Hack:
Two Sides of the Same Coin - Striving for failure while promoting success
Developing a new model of thought that best motivates people in order to create, innovate, and maximize efficiency. To break down barriers between levels of heirarchies to create a sense of security that fulfills the basic educational and instrinsic desires of a worker in order to promote organic growth. Ultimately changing the way we look at failure and utilizing it to achieve sucess and push the individual forward.
George Carlin:
“Most people work just hard enough not to get fired and get paid just enough money not to quit.”
As people we don’t like failing, nobody ever goes into a contest or a competition hoping to “not” win. And businesses are the same, they do everything in they can to produce results and more often than not it’s at the expense of its workers. It’s not hard to understand that people require challenges to push themselves further, but often times when the rewards do not match the effort people tend to lose all motivation to keep pushing.
Businesses and people both want success and this strive for success have create a culture within America where it promotes a dog-eat-dog mentality in the work place. Leading to most businesses in the corporate world to adopt strategies that only promote success and punish failure. Reward for success is only determined by money and extrinsic factors. Ideas like the vitality curve and gamification don’t work because they only apply to the extrinsic aspects of human work. They don’t take the human behavior and intrinsic motivation into account.
Results of this need to win mentality and extrinsic rewards have long dominated our society and have ingrained itself into the corporate ethos. Consequences of this can be seen in recent times, such as the 2008 financial crisis, ENRON, and WorldCom. This idea where everything must be a constant success and failure cannot be allowed is one of the biggest problems I seek to tackle. This mentality hurts innovation, creates competition between employees and managers and reduces efficiency. Another huge problem that stems from this mentality is also the scope of the success and rewards that having enough success creates complacency. An example of this would be our government in the sense that workers only have to be successful and efficiency enough at their job that they couldn’t get fired. Another example is companies that often don’t evolve fast enough due to their past successes such as Dell, Yahoo, and Motorola.
My hack seeks to go after what everybody is in the world is afraid of "failure", this idea that most people are afraid of doing which is failing. And yet most people seem to do the least they can before hitting failure. So I seek not only to exemplify failure in such a way that it becomes acceptable in the corporate culture to promote innovation and improve productivity, but to avoid the complacency that comes with success and deliver a constant sense of growth for the worker or person.
My goal is creating an environment that creates enough risk to motivate the employee while fostering creativity. Risk forces motivation and growth while diversity pushes creativity and innovation.
To promote diversity to push creativity and innovation we don’t want to control our employees because control means restrictions and restrictions means limitation but we do want to have control of the work that they generate out. Utilizing SAP HANA we can provide real-time feedback as well as data-mine information that can promote which methods work for each person and create a profile that allows people who think differently yet connect on a level to work and growth together. This is an effective way to capture hidden talent within a work force, through customized data collection after each project of each member into SAP Hana and providing a good look at the information collect through constant feedback.
In a corporate as well as an educational setting, my model would incorporate the use of SAP Hana to measure and customize a risk measurement for each person. It would also track the work record in real-time measuring a person’s productivity per each project. This would allow us to measure quantitatively which factors affect which person most and customize the work load to create develop maximum efficiency. For the first time in history we can data mine students or employees and create correlations for what can maximize the human potential.
Managers will only manage projects through SAP Hana while project leads will micromanage a team that have grown organically. But at the same time managers will be latched onto to different teams as an advisor and observer. That way managers can play a role that employees can talk to and not worry about reprisal ergo breaking down barriers. Because of the degrees of separation a different team manager has on another team, the employees no longer have to be afraid and since the manager is also an advisor it would allow the team members to openly talk to the manager.
The manager will also serve as an injector for ideas, if one of the team members have an idea it would be brought up to the manager. An idea has to be selected by at least one manager to get tested. A manager must push and select an idea every two weeks. Most will fail, a select few will push through, and this method ensures that the manager keeps an open mind in regards to ideas.
A “Kickstarter” version for the company website allows innovation and team base to growth. There will be a required amount of suggestions for each department. The projects will be then listed on the website in which a group can see other groups’ ideas where individuals can vote for it. This would allow for a space for employees to express themselves.
