The Carrot or a Stick - which is a better motivator? - Social Experiment

I am fascinated by human behavior and how you can purposefully create higher-performing teams by creating the right culture and environment. In my coaching career, I have found this applies to athletic teams, work teams, volunteer organizations, and even within your own family. 

This morning I conducted a social experiment, which was not completely scientific, but it produced some really cool results.  

Back Story

For the past 15 years, I have helped lead a free men’s boot camp on the westside of Houston, TX. On any given Tuesday, Thursday, or Saturday morning at 5:30 am between 40 to 50 men, aged from 30 to 65, descend upon Memorial Middle School. “BE ALL YOU USED TO BE” is our motto as these men are met with a mix of running exercises, planks, burpees, and other activities to try to hold off Father Time as long as we all can. We have a wide range of skill levels from the guys who can barely jog, to members who have run over 70 marathons and multiple Ironmen races.

There were about 40 men eager to get started this morning. Some have been regulars for more than 10 years, but there are always some newbies testing to see if they can create the habit of rolling out of bed at 5:00 am.  

My day actually started at 3:00 am when I woke up with an idea I wanted to test out on my boot camp brothers. I wanted to see how they would respond to different motivators and thereby test which is more effective, the carrot or the stick? 

It’s common to think that negative reinforcement and positive reinforcement will produce similar results and that some people need a ‘kick in the butt’ when others respond better to praise.

The Hypothesis

With any experiment, you should have a hypothesis. In this case, I was interested to find out how these men would react to different levels of reward or punishment. I was hoping that positive rewards would produce better results, but was not sure if this small of a sample or this made up experiment would produce any valuable results at all.   If successful, maybe I would see similar result as described in Shawn Achor's - "The Happiness Advantage" TED Talk.

The Experiment

I divided 40 men into 5 teams (8 men per team). I then lined them up in numbered groups about 15 yards apart along the sideline of the football field. I instructed each group that they needed to learn the names and occupations of each member of the group as they jogged back and forth across the field from sideline to sideline. I told them for each lap they would have to learn more about each person, like who has the oldest, youngest, and most kids and who has been married the shortest and the longest time, etc.

I also told them that I would randomly pick a teammate in each group who would have to introduce their entire team to the rest of the boot camp. I suggested there would be a consequence if they were unable to recall all the information they learned about each team member.  

I then went to each group and told them what the consequence would be if they couldn’t recall the information. They did not know what each other’s consequence was. Here’s what I told them:

• Group 1:  Individual Public Shaming. Like a drill sergeant, I was going to come down hard on the individual and publicly shame them.
• Group 2. Team Punishment. The whole team would have to complete 20 burpees if the individual could not recall the information.
• Group 3:  No consequence. They were just going to do it because they wanted to.
• Group 4:   Individual Reward. The whole team would give a synchronized “Hoorah” to the individual if that person had accurate recall. 
• Group 5:  Team Reward. They were to believe that the person who is selected would win the lottery later that day, and give them each $50M for being such a good friend. 

As we began, I joined Group 3 to monitor the conversation. While all the guys in our group have been regular boot campers for many years, I still learned a lot about them.  

Data Gathering

After about 5 or 6 laps, I asked the men to step back on the sideline and told them that I wanted all the men who thought they could recall what they learned with confidence and clarity to step forward ... on the count of three. However, I also said, anyone who is not sure they could recall all of the information, had the option to do a “review lap” with the team, and they did not need to come forward. 

1....2….3!  The results were very interesting.

Results     

Group 1 only had one guy run across the line ready to introduce his team. Group 2 had two men who showed confidence. In Group 3, seven of the eight men were willing to introduce their team, and both Group 4 and Group 5 had all eight guys step across the line. 

When I initially counted to “3”, there was some hesitancy down the line from a few guys. I heard someone from either Group 1 or 2 say, “I’m not going over there.” Conversely, I heard someone from Group 1 say, “Come on, we all can do it!” I could actually feel the tension from the left side (negative consequence) and the enthusiasm coming from the right side (positive consequence).

I then randomly picked a team member from each team, irrespective of which side of the line they were on, to introduce their team. The first guy from Group 1, who normally has tremendous confidence, sheepishly only gave the first name of each teammate. Another team member helped him out by adding their occupations. As a boot camp leader, normally, I have no issue with public shaming especially when it comes to incorrect form. However, I actually felt sorry for the guy so I moved on to Group 2 without publicly shaming him.

As we moved down the line, the information shared became more complete. When I reached Group 5, the guy I chose enthusiastically shared names, occupation, companies where they worked, and additional demographic information. 

Conclusion: 

I was really pleased with the results. Even at 5:30 in the morning, this was a great, real world example that validates how powerful positive reinforcement can be on team performance. When I coach CISO’s on how to get more out of their teams, creating an empowering and psychological safe environment is one of the primary areas we focus on. It can have a dramatic impact on confidence, which in turn, increases memory retention, willingness, enthusiasm and performance.  

To find out more about how we work with firms to improve Behavioral Performance, and Diversity and Inclusion, see our Birkman Performance Coaching information. In addition, you can read the advice of other CISO’s who explained how they have been able to make dramatic impacts on team performance. Those 8 ways are addressed in my article How to Create Higher Performing Teams. 

It was a fun experiment to pull off on my boot camp brothers. Hopefully, they will forgive me for putting them through it, if not, I’m sure I’ll be on the receiving end of some extra burpees when I’m not leading. 

About Tim Howard

Tim Howard is the founder of Fortify Experts (www.fortifyexperts.com) and Energy Sourcing (www.energysourcing.com) which helps companies hire and deploy exceptional “Embedded” talent through executive search perm placement and expert consulting. 

In addition, he has a passion for helping companies develop Higher Performing Teams by coaching them to increase effective communications and improve non-productive behaviors. With each new hire, his firm produces an Employee Operating Manual to help clients understand how to communicate better and get the most out of each new hire.

He also teamed up with Lyndrel Downs to launch www.CybersecurityDIVAS.com to help promote the most influential women in cybersecurity and provide a mentoring program to help encourage and support more diversity within the industry.

Tim has been leading technology staffing teams for over 20 years and is the founder of three other technology firms. He has degrees from Texas A&M University in Industrial Distribution and Marketing.  

Invite me to connect:  www.dhirubhai.net/in/timhoward