No matter what organization you join, there will be times of disappointment and frustration. At work for example, you might wonder why one person is getting paid the same amount as you when you feel like you are doing all the work. Worse yet, you might wonder how that person ever got promoted ahead of you in the first place! Those are the moments which demotivate the soul and cause you to fester with agitation.
If we are completely honest with ourselves, we should realize that it is virtually impossible to be a part of an organization whose members are always contributing equally. It’s just not realistic. Instead, we look for teammates who have a shared vision, and whose principles we can admire. We each have our own way of doing things, and that is what we must cherish in each other.
THE MOST IMPORTANT ASSET
The reason why some organizations have so many rounds of interviews and check so many references is because they realize that the most important asset is their people. What makes the Yakezie Network great are the 70+ Members and Challengers who have a shared goal of helping other people, improving their blogs, and developing their online revenue streams. The better our Members, the better our Network, hence the 6 month long Challenge to ensure we have built the best relationships possible that will stand trying times ahead.
I’ve always believed since the beginning that the Yakezie Network would grow to be something special. How could our organization not grow with so many gifted, and liked-minded individuals all striving towards the same goals? But, I also knew that growing pains were bound to happen. When organizations get too big, it becomes harder to maintain that cozy family-type atmosphere. Inevitably, people will come to their leaders and voice their concerns or complaints.
THE KEY TO CREATING SUSTAINABILITY AND GROWTH
Since this website’s launch in August of 2010 (the Yakezie started in January of 2010), we voted to move slowly to ensure that we could have the tightest relationships possible as we grow the network. In retrospect, this was the right move because growing for growth’s sake is generally unwise. I’ve always envisioned the Yakezie Network reaching 100 bloggers strong, and I still believe this to be the case. However, a 100 blogger Network is not as easy to manage as it may seem.
We established the Belts of Honor System very early in anticipation of growth. The entire idea behind the Belts of Honor system is to reward participation and to create a meritocracy. Members should now realize the power of the Yakezie Network as the economy rebounds and opportunities are now coming fast and furious. Those who have participated through comments, forum posts, Member Articles, tweeting, leadership roles and contributing to the Yakezie Writing Contest will be rewarded accordingly. The greatest thing about the BoH is that there is a 100% correlation with effort and points. Each Member controls their own amount of participation.
The Belts of Honor system has a 50% weighting in our Yakezie Network List, with Alexa, mozRank, and PageRank having a 30%, 10%, and 10% weighting respectively. Now that we have reached critical mass, and have built a strong and recognizable organization, we are now fully implementing the Belts of Honor System to decide in overcapacity situations who gets to participate. Let’s use a fun example, shall we?
Hawaiian Airlines contacts the Yakezie Network to enlist 25 Members to do a review of their new website on each Member’s respective blogs. As a reward, each of the Members gets a round-trip ticket to Honolulu from anywhere in the Continental United States. The Yakezie organizer of the Hawaiian Airlines opportunity publishes the offer in our private forums and opens up the offer for three days. In those three days, 50 members sign-up to nobody’s surprise. The Yakezie organizer will then select the top 25 based on the Belts of Honor system and not who signed up first. If for some reason only 10 Members sign-up after 3 days, we then move on to a first come first serve basis.
It would be nice if every opportunity could make room for all Members, but this will take time as the economy gets better, and more opportunities shift online from traditional media sources such as TV. Our upside also includes steadily grabbing a bigger percentage of the pie as we grow our brand. With this meritocratic method, we ensure the maximum fairness because the Belts of Honor system rewards those who are most involved and everybody has control over the level of participation.
MERITOCRACY + TRANSPARENCY = SUSTAINABILITY
Practically everything is rational. If someone wants to get a raise at work, they will work hard and build solid relationships with their clients and colleagues. If someone wants to build a great business, s/he will have to think beyond the status quo to make things happen. If someone is happy just the way they are, then all is good and there’s no need to do more. What we don’t want, and what we will never accept is a situation where one hasn’t tried harder, but also wants to reap all the rewards as well. That’s when organizations fail due to dissension.
With the Belts of Honor system, we promote a transparent and highly meritocratic method for those who want to participate more. Those Members who achieve Black Belt Status such as Budgeting The Fun Stuff should always be given an opportunity to participate because they’ve earned it. When an organization introduces a transparent system that promotes involvement by all parties, everyone wins! Thanks again to all the Yakezie Members for being such a wonderful group of people. Let’s keep this momentum going!
Members and readers, any organizational behavior tips you’d like to share? Have you ever been in a situation where someone takes advantage of the system to another’s detriment? How did you or the organization solve the issue?
