New Innovation Or Just An Old Idea?

Copyright: bowie15 / 123RF Stock Photo

I was tagged a while ago, by a fellow LinkedIn member and someone I have great respect for, Arnie Mckinnis.  It was in reference to an article associated with Forbes online site about eliminating sales commissions.  One CEO decided to do this and had some success and suddenly people think this is a trend we should be following and is worthy of an article in Forbes?  Slow your roll people...

First of all, so many management "innovations" of the past 25 years I've noticed are just a twist or a turn on an old philosophy.  Why do we always have to reach for something we perceive to be shiny and new?  And by the way, none of these ideas are entirely original, and in this post I'll explain why. Listed below are a few of the latest paradigm shifts that we seem to think are changing the way we lead or manage people. New innovation or an old idea reformulated? You be the judge:

1.) The Death of Sales Commissions - I find it amusing how suddenly business executives have decided that it's not in the best interest of the company, or the sales rep, to pay commissions if they meet or exceed their quota. How does this help a sales rep? By teaching them to how to stretch a dollar? I have read books, articles, and even a review from the Stanford Graduate School of Business entitled, "Eliminating Sales Quotas May Stimulate Profits". However, is this a ground breaking idea? Please reread that title and notice the emphasis on profit.  Of course a company's profit will go up if sales commissions go down.  It doesn't take a mathematical genius to figure out that if you spend less and get the same results your company's profit with increase. This isn't a new and improved idea. Saturn tried this 25 years ago, and where is Saturn now? There is no doubt this will work in a short term case study. But I would like to see them conduct a long term experiment and see how well they retain top sales people after eliminating sales commission. People are motivated intrinsically and extrinsically, especially people in sales. "F#$k you. Pay me!"
2.) Cold Calling Is Dead - Yeah right! The names have been changed to protect the guilty. I read a book 10 years ago entitled "Never Cold Call Again: Achieve Sales Greatness Without Cold Calling", and now with the advent of social media, writers are still piling on the grave of the cold call.  However, cold calling will never die, it has just been reclassified.  When you send an email or even an InMail, this is still a cold contact with a person you don't know.  So how is that any different than a cold call.  Cold calling isn't dead, it's now that we have different mediums to conduct a cold call.  We don't always have to do it in person. Nothing new here except how we make a cold call, either via the internet, phone, or in person.  It's still "cold".
3.) The New Motivation - Wow! Now businesses are using science to discover what drives people?. Is that a new concept? Nope. They've been doing experiments on motivation and behaviorism since the 1800's.  So why is "Drive" ,by Daniel Pink, supposedly the newest book on a paradigm shift in motivation?  Because it's well written, the explanation is simple and almost intuitive, and it was created by a great speech writer. I found the book fascinating and a very interesting take on motivational theory. However psychologists such as Skinner, Watson, and Maslow have been studying motivation for the last 100 years.  In fact, the experiment or Candle Problem and the study Pink refers to is over 50 years old. What Daniel Pink has done, is put all of this science behind motivation into a very simple formula to help layman like me understand how it will work in a practical setting. It's a good book, but I wouldn't treat it like a motivational bible, and I would definitely not base my entire company philosophy on one book. Pay people!!!
4.) Gamification : I think we called these "contests" at one time. Way back in the old days of the 1990's, we used to create contests to garner employee's interest. With the advent of technology and the newest entries into the work force, seaching for a new form of engagement, gamification has become another way to motivate employees to do what businesses want them to do. It is a new form of an old system, which we call competition. Millenials who were raised on video games, and are light years ahead of older people in terms of applying technology, love the concept of gamification.  For them, it's a different way of accomplishing tasks and still being engaged.  It's yet just another way of creating competition and is not really a new concept, just an old one with an SAS attached. Either way, it's a good way to get your employees involved.
5.) Holacracy - This was once called leadership by committee. We all understand that Zappos, Kolibri, Medium, Arca and other companies are using this as a leadership tool, and that empowering employees works. I think this is wonderful, and a very good way to keep employee performance and engagement at a maximum, but it's not that new, just a more advanced form of leadership by committee.  However, with it's advancement, holacracy seems very complicated and must be difficult for an entire organization to follow, especially when you start examining it in detail. There is a constitution for god's sake!  Really? "Am I working for you, or becoming a citizen of your country?"  It almost seems a bit cult like in it's nature, but if you're trying to create a culture, than empowering all your employees is a good place to start.  For me, I would rather have something simpler, like an open door policy that's actually an open door policy.  I think that just listening to employees at all levels and empowering them to help in the success of failure of a company is enough in itself. 

I can think of dozens more examples of an old idea becoming a "new" innovation, but my attention span is limited, and so is the space for this post.

After writing this article, I realized that everything old really can be new again, specifically an idea. It just needs a face lift, a little help from new technology, and a few adjustments.  And like an aging movie star, it can make a comeback.  There's hope for me yet...

Have a good day!