This structured failure must also provide ways to provide feedback and correct steps to achieve success, such as education or collaboration within a group forum. When working together we should develop a customized group of individuals that is matched per personality, likes and dislikes, pertaining to their own profile. Facebook and LinkedIn would fulfill most of these criteria’s, as well as a basic personality test. The combination of this group must also fluctuate from time to time. So data acquiring is essential here in order to develop a database that would help us customize group accordingly per person’s personality and provide real-time feedback on how productive each group was.
In a sense to create an environment of risk where there is structured failure. I argue for structured failure because people need a sense of failure that is why people take risks. Not to achieve failure but to succeed and learn from them. I am not arguing for hard failures, because hard failures kills morale and brings a sense of servitude, this in turn destroys incentive to work and innovate. Like an ignored worker, like a neglected student, like people suffering generational poverty. I am talking about creating an environment where failure is recognized and supported but is also reflected upon on, and incentivize. With successes being rewarded with intrinsic value that promotes a brand and ego for the person, instead of money, reward people with days off, furlow days, team based off days. This will promote trust within other employees and the company as a whole.
Changing the way we think about failure would be one of the core components into driving innovation. In a sense creating an environment of risk where there is structured failure. People take risks is because its not to achieve failure but to succeed and learn from them.
I am not arguing for hard failures, where there are constant repercussions because it kills morale and brings a sense of servitude, this in turn destroys incentives to work and innovation. Like the complacent worker, barely passing student, or people suffering in generational poverty on welfare. I am talking about creating an environment where structured failure is recognized and supported but is also reflected upon on, and incentive. With successes being rewarded with intrinsic value that promotes the person as a brand and there ego.
Having employees work with other random employees whom profile is closely linked with each other allows for better productivity and openness while promoting innovation. This type of work experience will allow employees will push a variety of different experiences with each other so that complancy will not build.
This in turn will promote diversity to push creativity and innovation we don’t want to control our employees because control means restrictions and restrictions means limitation but we do want to have control of the work that they generate out. Utilizing SAP HANA we can provide real-time feedback as well as data-mine information that can promote which methods work for each person and create a profile that allows people who think differently yet connect on a level to work and growth together. This is an effective way to capture hidden talent within a work force, through customized data collection after each project of each member into SAP Hana and providing a good look at the information collect through constant feedback.
- Managers may have problems at first being an observer and advisor of another team while managing there own project.
Training in SAP HANA software is a must to reduce lag time. Also profiles of the team they are managing as well as the team they are observing should be introduced early on.
- Employees may have a period of getting use to each other during the transition of moving into a new team.
To reduce this lag time, profiles of employees should be open on a designated website that will be introduced ahead of time. So that other employees know whom they will be working with.
- Motivating people to grow by themselves :
The company should provide tools for the people to grow. These segments and earning course on their off time can not only enhance a person’s growth. But also reward them with points that can purchase days off or office parties. But this can also help the company track employee’s learning and skill curve. This can be free of charge as companies can collaborate with Coursa or Harvard X to setup courses. Certificate of completions can also add to employees resume.
Some things that can test this hack is that companies can start off by break down barriers between management and employees. First off have everybody create a personal profile, then by matching profiles create a group of employees which would then be put into teams of 5, plus one manager acting as an adviser/ observer.
One person can be selected as project lead. The manager will be managing another team through SAP Hana. Through completion of the project, the manager acting as observer will review the dynamic of the group.
Each group must also push out an idea that is tackling a problem within the company, or promoting efficiency, or creating a product. Every two weeks. Then posted on a website in which everybody would be required to vote for. The highest voted idea will be voted for and push into a test arena where it would be provided an initiation fund and pushed by one random manager. The employees will then get time to work on their project. Whether the project succeeds or fails the manager as well as the employees will be reviewed.
Academia:
Places of creativity that allows for failure, allowing students to try things without huge repercussions. Fountains of knowledge with innovative ideas and experiences. Facebook, Google, Microsoft, the internet were all concevied from educational institutions. So I would credit this to the essences of academia.
And to my three year old who have shown me new perspectives on old ideas.
Websites that have influced my Hack:
http://www.wired.com/2011/03/ff_kickstarter/
Books that have influenced my Hack:
Imagine: How Creativity Works by Jonah Lehrer
Business, Government, and Society 13th ed. by Steiner / Steiner
Information Technology: Project Management 4th ed by Jack T. Machewka
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