rules and incentives
"If you believe you can or you believe you can’t ... you’re right"
In these complex changing times organisations need individuals who can make things happen. Not just the people at the top but individuals from all parts of the organisation who have the power to take responsibility and make real decisions. And good decisions need wisdom ... which depends on experience.
The only way people gain experience is to try, to push the envelope, to explore the boundaries of their own possibilities and, inevitably, in their trying they will sometimes fail.
Often people feel either the destructive pressure of continual high performance or the fear of failure and being judged which awakens a self protecting instinct within us that whispers ‘its safest not to try’.
have patience
Experience tells us that big failures are not good. Big failures in mountaineering are usually fatal. Big failures are tough for the individual and damage the organisation.
Knowing this, the wise move is to have the courage to give people a safe space within which they can try and fail. The wise move is to support them when they fail. The wise move is to encourage them to get up again, and have patience as they reflect and learn and begin to believe they will succeed.
So good leaders, good developers of people, good teachers and coaches create exploratory environments where people will be safe, will fail, but also learn.
Now this presents a real challenge for those who have learnt through experience and know what to do. The temptation is to find the easiest, quickest and most controlling way to get others to learn, to short cut the process.
It’s easier to simply tell people what to do by using rules or motivate them through incentives.
interesting rules
Rules are interesting things. Nature seems to use a few simple ones, a minimal structure that describe dynamic relationships between one thing and another that guides behaviour and interactions.
From this simplicity emerges complex self organisation and adaptation although in an unpredictable and messy sort of way. However all adaptive systems are ones that learn as they engage with their environment and produce all the exquisite forms that we see in the world.
However individuals in organisations who can’t bear the uncertainty and messiness try to reassert control and start to use rules and incentives. They often think that more of both and better will bring the results they want.
Unfortunately they are never enough and, long term, these ‘tools’ create a downward spiral where we prevent disaster but ensure mediocrity.
just doing stuff
Organisational rules can often focus on what you can’t do and certainly too many rules spare you from thinking.
Rules in organisations often describe doing stuff ... but don’t describe dynamic interactions between people.
Often they are imposed to solve local problems or mistakes but are applied across an organisation where they may have little relevance. In the end they restrict people's ability to be flexible and to use their wisdom to choose the right way.
rules can fail
Stuff does emerge through relationships created by a minimal structure but rules focused on stuff will always fail because they don’t create the interactions and relationships necessary to create it.
Without the wisdom of relationships, however good you are, brilliance just isn’t enough.
In this increasingly complex and fast changing world we need individuals who feel they can act. We need people who know how to improvise, know how to take others with them, know how to improve care, kindness and empathy ... and so figure out the right thing to do.
We need people who can lead themselves and help others to do the same.
the edge of chaos
So, if we can bear this messy process of learning and allow people to evolve at their own speed in their own way, if we can manage the emotion that is created from exploring ‘the edge of chaos,’ then deep learning happens.
And through reflection and persistence, using energy and focus we learn how to get it right from getting it wrong.
smart incentives
When organisations use incentives to bring them the results they desire they should think about whether such rewards are for short term gains or for a long term improvement.
Often short term incentives have produced behaviour that was not anticipated and certainly not wanted. In fact such incentivised businesses can create problems for a wider society. We only need to look at the recent banking crisis to appreciate it.
Unfortunately incentives make people think what is in their personal interest rather than what their responsibility might be. Incentives also weaken people's desire to help one another which is built up through the accumulation of social capital.
If you help me then I will help you. In fact I have a duty to help you in order that I may get that help again.
The question remains whether incentives can be smart enough to create happy and productive groups of people.
