of the consultants say that the economic downturn has meant businesses are less inclined, or able, to give their ideas a try.
But for the corporate fairy godmother, that's backward thinking worthy of the wicked stepsisters. "Companies are so short-sighted now. They think people are lucky to have jobs now and want to get the most out of them," said Cheifetz. "But when the market changes, corporations that have shown genuine leadership and loyalty to employees ... that's where people will go."
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