The Motivational Manager

Motivation is murder -- literally

From Oedipus Rex to Murder, She Wrote, mystery stories have been a source of amusement and intellectual challenge since people first started telling and acting out stories. But only in recent times have organizations begun using the structure and formula of the detective story as a tool to teach, motivate, and reward their workforce. Believe it or not, murder can be motivational -- if you know how to do it right.

Menu for murder

"You don't want to kill someone bad," says Janet Rudolph, who engineers some 150 murders a year as chief mastermind of Murder on the Menu, an Oakland, Calif.-based murder mystery company. "You want to kill someone that people care about, or no one will want to solve it."

Murder on the Menu specializes in customized murder mystery events for corporations. Her clients have included such companies as Hewlett-Packard, Motorola, and Sun Microsystems, as well as nonprofits like the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Rudolph knows her topic well: She wrote her Ph.D. dissertation on religious themes in murder mysteries; she edits Mystery Readers Journal; and she is a board member of the Mystery Writers of America. "What I do is customize," Rudolph tells MM. "I ask questions like, 'What's the theme of your meeting? What are your goals and objectives? What do you want to reinforce?" With facts like that, along with information about participants' hobbies, habits, and favorite sayings, Rudolph creates a tightly plotted script, and her troupe of actors brings it to life. The meeting participants uncover clues and work together to solve the case.

One recent mystery scenario put 5,000 people to work investigating the case of the stolen mission statement. At the opening of a three-day trade convention, Rudolph played a video on a large screen showing a pair of gloved hands stealing the association's mission statement from the wall. Over the course of the next three days, the meeting attendees gradually received more clues: Scenes were acted out at cocktail parties, news clippings were distributed during breakout sessions, and more.

Rudolph's mysteries are more than just fun activities: They can advance organizational goals, she says. "A good example that comes to mind is a merger," she tells MM. "When you have two banks merging, and people are being shifted to new positions, a mystery event can be a good way for people to get to know each other and work together. And then, of course, we can talk about the policies of the bank in the story."

The case of the manager's murder

While professional expertise like Rudolph's can be worthwhile, a gifted amateur can still pull off some amusing mayhem. Take the mystery at Honeymoon Paper in West Chester, Ohio. Customer service worker Leslie Land was part of a trio of workers assigned to develop a regular fun project every two weeks. "We rented a Sno-Cone machine once so people could have Sno-Cones in the hot summer," Land tells MM. "We had people guess the amount of candy in a jar to win a prize."

When her boss went on vacation, Leslie and her cohorts decided to stage a murder at work. Employees arrived at work one morning to find a roll of yellow "caution" tape across the entrance to the boss's cubicle. Inside the cubicle they could view the outline of a body and various clues: a knife, a gun, a rope, a bloodstain, and other tantalizing hints. For the prize of a $30 gift certificate, employees had to name the murderer, the motive, and the weapon. After two days, Land distributed a poem to the 30+ employees containing additional clues ("With inkstained hands the lights were dimmed / Just one small stick would finish him...").

No one guessed the exact solution, says Land, but the winner came very close and received the prize. (The killer -- a football fan -- paid a new employee to kill the boss over a football pool.) Of course, when the boss returned. Land and her associates had to clean up his office. "He likes his desk just so," says Land.

Clues to the perfect crime

Mysteries may be rewarding and fun for employees, but whether you hire a company like Rudolph's or wing it like Land did, what do you need to know for a successful event?

Make it murder. "It's a crime people feel passionate about," says Rudolph. "You can do theft, but if it's not your money, who cares?"

Give yourself enough time. Land and her co-conspirators created their murder plot quickly. "We might take a little more time on the props and the clues if we did it again," she says.

Interaction is key. One way to encourage everyone to participate is to give each individual a separate clue. "The clue might read, 'You heard such and such about John -- go to the microphone and accuse him during the second course of dinner,'" suggests Rudolph. Her actors might also encourage participants to share their clues: "They might say things like, 'Wow, that's really important! I think you should get up there and tell everyone that!'"

Investigate interactive mystery games. Your local game store probably has a selection of party games with a mystery theme. You may be able to adapt the story to fit your own organization.

The lighter side of murder

A murder game is not just a diversion for the workplace. It can provide many positive benefits, including:

Teamwork: Participants learn to work together, building trust and mutual support.

Creativity: Sleuths start to think "outside the box" to come up with the right solution.

Interaction: Participants get to know each other as they ask questions and discuss clues.

Commitment: A game based around a company initiative or change can help people become more involved with its implementation.

Commemoration: An end-of-project murder mystery party can incorporate aspects of the project into the story, adding to the fun.

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