You Cannot Incentivize What Has Not Been Recognized

Executive Field Note 023

Incentives direct behavior toward what has already been defined.

A target.

A metric.

An outcome.

But incentives cannot reveal what the organization has not yet recognized.

Worse, they can intensify commitment to what it already believes matters.

Motivation is powerful after direction becomes clear.

Before that, more motivation may simply accelerate the existing frame.

What are your incentives making more important simply because you decided to measure it?

Published by Executive Insights. A publication of Axiom Research Press