Plastic: how not to accidentally hit a team with an engraved figurine

Companies are different. There are those where a strict and deep management hierarchy is built, and where the issue of employee self-fulfillment is primarily associated with moving up the career ladder. On the contrary, there are organizations with a flat structure, in which the spirit of equality and brotherhood is constantly floating in the office air penetrated by the rays of sunlight. Speaking of the first images that come to mind, you probably already imagined a skyscraper of a large and bureaucratic corporation on the one hand, and a startup blooming among the hills of Silicon Valley on the other. At the same time, British scientists have proved for certain that the world is not black and white, and that most companies to some extent live at the junction of these two metaphors - mechanism and family. It is likely that you are working in one of these.

However, today we are not talking about organizations as such, but about plastic. Management, as you know, doesn’t really like the material methods of motivating employees (and does it right), but it loves various kinds of plastic awards, figurines and dice to evaluate successes. Meanwhile, the main rule during such events is “Do no harm!”.

Where do the legs grow from

Two scenarios arise in the head. Scenario one - this is such a Chief with a capital “H”, lounging in a black leather chair. He slightly scrolls on his leg, then left or right, gleaming straps of suspenders and inspiredly mopping the tip of a fountain pen in his mouth. The insidious plan is almost ripe in a balding head. Tomorrow, the middle manager Anatoly will be tasked with contacting an advertising company and ordering a box of acrylic figurines from them. It makes no sense to spend money on annual awards, because it’s much cheaper and more expressive to award production leaders with memorable souvenirs that are displayed near the working monitors, not only become the owner’s pride, but also a motivator for the rest to work more, better and better for the same money.

Another scenario is a small company, slowly outsourcing, renting three rooms in a class “A” business center and not overjoyed at its strong and friendly team. The director is an energetic young man, he likes to sit embracing with his MacBook in a soft "pear", hang inverted portraits of Merlin Monroe on the walls and generally behave extremely progressively. The discussion with Anatoly, twice a programmer in Python and part-time CTO, is taking place this time more than ever more rapidly and lively. The idea to make memorable awards for outstanding employees is exciting and exciting. Is the creative rushing - round or square, glass or crystal, with a gold plate or silver, “Best Scrum-master” or “Programmer of the year”? But you can even throw a corporate party under this business! Near the swimming pool? Yes, of course, by the pool, but how could it be otherwise!

Surely it seems to you that a citizen with thinning hair is an asshole, and a pu-pu-pi-do fan is well done. However, it is not. Both are one berry field, and the reason for everything is competition.

About competition

We live in a competitive environment - this is a fact. The principles of meritocracy are deeply ingrained in modern society. On the one hand, it’s good, otherwise we would still live in a world of estates, castes, slave labor and unequal opportunities. On the other hand, it’s bad, because we have become too focused on our own well-being. This is expressed at the level of personality, at the level of business, and even at the level of geopolitics. “Me and him”, “we and they”, “friends and foes” - all this did not go anywhere, only now these “he”, “they” and “foes” were not set by constants at the moment of our birth. Moved to a new position - and you have a new competitor a step higher, moved to another company - and you need to compete with other players in the market, moved - and, you see, after five years you’re already supporting a completely different team at the World Cup.

At the same time, we all know what wonderful magic is happening, sometimes, in some teams of software companies. Well-coordinated, united, crystallized teams show the wonders of productivity and get tremendous pleasure from work. According to the results of some studies, the best teams outperform the worst 28 times! However, there is one thing that can very easily frustrate the team, and in general spoil the atmosphere in the company. And this thing is competition.

And here is plastic?

And really. But before answering this question, it is important to identify why competition in teams is bad.

• Competition gives rise to the desire to deceive the system. If management personally identifies employees, then there are certain criteria for such selection. It can be anything - from far-fetched KPIs to the subjective judgment of the boss. In the first case, the numbers can be cheated, in the second - to move into personal favorites. For any outcome, the quality of work ceases to affect career success; the one who better knows how to get around the system succeeds.
• Competition provokes the concealment of knowledge. If a person owns some unique information - this is his competitive advantage over everyone else. Law of the jungle. Sharing valuable knowledge is like shooting your legs with a Gatling machine gun. It is hardly worth further explaining why the teams and teams built on this model work worse than those where people are open to the exchange of knowledge and even strive for it.
• Competition leads to the emergence of politics. Perhaps this is her worst side. People, teams, and even entire departments within the organization begin to play covert games in order to bite off the largest possible piece. Someone is cheating on someone, another is knocking around him, the third is spreading rumors, the fourth is blackmailing, and the fifth is regularly carrying Hennessey bottles to his superiors’s office.

So what does plastic have to do with it?

Yes, you yourself probably already guessed. Handing out seemingly harmless figurines for services to the fatherland, it is very easy to do it wrong and to nurture the shoots of competition even in the healthiest team. “Is Vasya the best programmer? Are you laughing Yes, he has such a code only because I clean it after him! ” “Is this Petya our employee of the month?” “He was sick for three weeks, and I covered his snotty ass!” “Kolya wrote the most lines of code? And for that medal? The next time, I’ll transfer you to a new line, let's see who has what indicators! ”The result is sad: no one corrects the code during the review, no one wants to replace the failed team members, and the listings turned into endless sheets, tailored from almost blank pages. This is a fiasco bro!

What to do?

Finally, Chernyshevsky’s favorite section. Of course, as mentioned at the beginning, the world is not black and white. In some form, moderate competition may well exist, the main thing is not to attach paramount importance to it, not to overdo it. If you certainly want to leave employees with something other than pleasant memories of their organization, try listening to the following tips:

• Distribute plastic - give it to everyone. Treat statuettes as souvenirs, not as rewards. In the end, you don’t offer employees logo sweatshirts for special achievements?
• Make plastic personalized, thank people. Not for specific merits, because their definition, as we found out, is an exclusively subjective judgment, but for the fact that they are great, for the fact that they love their job, for not stopping on the path of self-improvement. There is no more magical word in the language of human relationships than "thank you."
• Make a really good plastic. If this thing will be on the desktop of each employee, it should not be a hack. If you do not have enough budget, time or some other resources, then give up your idea at all or postpone it for later. Better not to do at all than to do poorly.

Well, what if the statuette of the "Best of the best" was awarded to you? Fight the temptation, throw it to the hell and forgive your boss - perhaps he did it not out of harm.