Imagine having a five-person team for Tug-of-War. They line up to pick up their side of the rope, and they all face north. Then you tell the first person in the line that they’ll receive $100 if they move thirty feet west; the second person that they’ll receive $100 if they move 40 feet east; the third person that they’ll receive $100 if they move sixty feet southwest, and so on.
The other team of five, facing south, are each told that they’ll receive $100 if they move fifty feet directly north.
Which team will win the match?
Both team captains might have the same goal: win the match. But on one team, the individual incentives are aligned towards that goal. Each individual wins by doing behaviors that lead toward the desired team outcome. If you’re the manager of the first team, you will not win, and it doesn’t matter how well you “manage” otherwise. It doesn’t matter if you threaten, yell, or inspire. It doesn’t matter if you explain how important winning is to the team. It doesn’t matter if you tell the people that they’ll be kicked off the team if they lose. None of it matters at all.
Individual incentives must be aligned towards the goals of the team.
If you don’t get this right, everything else you do as an organization is worthless; you will fail. It seems obvious when thinking about a Tug-of-War match. It gets harder when the organization gets larger, the goals get more complicated, and the individuals get more diverse.
As a leader, this is one of your most important functions, maybe the most important: figure out what people want. If you can align things so they get what they want by moving towards the team goals, do that. If you can’t, they don’t belong on the team.
This isn’t easy, but it’s dead simple. Stay committed to it, and your organization will always be pulling a straight rope.
The Opportunity Machine 