Jamie met me in the break room, where I was trying to make an executive decision between the hazelnut or European blend coffees.

“I have been thinking about what you said,” Jamie started. We had been discussing how teenagers can sit for hours in front of a computer game, maintain an aggressive level of interest, solve complex problems and achieve a high level of achievement, without the traditional elements of motivation we think about at work.

“At first, I thought about how I could make work more like a game,” she said, “but I stopped, because work isn’t a game. It is real, with real accountabilities and real consequences. And that is when it hit me.

“As a manager, I try to do all this up-front stuff trying to get my team motivated to get the work done. But it’s not the stuff I do up-front. It’s more in the consequences. I need to focus more on the consequences. I need to focus more on what happens after the behavior, than what happens before the behavior.

“Like what?” I asked.

“Like noticing that they show up on time. Making a fuss about their work area when it is straight and orderly. Celebrating the small successes in the day, when we get an order out the door. Making progress visible as we work through the day. Having the team do some of their own quality inspections and taking corrective action before the QC department gets involved. Making sure we take note when we hit certain levels of competence. And recognizing the big stuff when we master it.”

“What do you think the big difference is?” I asked.

“All the stuff we do before is external. It’s outside the person. The stuff we do after, works internal, it works inside the person.”