This will be the last in the series of lessons I’ve learned from playing video games.  We’ve learned about tenacity (Mario), the importance of celebrating wins with each other (Child of Light), and the fact that happiness and engagement are not the same thing (Bloodborne).  This week we will think about having a reward and recognition philosophy as it relates to Pac-man. 

If you haven’t played Pac-man, you play as Pac-man (the yellow character) and you race around the room eating yellow pellets while the ghosts chase you.  In order to earn points you can eat small pellets, 4 big pellets, ghosts, and fruit.  Eat all the pellets and you go to the next stage.  Let’s pretend for a moment that you and I were playing against each other for a prize.  What would you want to know before we started?  You’d probably want to know the definition of winning, right?  Let’s say that winning is whoever can clear the most stages.  If that was the case, what would you focus on?  You’d spend your energy trying to eat all the pellets on the screen.  You would NOT worry as much about eating ghosts or fruit.  Now let’s say that winning is whoever gets the most points.  How would this change the way you played?  You’d probably spend more time ensuring you ate the ghosts and you ate the fruit that showed up on screen.  The definition of winning would change your behavior.

How does this connect with work?  In Pac-man the definition of winning drives your behavior.  In a similar way, the definition of winning or excellence at work drives behavior.  Here are the questions of the day.  Do we have a clear idea of what “winning” means at work?  Do we have a clear reward and recognition philosophy to support this definition?  We might have platforms and tactics to leverage, but are we clear on what behaviors we want to reward and recognize?  Are we clear on how we will reward and recognize those behaviors?  Allow me to be overly dramatic for a minute.  For those of you who lead a team, if I interviewed the individuals on your team and asked them what behaviors you are driving and recognizing and why you are driving and recognizing those behaviors, could they tell me?  If your job depended on your team being aligned on their answers, would you make the cut or would you be out of a job?  I recognize that this is easy for me to say since I don’t have a team.  However, I also realize that creating and driving this clarity is not a simple task.  Additionally, even though I don’t have a team, I have a role in this as well.  It’s my job to try and understand the rules of the game.  It’s my job to try to figure out what the organization values, so I can deliver. 

The challenge: As a leader have you defined winning?  Have you defined what behaviors you reward and recognize and why?  As an individual contributor are you seeking clarity to understand what game you’re expected to play?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry