Newsflash!
Incentives and rewards are harmful to tasks that involve creativity. They bigger the reward, the more harmful. This is a must-watch video. Many thanks to Yves for posting this is on his blog.
There is a mismatch between what science knows and what businesses does. Incentives are only helpful for a small range of simple challenges where there is no requirement for creativity.
Maybe this is why I have done my best to ignore bonus plans and just do the right thing…
Daniel suggest 3 basic element that can unleash productivity:
- Autonomy – Agile translation: self-organizing team. Lean translation: Independent teams, Leadership by A3
- Mastery – Agile translation: Retrospectives, Pairing, Craftmanship. Lean translation: Mentorship, Quality
- Purpose – Agile translation: Connection with business and working software. Lean translation: Focus on Value
This fits very well with the mental outlook I use to help companies excel.
In the Agile space, David Harvey’s blog discusses Alfie Kohn’s book on this subject and comes to similar conclusions.
Check out my related post: SMART goals may not be that smart
Update
New sketch-video is very cool. It has a better overview; original is still better on the science part.
