Create Incentive Programs for Success

If you read my post about “the big picture” you know that I am a proponent of all team members knowing the overall goal and structure of every project. Taking this up a step or two, the same idea is true when it comes to corporate goals. All regions, divisions, departments and individuals need to have their goals and tasks aligned behind the corporate goals. If different parts of the same organization are not working toward the same ends, surely they will never get there. I have organized both companies and projects around this principle for many years. All have achieved their targets.

Lining up tasks with goals is a very good thing. Next, how do you motivate each and every team member to achieve their part? One sure way to inspire timely and proper execution of all the tasks, which leads to overall goal attainment, is to derive every incentive from the achievement of the same goal.

As an example, if the corporate goal is to achieve a 5% YoY increase in total revenue (with all the expense limits necessary in place), then on attainment of that 5% revenue increase each and every person throughout the company should share in that attainment. This keeps everyone rowing in the same direction and encouraging their teammates to achieve their goals as well. Of course, the participation in that attainment can be different for each role.

So, how does this relate to Three Forks’ goal to bridge the strategic gap between “the business” and the technical arm of the company? Suppose the sales group says they can create that 5% growth by implementing a new CRM tool. With all the proper incentives in place, IT is now motivated to get the system up and going so they participate in the incentive. This is much better than the many situations where IT becomes the department of “No”.

Doing some research confirmed for me that IT department's goals are not in line with the lines of business (LOB) they support. If the LOB has, let’s say, a revenue increase goal of 5% and their bonuses, raises, options, doughnut allotment, whatever is tied to hitting that goal, then some part of IT’s bonus, raise, etc. should be tied to them hitting that goal. If not, how can we be sure IT helps them hit the goal?

Generally, we see IT incentives tied to implementation time, implementation budgets, and/or the P&L of the IT department itself. With that as an incentive program, if you bring a fairly expensive, long implementation software project which impacts the department budget, it will be fought even if it is the one thing that will generate the LOBs success.

With just this one example, it is clear that all department incentives need to be tied to the same metric if you want everyone working for the same goal.