Incentive - December 2008 - (Page 26) INTERVIEW most sensitive to charges of unfairness, while at the same time, they have the least real impact on the individual. She stresses incorporating a lot of little recognitions, like thank yous and informal feedback (there’s a reason her book is titled Make Their Day and not Make Their Year), and focusing on the thoughtfulness of the recognition, rather than the cost. “Not everybody gets the same thing, because not everybody wants the same thing,” says Ventrice. “It’s not going to look the same for any two people. For the most part, recognition is going to be something pretty individual.” For the past 10 years she’s been involved in improvisational theater, taking audience suggestions and turning them into entertaining stories. She sees teaching managers how to recognize employees under them as something that requires an individualized approach. Sometimes the managers learn best by performing a scene that involves the recognition, according to Ventrice. Others respond to statistics, and still others need to hear about actual case studies of recognition in action. Recently Ventrice has been working with a Santa Cruz, Calif.–based improvisational theater troupe that performs long-form plays that begin with a line from the audience and can sometimes last over two hours. This theatrical skill is a valuable tool in showing managers proper recognition during workshops or speaking engagements. For example, to stress the importance of sincere recognition, Ventrice will ask managers to hold a negative thought in their head while trying to have positive interactions. “I’ve had managers come back to me later and say, ‘I’ve gotta get away from my computer, my phone, everything if I’m going to have an actual conversation,’ ” says Ventrice. “They had a blast and really got how all this ties to recognition.” I Send comments to alex.palmer@ incentivemag.com 26 | Incentive | December 2008 | incentivemag.com http://www.incentivemag.com/motivationmasters http://www.incentivemag.com/motivationmasters http://www.incentivemag.com
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