Page 114 - Harnessing the Management Secrets of Disney in Your Company

All for One and One for All 95

Alfie Kohn, author of No Contest: The Case Against Competition, has spent
more than a decade reviewing the effects of competition and cooperation in
hundreds of organizations. His conclusion is quite clear: “Superior performance
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not only does not require competition; it seems to require its absence.” David
and Roger Johnson of the University of Minnesota report the following results
from an educational environment study: 173 studies found that cooperation
promotes higher achievement than competition or independent efforts, whereas
13 studies found that competition promotes higher achievement. Another 78
studies found no significant statistical difference. 29
Red Auerbach, the indefatigable coach of the Boston Celtics, who won 16
NBA championships under his direction, never kept individual statistics on his
players. Hubie Brown, the basketball commentator and former coach, remem-
bers the Celtic style that Auerbach helped create: “Red knew how to push the
right button on each guy to get him to be subservient to the team. . . . The
Celtics understood the maxim, ‘There is no I in team.’” 30
The benefits of a team reward system as opposed to a competitive one are so
compelling that even in a competitive society we must notice. Everyone benefits
from feeling appreciated, and team rewards are an excellent way to encourage
the hoped-for sense of community and cohesiveness among team members.
In our work with the global team at Whirlpool, we challenged the orga-
nization to weight the reward system more heavily toward team performance
instead of individual performance. We believe that when teams achieve excep-
tional results, appropriate bonuses and pay raises should go to the entire team,
not just to certain people that the organization judges to be key contributors.
Anything else undermines the entire structure of effective teamwork. If every-
one is truly working together toward a common goal, then everyone should
be rewarded equally.
In the case of Whirlpool, the global team leader was forced to go to bat for
the team to ensure equal recognition. He argued that the combined efforts of
each and every team member made his group one of the top-rated performers
in the entire company. Furthermore, he insisted on equality, and he offered to
give up his own personal bonus to get it.
This leader exhibited exceptional integrity and commitment in his battle
to secure the proper recognition for his team mates, but it’s not always neces-
sary to go to such great lengths to reward team members. In fact, rewards don’t
have to be in the form of money and prizes. A reward can be something as
simple as a pizza party over the lunch hour. In some cases, we’ve worked with