I've just come from a killer pitch. It was to one of the world's largest employers. And there was a lot of pre-reading to do. We hurt ourselves in prep. Days of practice and "constructive feedback".

It gets tense and tiring.

You build your self up, and you knock yourself down again.

Then it's 38C and you start to yawn on the hot train trip to the client...

But they asked a really interesting and clever question that we answered as best we could.

But now that I think of it (yes, I'm in another airport) I realise that it's an interesting issue, I have never addressed here.

How do you plan to reward employees for making the changes we are trying to implement?

And my answer is: you don't.

Why reward people for finding ways to do their jobs better? Isn't that what they are employed to do?

The reward is actually in the process of asking people to think of better ways of doing things – and then giving them the latitude to do it.

There's a great piece in Freakonomics (not sure if I have plugged this book before!) where the authors cite an effort to increase blood donations in an American neighborhood by offering people money – I think it was US$5 – for their blood.

And donations dropped!

People would rather do things because it is a good, positive thing to do. They want to feel that they are making a contribution. Knowing that it is the right thing to do is reward enough.

I like to remind people of something unbelievably simple: people come into work to work.

Shocking I know.

But if you give them the tools they need to get better at their jobs, then you get them fired up.

And that is a major result, in and of itself.

Gold stars... rewards.... employee of the month.... role models.... sash prizes... certificates.... holidays...

Forget it.

Show me:

• how the business works,
• why I am important to it, and
• how I can make a real difference...