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Enterprise 2.0, Motivation and Gamification: The Turkey Soup Part 2

Oh Oh.
Something went horribly wrong in Motivation Land.

The kids stopped eating the turkey soup...
(This only makes sense if you read my earlier post)

WHAT HAPPENED??

What I thought to be a brilliant move in the Gamification of Supper has now failed.

Let me back up.

I had made a game out of finding bones in the turkey soup.
This was exciting and novel for the kids and they gobbled soup like they hadn't eaten for a week THE FIRST TIME.

Fast forward to today.
I pulled out the turkey soup from the freezer, heated it up and presented it to the kids.

Kids: AWESOME DAD!! Do we get 10 cents for every bone we find again??

Me: Why YES OF COURSE YOU DO children!

They dug in.

Then.. THEY STOPPED EATING THE SOUP.

"What's going on" I thought.

Last time they gobbled it right to the bottom and this time they gave a cursory scrape along the bottom to find bones-
and then
just.
stopped.

Me: "What's wrong with the soup guys?"

Kids: "We don't really like the soup Daddy"

They don't really like the soup! My mind raced. What had gone wrong. Then it hit me. Of course.

They ate the soup initially as there was a reward. Rewards have been proven to have some value for short term gain. Over time though, the reward has not been worth it to the kids since they don't really like the soup.

They have no INTRINSIC motivation to eat that soup, only the EXTRINSIC reward that I was offering to them.

Next time I'll have to find a way to connect them with some INTRINSIC motivation to eat the soup...

Although for that one, I have no idea.

And for the record, I didn't really like the soup either.
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Comments

  1. Bridie ChristopherMay 19, 2012 at 11:32 PM

    don't like a lot of soup either, i wouldn't eat it either!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Baja By BusMay 19, 2012 at 11:33 PM

    Food for thought! Thanks :-)

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  3. barryMay 19, 2012 at 11:37 PM

    turkey hard enough to eat anyway, but tell me if they had choke on a turkey bone, What would be be writing then ?

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  4. rezaahmedMay 19, 2012 at 11:37 PM

    yes Absolutely ,foods for thought

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  5. Barry GummMay 19, 2012 at 11:38 PM

    Maybe increase the reward to 50 cents ......?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Richard TownsendMay 19, 2012 at 11:41 PM

      Sorry Barry that won't help... money isn't a motivator. Better to improve the soup! http://youtu.be/0YArzO3b4w8

      Delete
    2. Richard TownsendMay 19, 2012 at 11:42 PM

      The other thing you have to remember improving the soup means different things to different eaters.

      Delete
  6. Richard TownsendMay 19, 2012 at 11:39 PM

    Its the old "money is a motivator myth"... its only good until they get it then they shuld have had it before you gave it to them. Actually you may like this... http://youtu.be/0YArzO3b4w8 . I have been a management/leadership trainer for some years and it is a fascinating and greatly misunderstood d area. Many don't get the idea that motivation comes from within. Great post thank you!

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  7. Bill MartinMay 19, 2012 at 11:40 PM

    I enjoyed this. Thank you for the blog.

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  8. UnknownMay 19, 2012 at 11:42 PM

    @ Although for that one, I have no idea. And for the record, I didn't really like the soup either.

    What's recipe ? Maybe some additional spice or different preparation would do it for the intrinsic motivation ?

    Did the soup come with some yummy dip for the turkey ?

    Ever tried to eat the soup with chop sticks ? ;-)

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  9. Satish JawaleMay 19, 2012 at 11:42 PM

    Well good knowledge sharing... thanks for the same

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  10. AnonymousMay 19, 2012 at 11:42 PM

    That is one way to take the clean plate, or bowl in this case, club to another level. I tried the denial of dessert as a way to get plates clean, but it turns out the kids had the same meh attitude about that as they did my meals. That led to a phase of everyone getting custom made meals which wor me out but made them happy. Finally, I went back to cooking whatever and they ate or they didn't. For awhile, they walked away in protest, but after an hour or so and no snacks to be had, they would come back and finish their meal. The only motivating factor was to not be hungry. My parents pulled it on me and although i swore I never would, I gotta admit it works. Now everyone just eats - making a few faces at times, but we all get a healthy meal.