Special Note For Members: I have written a specific set of guidelines based off the premise of this post in the Private Forums AC section. Please have a look!
Best,
Sam
Good stuff! The more your play (or work, or blog, or help, etc.), the more your get paid!
I did not know how the weights worked before. Thanks so much for clarifying!
I’m with the College Investor on this one – the more you play, the more you get paid! Nice.
Yep, we decided this last year in an older post. The idea is to EMPOWER you and all Members to control their own destiny. We want as tight of a correlation as possible with effort and reward.
I strongly believe that if every company or organization did this, they would be unstoppable.
Well I think it’s fantastic. I’m glad that there is a reward set in place for helping others.
I had not idea about the weights either. I agree with you here Sam, dedication should be rewarded. It’s only fair that those who work hard and contribute should also be rewarded. I wish I had some wise words to say on organizational behavior tips. Keeping things transparent, accountable and consistent are the best way to dispel any criticism or bitterness.
I think it’s only fair to give more opportunities to the people who take the time to build the network. Not everyone can take on a leadership role, but those who do should be rewarded with more opportunities.
My org experience is fairly simple. The people on a team who do the work should have more opportunities for growth (ie, they get promoted, better jobs, etc) and also get paid more. It’s not that complex actually.
Do you think part of the reason why there are unhappy folks in an organization because they still want to get promoted and paid, yet don’t realize they aren’t putting in as much effort as others?
I agree that growing pains are normal in a group this size. We will all have to work to keep our personal ego’s in check and keep the organization running as smoothly as possible.
I also hope though that our comments and forum conversations don’t become two word “attaboys” or “thanks” as people try to gin up belt points. I guess we will need to use the “Yakezie Honor System” to self-police that possibility. I guess if that becomes apparent we can change the point system, just as we have changed the ranking away from the strict Alexa ranking we started with.
Keep it up Sam!
I’ve never thought of that angle, and I don’t think anybody will really ever comment just for the sake of points. The BoH system should be in the back of folks mind, and just a reward system that goes along with the voluntary involvement.
Whether it’s a couple words or a multi-post paragraph, what’s important is participation.
attaboy, Dr. Dean.
Just kidding! ;)
Thanks for this post, Sam. I know that the idea of the belts has always been to reward those who participate, and I’m glad to see it being implemented fully. If I’m being honest, there are those who participate much more fully than I do, and why shouldn’t they get first dibs at these opportunities?
Also, a big thanks to you, Sam for being the figurehead of this whole thing and keeping the gears oiled.
Love it! Attaboy BB!
No problem! I love a fair system. Nobody can argue with fair!
Here is the problem I am finding, and maybe it is a lack of skills with negotiating, but just because we rank someone 1 through 25 I can’t get an advertiser to commit until they know they know the domains.
I have never gotten an open “find 25 buddies” type of relationship.
Part of the issue is not knowing who’s going to sign up for each opp, I think. But, with the belt system being used in this way for opps, I think, with the network list so heavily weighted with the belts, that it would be safe to say that the 25 will be the top 25 from the network list who are interested. That gives them an pretty quick overview of the participants, their URLs, and other rankings (e.g. pagerank and mozrank). It’s not perfect, but it should go a long way towards solving that issue.
I think we could also add ask them if they had a minimum ranking requirement like Alexa 2. That would narrow it down. Another option is to let them know there is a wait list? But that might complicate things as well I guess…
Another thing that might take a little more effort in the beginning but might make it easier down the line is to have a -“I am always in” list. For each type of ad (text link sidebar, in content, no follow banners) having a list of always in members. This will give an idea to the campaign managers who will sign up as they could easily sort based on BoH. After the deal is finalized the members have to confirm they are interested? Just a thought… don’t know how difficult this would be though…
Indeed. More discussion in the forum. There’s two sides to everything. We come up with our list, and then the other side must improve. It is the skill and coordination of the campaign manager that makes all the difference sometimes! It’s all about setting expectations.
Dr. Dean makes a good point. There should be some substance in the comments, posts, and forums, but overall I think our members are doing a terrific job. The Belts of Weights are awesome and I figured out early on that it was based on activity. So far, it’s been amazing interacting with such a dedicated group of bloggers.
I just want to thank you for starting the Yakezi network. The knowledge I have received from others has been beneficial. I couldn’t imagine going through this journey without the help of the other members here.
No problem. It’s good to have you. To not start this site would be a shame, since there was so much interest and momentum for the first 8 months after launch of the Network sans site!
It’s hard to remember what it was like before the this site. Anyone miss the google group?
