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Does internal competition actually work to motivate teams?
I read an interesting post from Dwane Lay this morning about the ways management can "demotivate" employees. He brought up the concept of internal competition and said, "Pitting [your employees] against each other for your love is so 1984. Pitting [your employees] against each other for their merit increases, which are set at a specific amount for your department, is also old news. Be creative!"
Do you think that internal competition works well to motivate teams? Why or why not?
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3 Answers
Years ago a large high tech company in the PNW chose to use this strategy. It was called "rack and stack". Word of this new process rolled around the company (which was then about 20,000 employees), with major speed.
As an HR rep, I was dodging bullets right and left. The final nail in the casket of "rack and stack" came when a group of engineers in the engineering lab requested a meeting with me and asked me to bring no one else. During that meeting they made it crystal clear that if this process continued, they would, in solidarity, find other employment and walk out.
I shared that information with the VP of our division and it ended that strategy. People typically don't want to be pitted against one another. That's not to say teams don't like to try to outdo other teams, but not with the consequences laid out for those who didn't cut it in the racking/stacking process. There are so many other ways to motivate people...
Simply treat people as though they are valuable (which they are), tell them what they are doing well and how much you appreciate it. Tell them what they need to improve and give them tools, if you can, to succeed. If success isn't possible, treat them with kindness and respect on their last day.
Dwane is right, this is almost always a bad idea. It's hard enough building trust and getting employees to collaborate on a consistent basis. Advancement and recognition through competition with your peers adds a layer of suspicion that is counterproductive to team-driven results. Leave the competition to friendly team outings where it can bring your team together rather then pull it apart.
Certainly, internal competition teaches people to teach co-workers as the enemy rather than the external rival competitors. If you can succeed more easily by sabotaging a fellow-employee, that motives you to bowb your buddy rather than strive to excel in your own output results. You want your employees to pull together rather than back-stab each other. Contests that encourage groups to use social peer pressure to reach stretch-goals can be healthy, but savage internal competition over commercial aspects is almost always highly destructive of morale. Making something into a game can be fun and entertaining, but placing important consequences into the balance as a prize can produce negative results from internal competitions.
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