#2: Sam Glucksberg—Why Incentives Can Hurt Problem-Solving
Continuing my series on my 5 favorite pieces of research from Nothing to Take Away, we arrive at #2.
It’s easy to assume that the more money you offer, the more likely something is to happen. But research has shown time and again that humans are far more complicated than that.
Sam Glucksberg’s influential study explored exactly this complexity. Participants were asked to solve the classic “candle problem,” where they needed to attach a candle to a wall in a way that prevented wax from dripping onto the floor. To do this, participants had to overcome “functional fixedness”—recognizing they could use a box of thumbtacks as a candleholder rather than simply as a container. Surprisingly, participants offered higher financial incentives took longer and performed worse on the task than those offered lower incentives or no incentives at all.
What does this tell us about sales incentives? As sales roles become increasingly consultative and involve greater collaboration and creative problem-solving, we must keep Glucksberg’s findings in mind. While we can align performance with pay, attempting to financially incentivize better creative solutions simply won’t work. In fact, overly complex or aggressive incentives may backfire and stifle creative thinking.
This research provides yet another reminder to avoid trying to do too much with the sales incentive plan—keep it simple.
Honorable Mention: Dan Ariely
Dan Ariely expanded on Glucksberg’s findings through his experiments demonstrating the detrimental effect large monetary rewards can have on performance in tasks requiring cognitive skill and creativity. In Ariely’s study, participants faced challenges involving memory, creativity, and motor skills, with varying incentive levels offered. His findings echoed Glucksberg’s: performance deteriorated significantly when participants faced very high financial incentives compared to moderate or low incentives. Ariely reinforced the idea that while money can motivate straightforward, mechanical tasks, it often undermines creative and complex problem-solving tasks.
Stay tuned for #1—coming soon!
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