Incentive - July 2008 - (Page 31)

life as well, as he used it to convince his wife, Sumi, to marry him. “A decision that was in my best interest but not necessarily in hers,” he adds with his characteristic wit. Ariely became fascinated with irrationality while overcoming burns to more than 70 percent of his body that he sustained in an explosion in Israel. “Being in the hospital for more than six months separated me from the circle of life. I was an outsider looking at things I used to do as a bit odd, not natural,” he explains. It took nurses an hour to take the bandages off his body daily. “It was an extremely painful process, as the bandages would adhere to my flesh, because there wasn’t any skin there,” he says. “They thought it best to start from my feet and end at my head, and rip them off as quickly as possible. I tried to reason with them to slow down, but they told me they had the right approach.” When he left the hospital, Ariely embarked on a series of experiments about pain. He learned the nurses were indeed wrong. If they had started from his head and ended at his feet and stretched the process out over a longer period of time, he would have experienced less pain. “How could that be? They had good intentions, plenty of experience, but nevertheless got things wrong.” Thus began the germination of Predictably Irrational. Can’t Buy Motivation Money can be the most expensive way to motivate people, says Ariely. Social norms are not only cheaper, but more effective as well. Market norms, with their emphasis on higher salaries, more income and more spending, have taken over our lives in the past decade. A return to some of the old social norms might not be so bad after all, says Ariely, and in fact, might bring some civility back to our lives. Take open-source software. If you find a bug in Linux or another program, you can post the problem on one of the bulletin boards and somebody will respond to your request and fix the software, on their own time, for free. If you had to pay for this level of service, you would have to pay them an awful lot, says Ariely. “This community thrives on other motivation, on a sense of ownership, pride and in belonging to a community,” he adds. “It’s unbelievable to think that Microsoft is afraid of this group that is not getting paid a dime.” It seems there may be something to the old adage, “There’s more to life than money.” Send comments to feedback@incentivemag.com http://www.waldorfastoriaorlando.com http://www.bonnetcreekresort.hilton.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Incentive - July 2008

Incentive - July 2008 Contents Editor’s Note: Accentuate the Positive In The News Cover Story: Three Profiles in Good Corporate Citizenship Case Study Incentive Interview Senior Secrets To Thine Own Self be True Incentive Primer Motivation@Work Travel News: Where To Go and What To Do Take the Spa Home Not the Only Game in Town Here and Now Writing and Desktop Gifts Watches and Clocks Gift Cards: Health and Wellness Incentives Good Health Is Not Its Own Incentive Advertiser Index Last Word

Incentive - July 2008

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