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  11. geegemroseMay 19, 2012 at 11:45 PM

    Really interesting experiment!

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  12. at0micMay 19, 2012 at 11:46 PM

    see, thing is, I don't like bones in my soup :-)

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  13. Yordie SandsMay 19, 2012 at 11:48 PM

    I read this and rather quickly I got the impression you are talking about Empire Avenue. And to that I'll agree, interesting food for thought.

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  14. StepahnieBealeMay 19, 2012 at 11:59 PM

    Very interesting if this is a correlation with EmpireAvenue missions

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  15. UnknownMay 20, 2012 at 12:07 AM

    Why is it always difficult to get kids to eat food that adults know is good for them - still struggling with this question with a couple of teenage boys.

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  16. FractalsMay 20, 2012 at 12:10 AM

    http://www.expertalumni.com/blog/2012/04/ceos-and-the-candle-problem/ and http://www.expertalumni.com/blog/2012/04/and-whilst-we-are-on-the-topic-of-motivation/ might be two of my posts you might enjoy

    to me you are talking way more than EA - this is the entire issue of gamification as applied to social media ..... it is a challenge

    ReplyDelete
  17. Heinz DobernigMay 20, 2012 at 12:11 AM

    Nice story, you should cook a better soup, thats all ;-)

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  18. AnonymousMay 20, 2012 at 12:19 AM

    I thought this was very interesting on many levels... food for thought.

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  19. abacnokMay 20, 2012 at 12:19 AM

    Ahh, you miss the main point. When you put supper on the table, always have one dish, or food item, which you WANT the kids to eat, but you tell them to eat anything on the table, but leave that dish alone, as it is Mom's or Dad's favorite and they can't have any of it until after Mom or Dad has eaten all they want. When I was growing up, none of us kids cared for chicken wings. Not enough meat on them. So, Mom started eating none of the chicken except the wings and we were told to take any of the chicken, but not to take any wings, because they were Mom's favorite. Wasn't long, and all us kids were fighting over who got the wings.

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  20. Lay AnglicanaMay 20, 2012 at 12:33 AM

    Clearly deep psychology has to be brought into play here. I think abacnok is on to something - after all the children were quite prepared to eat/drink the soup when there was an attractive carrot involved. Although Richard also has a point - improve the taste of the soup. Tomato ketchup anyone?!

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  21. Tareq G.May 20, 2012 at 12:40 AM

    Good one. Over here, we use a similar strategy but the rewards are more physical (going out to the park, going for a bike ride) & we occasionally use the chocolate reward too.

    ReplyDelete
  22. UnknownMay 20, 2012 at 12:42 AM

    The soup needed some interesting zest to keep the children interested in eating it. A reward is fine, but all too often, the reward is the end in and of itself. The soup is more of a cost than a benefit in that case. Unless the soup is tasty, exciting, and brings requests for bowl after bowl, the reward will run into the law of diminishing returns.

    ReplyDelete
  23. AnonymousMay 20, 2012 at 12:44 AM

    Earlier article re: gamification of homework, 1st article re: soup, and this article, all had varying results. Interesting. How did homework experiment progress?

    ReplyDelete
  24. UnknownMay 20, 2012 at 12:45 AM

    Food for thought! Thanks :-)

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  25. EkarlehavMay 20, 2012 at 1:19 AM

    Well if you wanted them to be thrilled then maybe your should have started out with hot dogs - soup is kind of meager, cheap and almost does not fill it's purpose ;)

    ReplyDelete
  26. Fit N Well Inc. And HW Photo & SafarisMay 20, 2012 at 8:50 PM

    Well at the end of the day, I suppose extrinsic rewards only go so far. Once that threshold has passed, you still need to have a quality product, service or in your case soup for ongoing success.

    Thanks for your blog.
    http://www.harveywildlifephotography.ca

    ReplyDelete

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