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Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Chris Anderson’s Hierarchy of Reward


Verisign had a mind bending Building A Better Internet program at the Newseum in Washington DC. Three pages of good notes, huge respect for the people on stage (2011 Judges Video). There will be posts on this program for months.

The keynote was Chris Anderson.

I’ve seen Chris Anderson before. His presentations are the equivalent of understanding a Neal Stephenson book in 20 minutes, an intellectual athletic event. This presentation was another fireworks performance.

By day he is editor in chief of Wired Magazine. At other times he runs the open source drone software foundation, has a couple of companies and writes books that change the current business paradigm. He does good Dad, too.

While discussing a half dozen other ideas Chris laid out his hierarchy of reward for his open source tribe.

Chris has stepped up to open source management of a business of things on the internet of things.

His last stick of dynamite over the side of the boat is, “Atoms Are The New Bits.” Now, that’s a bumpersticker!

Your thoughts?

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1 comment:

Unknown said...

Dick:

Rewards and status are first cousins - when I worked for System Sciences they did not have bigger or fancier offices as a sign of the individual's status...most offices were the same size, had windows, and standard collection of office furniture.

I noticed that the desk chair (huge leather one on rollers) varied in color and bling - I had a plain black chair; my boss had a green chair with a row of brass tacks around the back. The VP had a white chair with two rows of brass tacks around the back.

The lighter the chair and more ornate, the higher the status. And everyone knew this was how status was portrayed.

With Anderson's hierarchy, results and benchmarks are rewarded at an appropriate value level - commit and you get a shirt, deliver a viable product and you get ownership.

Too many stories of rewarding people on the prospect - giving ownership based on the expected contribution to the business - only to find them sitting about waiting for the payoff, instead of working toward making that happen.

Harder to rest on your laurels with just a tee shirt!

Great system!!!

Thanks,