Adrian Gostick

A consultant recently met with a group of university leaders. He asked them a few simple questions to get them started:

• What percent of Americans say that a UFO crashed in Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947?
• What percent of Americans believe in the theory of evolution?

The university leaders believed the first number—UFO believers—would be quite low, somewhere less than 20 percent. And they imagined the second number would be high—they guessed more than 60 percent of people would discount the Bible and believe in Evolution.
The truth was revealing.

According to a recent CNN study, more than 80 percent of Americans believe the government is hiding information about extraterrestrials that landed in Roswell. And a 2009 Gallup Poll shows only 39 percent of Americans believe in the theory of evolution.
The academics were shocked. Said one of the academics on the two data points, “It shows people are dumb, but God-fearing.”
The reason the wise consultant brought up this research was to show that long-held perceptions can be wrong, especially when they come to our own businesses. These university men and women believed, for instance, that their distinguished institutions of higher learning had bright futures without the need for radical change. But the research he was then about to show them argued the point. A growing number of qualified, bright young people are gravitating toward online schools and their low prices, creative curriculum and flexible ways to learn. While these academics didn’t want to believe the data, the consultant’s creative way of opening their minds made them at least open the floor up to debate.
The moral: perhaps it’s time for all of us to listen to seek out new research in our industries. What is the data telling us that may seem counterintuitive?

One of our great clients in the Netherlands, AkzoNobel, supplied paint for five World Cup stadiums in South Africa. They believe a color says a lot about a nation and its fans.

According to color experts at AkzoNobel, because they will be adorned in red, the supporters of Spain and Denmark will be among the most fervent and passionate, yet could be the most aggressive. Followers of the Dutch and Ivory Coast teams (who play in orange) will project the most joy, be the most animated and more social. Meanwhile, the blue of Italy, France and Argentina suggests that their fans favor peace and tranquility.

Several teams—including South Africa, Nigeria, the Cameroon and Algeria—play mostly in green, hinting that their supporters will be the most relaxed, or if things go wrong, the most jealous. The most predominant color, however, is likely to be white (England, Germany, Chile, US, Switzerland), which points to their followers being positive and hopeful, if sometimes a bit impersonal.

And what of the yellow of Brazil and Australia? Akzo’s experts say that their fans will probably to be the most energetic and possibly even the most exciting. However, their yellow team colors suggest they are also prone to envy and distrust.

May the best—and most colorful—team win.

Over the last few weeks I’ve heard two respected authors make this mistake about carrots. They both said, “As managers we’ve got to get away from using the carrot on a stick.” Little do they know they are referencing Bugs Bunny’s version of motivation.

First, remember that the metaphor of the carrot first originated with an Aesop fable that referred to a carrot VERSUS a stick, not a carrot ON a stick. In the story, a smart farmer rewarded his working animal for a job well done with a tasty carrot and a pat on the back, while the bad farmer beat his donkey with a stick to get him moving. It is a simple metaphor that illustrates the importance of rewards versus punishment—and the carrot helps managers remember that employee motivation doesn’t come by fear and intimidation, but by appreciating people for their great work.

Animated shorts in the 1930s were the first to put that carrot on a stick, dangling it in front of the donkey in a humorously absurd twist on the old metaphor. The animators would probably have laughed if they heard that people in business would take the dangling carrot as a metaphor for motivation.

Over the past few years I’ve been asked to conduct workshops with a few “high po” groups in various organizations. These high-potential young executives are hand-picked by their leaders as the company’s rising talent, and I’m brought in because senior leadership wants them to understand how to engage their employees.

But are these high-po young leaders engaged themselves?

While most companies assume these are your most engaged employees, according to research published in the May Harvard Business Review, 1 in 3 high-potential employees admits to not putting all his effort into his job, 1 in 4 believes he will be working for another employer in a year, and 1 in 5 believes her personal aspirations are quite different from what the organization has planned for her.

The authors say the solution is, “for senior management to double (or even triple) its efforts to keep young stars engaged. That means recognizing them early and often, explicitly linking their individual goals to corporate ones, and letting them help solve the company’s biggest problems.”

At a large casino we work with, managers were recently given the recognition tools to enhance employee engagement. Using our A Carrot A Day recognition training and our company’s performance award systems, the worst performing units rose their employee engagement scores a whopping 10 percent in just a few months. However, despite those amazing results, a few managers still held out. They just would not using the recognition system, so upper leadership had 300 pounds of fresh carrots delivered to these managers’ offices as a gentle reminder to appreciate great work.