RE: Notice of Praise.

["Vernig, Peter G." <Peter.Vernig@med.va.gov>]

Sandy,

Whenever there is a STRONG PUSH, bean counters and others will figure out
some way to accomplish the objective that doesn't really address the goal.

Example from military classes.  Drill Sergeant are evaluated on % completion
of basic training.  But early departures as unsuited [general discharge],
medical, or desertion are not held against their record.  The evaluation of
the system that the military had done showed an informal selection of
marginal recruits for intense pressure and harassment during the first 2
weeks to shake out the ones that were likely to fail later.  The goal was
increased completion but it was circumvented by drill sergeants motivated to
get good evaluations and the actual result was to drive people out quickly
and even some that would probably been able to complete basic.

Practically any program can and will be subverted to a degree.  People will
always find a way to look good.  Too strong a push will often, as above,
produce the opposite results than what is desired.

WRT a manager stopping a theft.  Yes it's part of his job but I would
suspect if he hadn't done it and the theft had taken place, he couldn't have
been criticized or even identified as having had an opportunity to stop it.
Yet the facility might well have taken some bad publicity and in that case I
would say yeah, give him an incentive award.

The best use I ever saw was by a former Associate Director here.  JCAHO [the
people that accredit hospitals] questioned a house keeping employee on
infection control.  As the AD put it the house keeper was not exceptionally
articulate, but he remembered the essentials he was supposed to and the card
we all carry with info on it, and "...did us proud" under trying
circumstances.  The AD had a bonus of $50 given to the house keeper as soon
as the JCAHO people were out of sight.


-----Original Message-----
From: Sandy Perle [mailto:sandyfl@earthlink.net]
Sent: Friday, April 21, 2000 9:22 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: RE: Notice of Praise.


> Just getting management to listen to the guys
> and gals that do the work and know the score is difficult.  The best part
of
> incentive awards programs is not the payoff or money, but having a forum
> where somebody will at least look at the idea and not shrug it off.

Peter, I agree with the above. Again my problem with incentive 
programs (based on what management dictated) became more of 
"bean counting" than the goal of actually improving a program. 

Let me state that I came from a program that worked hard for, and 
did attain the Deming Prize, issued by the Japanese Union of 
Scientists and Engineers (JUSE). FPL was the first non-Japanese 
company to ever attain this honor. It took 8 years of hard work, lots 
of documentation, and lots of on-site reviews of our Japanese 
counselors.

I was the Nuclear Energy Lead Facilitator during the last few years 
of this effort. I saw the benefits, but also saw the "bean counting". I 
also know that an employee loses respect for a program when they 
see the falsehoods behind it. Praise must be immediate to be 
meaningful. Delayed praise is not as pertinent, and, doesn't make 
the same impact.

Please recall I was attacking what I call the company "suggestion 
programs" and less of what Larry Grimm stated. Suggestion 
Programs are basically "bean counting" processes that 
management uses to demonstrate to their higher ups that they 
listen to employees. It's not the suggestions that are as important 
as actually implementing the suggestions once submitted. While I 
don't have the statistics readily available, I recall that a large 
percentage were never acted upon, and worse, no response back 
as to why the suggestion wasn't implemented.

I am all in favor of praise and reward. I believe that it should be at 
my level, and not at a higher level, for a person who is just doing 
their job. The incident we're talking about that Larry wrote is a 
manager stopping theft. That's his job, and does a reward really 
need to be given.

Those who have worked for me, and still do will state that the best 
rewards are being told on an ongoing basis that they are doing a 
good job, taking them out to lunch or after work, and letting them 
know what you really think. Acting on their suggestions in a prompt 
time frame is just as important.

Regards,
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