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In a drawer somewhere, I think I still have the first free t-shirt I got at a life guarding team competition at the Naperville Centennial Beach. We all joked at the time that it wasn’t about winning, it was all about getting the t-shirt, and truthfully it was. Having attended tradeshows, charity events, sporting events, and work events over the years I have seen how motivated and sometimes crazy folks can get about getting these types of rewards, which leads me to a story.
When Fake Currency Turned Into Real Motivation
Back in the day when I was working at a video game company one of our company executives came up with the idea of giving out <company name> bucks to individuals that did something you wanted to reward in a small way. These <company name> bucks could be accumulated and turned in for prizes. You could redeem the <company name> bucks for things like game systems, gift cards, swag, etc… At the time, I thought it was pretty much the stupidest idea ever but I was wrong, not my first time being wrong and according to my partner the times I have been wrong cannot be counted. But I digress. Even though everyone thought it was kinda dumb, the managers (me included) started giving them out as rewards for the little things. Fixing a hard issue, having a good idea, hitting a milestone, going out of their way, pretty much any time a reward could be given. What happened? It kinda worked. People would go out of their way to do extra things with the expectation they would get a couple <company name>, in addition some folks started trading them on the side for lunch, beer, or favors. I ended up using my <company name> bucks to redeem a pink Nintendo DS to give my daughter.
What Was Actually Going On
Nowadays I realize it wasn’t about the specific reward but about recognition,creating a positive feedback loop, winning, and getting something for “free”.
For example, you want everyone in your company to complete the required GDPR training. You could do the usual thing and send out reminders over e-mail & slack and get your people managers to reiterate to their reports the importance of completing the training and track completion OR you could offer small rewards or make it a competition! The first 10 finishers get a gift card, the next 10 get a t-shirt, and the first department gets a free lunch. Yes, people should complete this training on time because they are being paid and it is the right thing to do but we all know that if a $10 Amazon gift card or a free t-shirt says, “First Place GDPR Training 2026!” was on the line, it is unlikely I would have to bug folks to complete their training.
When Gamification Goes Wrong
Another friend had an idea of gamifying JIRA so that teams would “score” when completing a successful sprint and either get a reward or try to out score other teams for a quarter. I told him if he got that to work well I would throw up a site where we could calculate odds and bet on the scrum teams. Theoretically this would end up being a real mathematical predictor of teams hitting their sprint and consequently a predictor of a project being completed on time. Thinking this through it became clear that something like this had the potential for all kinds of exploitation, gaming the system, and could end up being the opposite of motivating. In fact, a VP I worked for came up with a Kudos award where folks could fill out a nomination form to call out and compliment a co-worker for doing something above and beyond their role for a small prize. Their name, what they accomplished, and a thank you would be read out at the monthly town hall. The first month we ended up with something like 75 people being nominated out of a group of 150 which meant everyone just nominated everyone else which was not the point or very motivating. So if you think of doing something like this, think about all the angles.
So I got kinda of sidetracked from my original point about my theory of free t-shirts with stories, like the time I found a compiler bug in the SN Systems Playstation 2 compiler, after hours of pain, and they sent me a free t-shirt which I wore proudly for years, but I digress.
The Grand Unified Theory of Free T-Shirts
So here's my grand unified theory of free t-shirts: it was never really about the shirt. The shirt is just the physical manifestation of a small, simple, uncomplicated win. You did a thing, someone noticed, you got proof. That's it.
If you're trying to motivate people, find a simple version of the thing. Free lunch, a gift card, a t-shirt that says something slightly ridiculous on it. Hand it out fast, make a small moment of it, and don't build a whole system around it. The more elaborate the system, the more people will figure out how to game it and I say that as someone who once redeemed fake corporate currency for a pink Nintendo DS.
Keep it stupid simple. The t-shirts will take care of the rest.