I agree with Dr. Dean as well. I do think that the Yakezie members have shown enough integrity to not resort to this type of spamming – let’s hope that ranking in AC’s won’t change that.
@ Sam, you are 100% correct in your statement about organizations being unstoppable if they are built using this model. I just wished that more people realized this!
I really don’t see anything as “spamming” by the Members. Yakezie.com is simply the home for all of us to interact publicly or privately. I’d always rather have more interaction, even if it’s in shorter bits than less.
Looks like you are almost at Black Belt Status! An early congrats!
I agree to an extent. And while I am guilty of similar behaviour, it is super easy to say “welcome to the group” to a member who just joined and “post pad” even when this is not the posters intention.
That being said, I do not have a solution for post padding.
The campaign manager, perhaps, should have some lee-way to recognize 3, 5, 7, 10 bloggers they feel should be included in a campaign and then return to the BoH system for the remaining “slots”.
Sounds like a great idea and perfectly fair. Let’s just hope that members don’t start leaving one word postings or “great post” type of comments.
Sam, I can’t reiterate enough my gratitude for this organization and your tireless involvement. Is it perfect? Of course not as the comments reflect… No organization is perfect. It is definitely reasonable! (Life is not perfectly fair) And by the way-sign me up for the trip to hawaii :)
Wouldn’t it be funny if Hawaiian Airlines actually ended up reaching out to us? What a “trip” that would be!
Sounds like a great plan, Sam; too many organizations tend to rely on a first-come, first-served policy, which means that some people get the short end of the stick simply due to timing issues. This policy sounds like it should prevent most of that.
I think the change is more than fair. The 200k ranking is easy to achieve with or without Yakezie–but obviously being in Yakezie makes it a lot easier. I think the changes should do a lot to increase forum involvement…I’m surprised how few challengers and members alike show up here regularly. There are too many great resources and discussions, even for challengers, that make participation here super valuable to growing a blog!
Momentum is always strongest when one starts and fades as people’s interests wane. It’s like that for practically everything and it’s just the way things are.
Hence, part of the path to success has to be of consistent performance. Those who keep at it for the longest period of time, at a high quality level are usually the ones who succeed the most. Those who love what they do are the luckiest people on Earth.
Nothing like a little game theory to get things moving. :P
This idea is definitely rooted in some solid science…remember when the automakers started paying people to quit? Nothing like giving incentives to quit working…those who knew they could get another job (probably the hardest workers) threw themselves at that opportunity.
Thanks for your time in developing this network, Sam. Even though I’ve only been here for a little over two months, I know this thing is going to turn out great for everyone involved.
Sam, I’m pretty interested in this free Hawaii trip you got going. Can i get on the wait list for that?
Sorry, the wait list is closed! lol
I think this is definitely a fair way of doing things. Thank you for putting so much thought into it. One thing I have noticed though is that when I post on these articles, my Belt of Honor is immediately updated. When I post in the forums, it takes several days to update the number.
Side Note: I totally understand the need for non-spammy comments to up one’s rankings…but when people post “My ranking is down to XXXX, or I got a guest post at so-and-so”, I typically write back (as many others do) a very short congratulatory note. I think this is very important.
Hey Frugal, my point about spammy comments was meant tongue in cheek. I haven’t seen any sign of it so far, and I too like to say congrats, attaboy, and other comments of encouragement or snarkiness….
I too wouldn’t want spontaneity to be lost for worry about what people think! Forums are supposed to be conversations.
And on our contest essays-short comments of encouragement I think is very important.
No problem Amanda! People shouldn’t worry about whatever they comment as it relates to the BoH system. Honestly, the system is just a bonus. It’s like giving to charity. People give primarily to help someone else, not for the tax write off.
All is good!
I think what you have created, Sam is a great success and the merit system is more than fair. Definitely sustainable, in my opinion.
I haven’t seen many ‘spammy’ type posts in the forum either. Nor in comments.
It WOULD be funny if Hawaiian airlines actually did that, maybe we could link to this post in twitter, and @Hawaiianairlines them? ;)
K. Please do that for me would ya? That would be sweet! You’d definitely be in on that campaign! lol.
Can definitely relate to the unfairness of having a slacker colleague getting promoted at the same time as me at a prior job. Didn’t stick around long after that. Love the belts of honor system on Yakezie. Rewarding by merit is totally the way to go!
You have truly built something great Sam! Glad to know how how the belts of honors work.
