Image you are the CEO. You have the option of creating two types of environment. In the first, your people grow. They get better over time. They become increasingly capable, more productive and able to take on bigger and bigger challenges. In the second environment, your people don’t grow; instead you try to focus them on execution.

Which environment would you prefer to create?

Which environment would you prefer to work in?

As a manager today, how much effort do you put into making sure that your people grow?
Go to Amazon.com, click on their “Most Popular” link and look through the top 30 titles. Generally, at any given point in time, at least 30% of those top 30 titles are books that focus on self-help, self-improvement, and how to make your company more efficient, innovative, and profitable.

At work, people are generally in it for themselves.
The question becomes, how do you motivate these self-centered, self serving people to play nice with the rest of the organization?

A May 2005 article in Scientific American on the economic underpinnings of chimp and monkey behavior gives a nice clue. The article talks about the notion of Reciprocal Altruism. An altruistic act is supposed to a kind action given without any request of payment. The principle of reciprocal altruism is closer to the notion of political capital. In the article, scientists studied how chimps share a new leafy treat, depending on which chimp in the social ranking was given the fresh branch. It turns out that even the most senior chimp will not steal a branch from the lowest chimp on the social ladder. It also appears that lower rank chimps do not feel compelled to give treats to the leaders of the troop. Instead, they share amongst their friends. There is only one exception to this. Junior chimps will share with a non-friend senior chimp if the senior chimp has recently shown them some kindness; scratched ticks off their back that morning, for instance. The researchers set up the experiment so that senior chimps had no idea which junior chimp was getting a treat later in the day.

In one example, the researchers tell the story of Reggy, an alpha male who showed some kindness to Johnny, a relatively powerless and low ranking young adolescent . Reggy and Johnny were not friends. (The names have been changed to protect the innocent.) They usually spent little time together. However, if Johnny was given a treat in the afternoon, and Reggy had been nice to him that morning, Johnny would share his treat with his friends and with Reggy that afternoon.

Reggy had shown an altruistic act of kindness to Johnny; when Johnny was in a position to return the favor, Reggy could be expected to be treated well.

Companies wishing to harness the creative energies of innovative creators must create a corporate social fabric that encourages reciprocal altruism.

For people to simply offer up good ideas, or actively help people from disparate departments to solve problems and create innovative solutions, they must have some feeling that their efforts will be recognized and rewarded.

A bank teller in De Moines calls an agricultural wholesale lender in Sacramento and a trader in capital markets to let them know there is an opportunity to help a reputable corn farmer finance a new crop and supply the crop price hedge. The bank makes a nice profit off the deal. The only way this will happen in the first place is if the teller needs to know about the two departments and the products they sell. He also needs to be able to find out who to get in touch with, and he needs to feel that he will be listened to. Finally, he needs to be certain that he will be rewarded for his contribution and initiative. A one time $50 bonus is not going to cut it; nor would a 5% chance of getting his picture in the weekly email newsletter. Instead, the teller needs to know that a permanent public record of his efforts will be created and that in addition to the $50 bonus, his efforts will help forward his career. He needs to feel that he works in an environment that will eventually provide reciprocity for altruism.

Giving every member of your team access to tools that enable them to display publicly their contributions to the group effort creates an environment that supports reciprocal altruism.

For the cynic who feels that this could not work when the objective is innovation, simply look at the world of scientific academia. Professors and PhD students at universities are generating a constant stream of innovations. Imagine how fast this stream of research and invention would switch off if all papers were published without the author’s name.