One of the more interesting ongoing discussions I’ve had at work has been about how to incorporate gaming elements into learning and development.

The following TED Talks video explores that very issue (email subscribers click through).

I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section. How might we apply these ideas to learning, performance management, even recruiting?

There’s an awesome 3-minute video on TED about how to start a movement.

Take three minutes to go watch the video, then come back and we’ll chat.

Key Lessons

Welcome back!

Here are, I think, the key lessons from this video:

• Leadership means taking risks. It’s ok to be afraid of looking like an idiot, but you need to take action despite that fear.
• Embrace your followers as equals. As Seth Godin aptly notes in his book, Tribes, leadership is about empowering your followers. Or as Derek put it in the presentation, “The first follower is what transforms a lone nut into a leader.”
• Lead your change publicly. Followers who weren’t part of the movement when it started don’t learn how to behave from the leader. They learn from watching other followers.
• Following is another form of leadership. If you care about change, have the courage to follow a lone nut and get others to join in.

Anything you’d add? How do you lead change?

1. Hire great people, and place them in jobs that fit their strengths, skills and passions.
2. Get out of the way. Provide people with the freedom to do kick-ass work.
3. Provide regular, actionable feedback.
4. Inspire people with goals that are more meaningful than just making the company and shareholders more money.

Image by Stephen Poff

Renegade HR is a simple approach to HR: Recruit great people and help them do amazing things that drive your business.

You’ve got an organization filled with rockstars. Now how do you help them do amazing things that drive your business?

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Paul Hebert, a leading expert on incentives and motivation, talks with me about incentive programs 101, how motivation is different from incentives, and Dan Pink’s new book, Drive. (35:38)

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Direct mp3 Download

Links from this Podcast

• Motivation and the Theory of Everything
• Incentive Programs and Building an Amateur Airplane
• The Difference Between Incentives and Motivation

Podcast Highlights

Many people think, “I know what motivates me, therefore I’ll just package that up and offer it to people. Unfortunately, motivation isn’t that simple.

A lot of times money is nothing more than a yardstick. That’s their yardstick for success – how they prove to other people that they’re valuable.

If HR could train people better on how to do recognition, how to align company goals with what individuals need to get done, that’s the training that’s missing.

Keep reading…

Image by Stephen Poff

Frank Roche over at Know HR wrote a thought provoking post on how to release the energy of high-potential HR employees.

His post got me thinking about the way we treat (and reward) HiPo’s in general.

I often wonder how many would-be HiPo’s come across as average to subpar performers because they’re either:

1. In the wrong position that isn’t well aligned with their passions and strengths, or…
2. Poorly managed, and thus demotivated.

I know there’s a lot of HR pros who would say you need to show you’re a HiPo before you get the rewards HiPo’s get. The whole chicken and the egg thing.

But a big part of me believes that if you treat all of your employees like they’re rockstars until they prove that they’re not (instead of the other way around), you’d start seeing a lot more rockstars in your organization.

I posted this on Twitter the other day, and Fran Melmed pointed me to this interesting NY Times article about random promotions.

So… what are your thoughts?

Drive by Daniel Pink is a must-read business book of 2010.

After seeing Dan’s Ted talk last month, I sent his PR guy an email. He was kind enough to provide me with a free copy to review.

Here’s the summary: There’s a gap between what science knows about human motivation and what business does.

Drive is a roadmap to understanding when external, carrot-and-stick management works, and when it can actually hurt employee performance.

Click Here to Check Out Drive on Amazon

(affiliate link)

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