Sticks Or Carrots?

In a lot of self-help and inspirational content, setting a goal that unlocks a reward is touted as a great way to stay motivated to get to the goal. This is a familiar combination that I think all of us have seen or heard in one form or another since we were young.

"If you finish your broccoli, you can have a cookie."

"If you get an A on your report card, we'll go out for ice cream."

"If you finish all of your chores, you can have a friend over."

"If you hit this sales quota, you'll be invited to the boss's house for dinner."

A pretty easy formula that certainly has its value in its simplicity and ease of understanding the obligations on both sides.

But as I have gotten older, I have realized that the pain and discipline to actually do a lot of things that I know I need to do aren't worth the cookie at the end of the road. So I stop and while I don't get the cookie, I also don't achieve the goal. The punishment for not getting the goal is not getting the cookie.  

This led me to start adding downside risk to my pursuit of goals. It wasn't just forgoing the carrot waiting for me, it was also avoiding the stick.

This is different than just not getting to do the fun thing you wanted to do with someone else if you got your goal (see past post about involving others) This is a wholly new feature in the accountability framework.

A few examples that I have taken part in over the years.

• Rivalries - If I missed my sales goal for my summer internship in between my junior and my senior year, I had to attend my first day of classes my senior year wearing a t-shirt from our rival school. There is no color worse in the world than burnt orange. No one, not even Matthew McConaughy looks good in that color. And, as it turns out, I didn't either. I had a lot of terse conversations that day with very enthusiastic Aggies wondering what the hell was wrong with me.

• Campaign Contributions - During a tumultuous election season in recent memory, a friend had a goal for their company and the speed of their growth. They told their inner circle that they needed help keeping all the trains running on time and staying focused and they'd need us to make sure they didn't get distracted. If they missed the goal, they had to donate $1,000 to the campaign of the candidate that we all were campaigning against. We all made sure they got their goal.
• Blackmail - I had a fitness goal a few years ago. It wasn't a big one, but it was important to me. So I took a picture of myself in my boxer briefs and gave it to my accountability partner for this goal and told him that if missed the goal, he got to post that picture with whatever caption he wanted on social media. Fortunately, that picture was deleted a month later when I hit my goal.
• The SATs and Hot Wings - A big problem in a lot of Fantasy Football leagues is that after a certain point in the season, half the league knows that they can't win the championship and those managers start to pay less attention. That throws off the balance of the league if you only have some people showing up and making trades and fighting for their roster every Sunday. So a few years back, we instituted a last-place punishment to make sure no one wanted to be in last place. In the first league I was in that we did this, the punishment was you had to register for and take the SATs again. In my most recent league, the last place finisher had to sit at a bar for 12 hours and the only way to reduce their time there by an hour was to eat 7 hot wings. The gentleman who came in last place ate 42 wings and was free to go after six hours.

In a culture that grew up with participation trophies, consequences are not as frequent as rewards. And while the examples I gave above are not scalable across performance platforms in the way that rewards are (badges, closing your rings, ride number 500 plaque.. etc) I wonder if there isn't a way to build downside risk into our goal setting as another lever on the accountability mechanism?

If you are reading this post and not already a "Roomie" - we'd love to include you in our discussions this month. In the same way we've tackle Curiosity and Accountability, we are diving into Community in April! Only Roomies have access to the conversations in real-time and are invited to the virtual meet-ups and discussions. You can join just for this next month or you can sign up for the year. Just check out your options here