Incentives are a popular way to motivate workers and teams. The question is, how do incentives benefit team dynamics? The Incentive Research Foundation recently released an article addressing this very question. When asked whether they’d rather work on a team or as an individual, ¾ of workers surveyed said that they preferred to work as individuals. Despite these preferences, the majority of workers also acknowledged that teamwork is important to their company’s success. If used strategically, incentives can have a positive effect on team performance.  Most leaders tend to choose to recognize individuals over the team as a whole. The IRF postulates that this may be a result of individual successes being easier to observe and measure, rather than team performance. However, rewarding individuals doesn’t do a lot to improve the team’s performance, and there is a risk of creating jealousy or resentment.  Rewarding an entire team can be tricky, but it can also be very beneficial to your organization. According to the IRF, team rewards tend to do a better job of improving performance than individual rewards. Many researchers have found that the best results come from a hybrid model of individual and group rewards, particularly when you have […]

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