Page 111 - The Apple Experience

matter. “When people make mistakes, the last thing they need is discipline.
It’s time for encouragement and confidence building,” Welch said.
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Stephen J. Dubner, coauthor of Freakonomics, cautions, “One mistake a

lot of people make when creating incentive schemes is thinking that financial

incentives are the most powerful incentives going. In fact, social and moral

incentives are often more powerful. The other thing to consider is what I

sometimes call ‘local fame’; very few of us want to be (or will ever be) truly

famous. What we want is to be famous ‘locally,’ if even for a short time—that
is, known well among our peers, families, friends, etc., for having done

something well and noteworthy.”
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Remember The Ritz-Carlton wow stories? Those stories are told at staff

meetings so the person who played an important role in creating the

customer experience is praised in front of his or her peers. Praising an

individual publicly serves two purposes: it reinforces behavior the

organization is attempting to replicate, and it gives the person “local fame”
among peers. Praise and local fame touches people emotionally.

At Disney theme parks, leaders carry cards they use to provide instant

recognition to employees who go above and beyond what is expected when

serving a guest. On one half of the card, the leader describes the employee’s

conduct and hands it to the cast member, an action that is often enough to

make the person’s day. The leader keeps the other half of the card with the

employee’s name and turns it in for a prize drawing at the end of each

month. The prizes, like iPods or movie tickets, are great, but it’s the public

recognition that cast members cherish. I recently heard about a school that
gives “character counts” cards. The cards work in exactly the same way as the

Disney cards, but instead of a supervisor handing out the cards to employees,

teachers hand out the cards to students. A drawing is held at the end of every

month, but instead of material prizes, a student might win ice cream with the