In companies, people generally find that feedback about performance is top-down and negatively biased. At Second Life, The Love Machine was a way for any person to send love to any other person inside the company, Linden Dollar, with a few words about why.
"For example, I might send somebody love for taking on more responsibilities or for doing a really good job with a customer or for cleaning up something in the accounting system. Somebody might send me love for being a good mentor or for helping him or her think through a tough problem. We keep track of all that in the database, and it’s all transparent. It becomes an interesting set of data with which to evaluate performance. In fact, we tie it to compensation a little bit. At the end of a quarter, we’ll pay out about one percent of the aggregate salary for every love you receive. That translates into about $3 per love. For each employee, it can be a few hundred dollars of thank you." ~ John Zdanowski [1]
After the article was published the use of the data from the love machine evolved from just "the cash in the pink envelope" to being included in the review process. "Each employee would select ten loves they received that represent their contributions to the company during the period.” [1]
John's recounting of The Love Machine at Second Life inspired the Love Machine in One.
Contexts
[1] Second Life’s John Zdanowski, cfo.com
#john-zdanowski (See: John Zdanowski)
#second-life (See: Second Life)