The whole corporate world, in fact, the whole world that operates under capitalism has a built-in ruthlessness driven by profits. Money by any means seems to be the mantra across the industrial world. But is this really the best paradigm we have? Surely there is a better way? I have had in my career two mentors, one a deputy head of the first school I worked at and the second an assistant principle at the college I worked at; both of these mentors were highly successful people and both attributed this success to two things: being goal oriented, and getting on with people.
The principle of niceness is one that acknowledges that in any industry, in any profession, when you get right down to it we are all dealing with people. Sure, they might be at the end of a phone, or behind the screen of a computer, you may communicate in a detached way through email or letters. You might communicate in an abstract way through leaflets or advertising but ultimately everything you do comes down to people. And people appreciate other people being nice.
So why don’t we do it more? How hard is it to shift our paradigm of wealth to include personal and social wellbeing as part of the net gain of a business transaction? After all, niceness doesn’t cost anything, there is no price for the ‘please’ and ‘thank you’, there is no cost for a smile, so it won’t effect your bottom line except in a positive way. There really is nothing to lose and everything to gain.
If we take the example of a workforce, what motivates them? Money? Yes, but only up to a point, economic studies show that money is only a motivator up to the point where money ceases to be a concern, i.e., when people are comfortably well off and there are no concerns about money it ceases to act as a motivator at work. There are many studies by economists that show this to be the case, when you offer a cash incentive for work produced, the highest reward bracket consistently delivers poorest results. This study has even been done in India with the cash incentives going as high as several months wages with exactly the same results.
So, what does motivate people if it isn’t money? Well, it turns out that it is largely autonomy, contribution and appreciation. People like to give something and feel appreciated for it, I feel that exact way about this blog; I hope it delivers good value and useful or insightful information and views, and I want to share it with everyone else, not for money, but for appreciation. Even if I don’t know the people reading it, the fact that I get a certain number of views tells me that people are interested and that feels good. This is the principle of reciprocal altruism, and you can see it work in a really big way with something like the Linux operating system or Wikipedia; professional, hardworking, and intelligent individuals who work out of office hours, unpaid, to give something more to the global online community. So, what if you take these principles and apply them to work? Tell people how much you appreciate their input, and you may just find they will increase their input beyond the monetary value of the job role. Allow people to take the initiative and run with a project, again, the chances are they will go above and beyond your expectations. Conclusion: if you are nice to your workforce and treat them like human beings, they will work harder without extra cash incentives!
The result of niceness is reciprocal altruism, this is when two parties conduct their business together for the mutual benefit of both people. In other words, if you are nice to people from the very beginning, there is a very good chance that you will be able to compromise in favour of each other. Win-win is always going to be better in the long term because it results in continued business, even if the win is not as big as it could be, the positive impact of the improved relationship will have a significant long-term effect. This is true throughout your whole life, if you are generally nice to people you will find they will also be nice back, how hard is it to stay mad at your partner if you have a blazing row and then half an hour later they make you a cup of tea, suggest you put on your favourite TV programme and then they go and cook dinner? Pretty hard I would say, chances are you feel less angry and may even feel like you want to reciprocate the niceness in some way, maybe you suggest you will do the washing up etc. This is the key to niceness, it removes barriers.
There is a very important point that needs to be made here, this principle only works if you are being genuinely nice, you cannot cheat the system and try to manipulate people using this as a technique. It won’t work, people will see right through it and will probably hold you in less regard than they did before. This has to be a paradigm shift, a new business consciousness that is going to become a part of the way you work day-to-day with clients, customers, students, colleagues, everyone in fact. And the thing about this is, the nicer you are, the easier it is to become nicer still, because people around you will start to reciprocate the niceness until pretty soon you will start to find there are side benefits to this as well; staff moral and wellbeing improves, I guarantee if you implement this across a workforce consistently you will see a reduction in staff complaints and a reduction in sick days. People will stop fighting the system because they have a real autonomous stake in the system. This is not the kind of controlled positivity of Stalinist Russia where you shut up and smile no matter what, it is the kind of positivity where people feel they can approach management with a problem because they feel they can help with the solution.
This shift is based on two things, the realisation that human welfare and state of mind is part of the profit margin for your business, and the ability to invest more than your money into your business, you need to invest time, care, interest, humanity. If you can start with the people and get that right, the business will take care of itself, after all, all business is the business of getting on with people. So why not be nice about it?
References:
Dan Pink: Drive
Shevek Pring 