You may not be familiar with IKEA, the Swedish retailer who sells everything from meatballs to full kitchens, all with names like Flark and Hemnes. Nearly all of their furniture is “build-it-yourself.” I know it sounds like is might be a nightmare, but you would be wrong (mostly). Their main selling point is that they allow even the most unskilled human to build good-looking, fairly durable, things. Most can be completed in between one and four hours. Use their methods for building your incentive plans. You can thank me later.
- Make things feel familiar.
IKEA uses the same basic diagram system, basic black lines on a white page, for everything you build. This consistency means if you’ve built one thing from IKEA, you can build anything from KIEA. Keeping things simple doesn’t mean they have to be basic it means they have to be easy to understand. - Pay attention to detail.
The fit and finish of the products is nearly always perfect. Every hole is predrilled to the exact depth and diameter. Every screw, knob, and piece of trim fits like a jigsaw puzzle piece. You never have to force things. Your incentive plan should be designed to ensure even the unexpected isn’t a surprise. - Provide the right tools.
Any person who has built an IKEA product has extra parts in their house. This is intentional. More importantly, the Allen wrench for each product is custom fit to ensure it rotates smoothly with a minimum of scraped knuckles. Every other tool required is something every adult has in their toolbox. When you build an incentive plan, take the time to customize the tools for planning, modeling and tracking progress. - Design with the future in mind, but remember you aren’t creating an heirloom.
IKEA makes sure customers feel good after they finish. This inspires doing it again. Their designers also understand you’ll be back. Colors repeat across many products. New things always seem to work with something you already have. The next purchase and transition seem planned…because they are. - Make sure efforts pay off.
All of the familiarity, ease, and well-thought-out designs would be pointless if the final product sucked. Nearly everything I have purchased from IKEA looked good the day I put it together and looks good today. The beds are comfortable, the kitchen cabinets work great and my wife seems happy. Make sure your incentive plan delivers on its promise. You’ll be amazed at the success of the plan that follows!
Yes, there are flaws. The most basic products use the same tools and instructions as the most complex. Putting a shelf together can feel far more difficult than a flat surface should be. But this is offset by the fact that building a dresser requires exactly the same understanding and skills. Your incentive plans can benefit from being far more translatable.
Big projects have a lot of pieces and several pages of instructions. If you don’t understand the benefit of doing a good job, it may seem too daunting to do the job at all. If you are only planning to use something for a short while, can be it easier to buy something ready-made. If your incentive plan is going to be an interim solution, it may more expedient to copy something borrowed from a friend.
Lastly, building IKEA furniture is unfulfilling for truly skilled craftspeople. They don’t need or want the help and may find the process to be beneath them. Every company has a few super-performers who can find a better way. Sometimes it makes sense to do special for them, just to keep their head in the game.
Dan Walter is a CECP and CEP and works as Managing Consultant for FutureSense. He is passionately committed to aligning pay with company strategy and culture. Dan is also a leading expert on equity compensation issues and has written several industry resources including the one-of-a-kind Performance-Based Equity Compensation. He has co-authored ”Everything You Do In Compensation is Communication”, “The Decision Makers Guide to Equity Compensation”, “Equity Alternatives” and other books. Connect with Dan on LinkedIn. Or, follow him on Twitter at @DanFutureSense.
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Posted by: Job NMK | 04/04/2019 at 12:38 AM