> Baer offered the following strategies for avoiding the potential negative effects of awards and instead using them to encourage creativity:<p>> Make sure that rewards and recognition are not only offered for the outcome of the creative process -- a new product -- but also for the process of developing the outcome. For example: Have we challenged key assumptions? Have we tested our prototype properly?<p>> Reward both success and learning from failure. What becomes a success is difficult to predict and often entails a fair amount of luck. Thus, success and failure often lay close together. Learning from failure can be immensely beneficial and should be encouraged.<p>> Do not glorify someone who had one creative success by offering an outsized reward. If you want to glorify people, celebrate those who can produce creative work repeatedly.<p>Interesting that the first two are pretty well-known (if not well practiced). The last I find interesting and wonder to what degree it applies in an engineering/management context. I doubt an 'award' is sizeable enough to matter--for some, a huge promotion could paralyze output. We recognize this as imposter syndrome, usually considered false but in this context could be valid.