I didn’t realize that we were still getting point for comments in the Yakezie forum. My points stopped accumulating a few weeks ago. My account must be broke (at least in the forums area)…
Hmmm, we’ll have to look into that. It should work. If you can @PKChrisJohnson or e-mail webmaster@Yakezie.com, that would be great. Actually, since you have him on the Yakezie Carnival stuff, ask him about this issue while you are at it.
Drat, I hit reply too soon.
I think the belt system is a great system! I personally can’t think of a more fair system to use. With the Yakezie, the more you put in the more you get out (especially with the add from the post)! How fair is that!?
Great system using the Belts of Honor to help with overcapacity. Honestly most of us completing or attempting to complete the Yakezie challenge are pretty hard working so I don’t think we have to worry too much about internal spam. :) Sam, did you base your system from a framework in your day job or did it just come to you through trial and error? Great work!
Hi Buck,
It’s just through what I learned in graduate school, and then a decade plus at my current organization. I’ve seen a lot of people come and go, much of the reason why is due to no proper incentive/reward system in place or people who have leap frogged others who may be harder at work.
If there was no system in place, and everybody got exactly what they deserved, then that’s great. However, that’s impossible, so it’s important to implement a transparent system that’s fair, where everybody can participate.
Organizational behavior is very difficult to manage, but also very rewarding if everybody gets on the same page.
Best, Sam
The belt of honor system is great for beginners like me with PR 0. It give us a chance to be noticed as we participate in the organization. Thanks Sam for all the hard work.
Couldn’t agree more retireby40! We are PR 0 but have good Alexa and MozRank and have gotten into the top 20 of Yakezie. We work to help fellow bloggers every chance we get.
As a military member, I like the system. Call it my trained and conditioned response to a structured organization, but it seems even handed as well as providing (like military rank) an objective external viewpoint of how much someone has put in to getting where they are! Cool stuff.
I’ve always admired and respect veteran military personnel. That order and discipline are two very desirable attributes. It’s no wonder why some of the world’s finest organizations/firms look to hire people out of the military!
I think this is a great idea. I had no idea that the belt system was used specifically in that way, I just wanted a green or blue belt cause I like the colors :) But it’s good to know the ultimate purpose.
Hi LaTisha, in the beginning it was just for fun and to reward those for participation with an open system. I do feel that those who rank towards the higher end of the Yakezie List probably get more opportunities, and it becomes a virtuous cycle. I like having a platform where if anybody wants to try harder, they can and get rewarded!
I love the BOH system because it rewards those who contribute and it’s a fair system – can’t beat that!
The more you contribute the more potential money you can make. It makes sense.
I just earned my yellow belt in karate yesterday, I’ll have to work extra to earn a better belt here too! ;)
Congrats on your Yellow Belt! Let’s get you to Green, Blue, or Red this year!
I agree with your approach – you’ve lit a fire under my butt! I’m haggling with an advertiser now for a campaign! It’s tough to pull off but rewarding to contribute and give back. Glad to be part of this great, sharing organization. Nice work Sam on this unique and awesome team you’ve built!
Darwin, succeed or fail in your campaign, it’s the effort that matters. We learn SO MUCH from negotiating, that it only helps us become better people and better business folks. Please do read what I posted in the private forums on ACs. Thnx
I am very polite with EVERY “guest poster” that contacts us. Most never will agree to advertising, and that is fine. But some do, and when they do, they are serious and it is exciting to engage them. Now that we are members I look forward to firing up our first campaign.
Also a great motivator to stay involved *and* it is a fair system.
Wow, I’m a little more informed now :) Very interesting stuff about the meaning behind the belts, sounds like a good plan. Thanks!
I am glad to see this next step in the evolution of the Yakezie and the expansion of the BOH role. Great thinking, Sam.
Really its a great post! I liked it very much.
I get excited every time I read more and more about what’s taking place in the Yakezie community. Although I still so new and still trying to learn the in’s and outs, I enjoy supporting the community as much as I know how. I am looking forward to learning more. P.S. I’m almost below 100,000 Alexa..(101,573) YIPPEE!!
Nice work! Just shoot me an e-mail when your six months is up and we’ll schedule a Member Post! Our Gamma Class starts end-June or so for 2 months of spread out Member Posting. Cheers, Sam
Hi Sam,
I think the changes are a good idea. The thing I’m wondering about is how do you sell the advertiser on a belt of honor system? They usually want to see a list of say, 20 or 30 site, and then choose the best 10 themselves, and their criteria is usually the page rank or moz rank. At least that has been my experience.
Maybe we can use the BoH to pre-filter to a smaller list and then let them choose based on that list.
It’s good to know how the Belts of Honor work, thanks for discussing that. :) Kudos to everybody in Yakezie for making a great job!