Those of you reading this in the UK may have seen the documentaries that have been on TV recently about trawler fishermen. This fascinating series followed the fortunes of several Scottish trawler skippers and their crews as they went about making a living in one of the most dangerous ways possible.

What was interesting to me was that every member of each crew recognised that the reward they received – their pay - was directly related to the quality and quantity of fish landed every time the nets were hauled in. Profit-share in its most basic form! The success or otherwise of each haul directly affected the morale and mood of the crew because it directly affected their standard of living when they got home. The result of everything they did was known by all as the net’s contents spilled onto the deck, and openly discussed (this was best illustrated by the crew member stroking a particularly large and quite valuable - but quite dead - cod and telling us how he was going to have a new car, Sky TV and a new house).

Do you think this promotes better teamwork? Would you say it gives everyone a common purpose? I’d say it does. And yes, I do think these are good things to have.

Yet in many more ‘conventional’ businesses results tend to be kept secret and are rarely discussed. Everyone gets on with their job without necessarily knowing the outcome or how what they did made a contribution. And results aren’t usually linked to reward.

So why not find a way to share the results of everyone’s hard work? Put a chart on the wall; have a bit of fun with it. One company I worked with – a travel business specialising in ski holidays – created a picture of a mountain on the wall with a moveable cable car denoting progress against the season’s sales target (the summit of the mountain). It helped everyone in the office to understand what needed doing.

And find a way to share the success as a means of motivating your team. I once heard that airline pilots can use excessive amounts of fuel on landing if they don’t bother to fly their plane efficiently. One airline addressed this risk by making its pilots shareholders. I expect that made them think about the quality of their work…

How many fish did you land today?