This is Hidden Brain, I'm Shankar Vedanta.

Matthew Taylor is a lawyer in Southern California.

He runs a small law firm.

We have a total of five people working here.

And specializes in defending employees from unfair practices in the workplace.

So, Matthew thinks a lot about employees.

What makes them unhappy? What makes them tick?

We're in contact with each other for eight hours a day, five days a week.

And so it's real helpful if people are happy with each other.

And he asked himself how he could make his employees happier.

Matthew's firm gives out holiday bonuses at the end of the year.

And it's not reflective specifically on their performance.

Matthew decided to tinker with the system.

In addition to the bonuses at the end of the year, what if people got bonuses

throughout the year?

They would be smaller, of course, but would provide a steady stream of appreciation.

Matthew also put in place a second idea, a radical idea.

What if instead of having a manager decide who got the bonuses,

employees awarded bonuses directly to one another?

The peer bonus system was a system that, as we put it in place,

allows any of the people in the office to give a cash bonus to any of the other people in the office.

Matthew figured that if anyone knew about a worker's accomplishments

...