Show me the incentives
Incentives drive behaviour.
I’m still surprised by I much I have underestimated the above sentence in the past.
Do you know how it feels when you know something to be true, but still think it isn’t as true as some other things you’ve thought about, only to come back to adopting that thing you had once believed to be true?
That’s how I feel about incentives.
How compounding works has a similar effect too.
‘Consumption’ and non-consumption happen because there are incentives to make them happen. In this context, ‘consumption’ isn’t about people buying things, it is also about people accepting an idea, a policy, and a change.1
Align the incentives to the results you want to see, and you’ll be surprised how things fall in line.
Be vague about the result you seek, and you’ll be surprised by how the wrong things get prioritized.
Incentives aren’t everything.
But when you align this with direction and great leadership, the results are beautiful and sustainable.
Clayton Christensen, Karen Dillon, and my dearest Efosa Ojomo discussed this at length in their book, The Prosperity Paradox.