I missed doing a post Friday and yesterday.

I feel somewhat bad about that as I promised myself to post a short snippet on how best to apply incentives and influence every workday. That was on September 9, 2019 – the rebirth of the brand “Incentive Intelligence.”

And I think I’ve held pretty close to that promise. Until now.

I’m sorry.

But I’m moving on. As everyone should. Lapses happen.

But I’m not on the couch eating Bon Bons and missing deadlines. I’m planning 2020. And frankly, that is taking more work than I had planned. I’m not really great at planning.

That’s not actually true. It’s not that I can’t plan. It’s I think I plan too well. I see too many possibilities, complexities, and pivots and I try to plan for those today even though they are 2% probabilities in 5 years. Since I see them, I try to account for them in my plans. Not always the best way to plan.

Sometimes small plans are best. And that insight reminded me to tell you when you design your incentive and influence programs, take time to ask your audience to plan how they will earn awards and hit goals too. And reward them for that planning. Don’t ask for a 20-page PowerPoint – just a list of 6 or 8 bullets that will help frame their efforts moving forward.

I know it’s not a “result” in the traditional sense but trust me – you’ll get a much higher return on your incentive investment if you ask your audience to plan how they will earn awards. That planning starts the process of mentally committing to success. When humans commit to something the odds of them succeeding go way up.

So, plan away. In small steps. Ask your audience to plan as well.

And please – take some time to enjoy the holidays.