Shawnee Love   •  
December 19, 2013

WYSIWYG is a well recognized acronym brought into common use by the technology industry.  It is short for

• What
• You
• See
• Is
• What
• You
• Get

But in the world of people management, WYSIWYG is best replaced by WYPRIWYG  (wip-ree-wig).  Try saying that 3 times fast.

What it means is:

What You Praise and Reward Is What You Get —  WYPRIWYG 

Examples of rewards gone wrong that I have observed include:

• Piece rates for speed result in poor quality,
• Bonuses paid for big revenues only to discover profit is down due to the ballooned expenses.

In fact, a portion of the blame for the economic crash of 2008 was given to reward structures gone wrong:

• Volume of mortgages sold was more important than a home owner’s ability to pay back the loan, and
• Broker bonuses were tied to current returns with no eye to sustainability or long term health of the organization.

The point I am trying to make is:

What you pay attention to, what you measure and acknowledge, what you give bonuses, commissions, and incentives for is what will occur.

So if you are not getting what you expect or want from your employees, it is an opportunity to think about how your rewards and recognition activities are creating your reality , and how they might be changed to encourage the results and behaviours you want to see.

Well known business man and consultant Peter Drucker put it this way:

“If a company is to obtain the needed contributions, it must reward those who make them. Decisions on people and especially its promotions affirm what an organization really believes in, really wants, really stands for. They speak louder than words and tell a clearer story than any figures.”