The Law of Rewards (and Punishments)

What’s rewarded gets done; what’s punished does not get done.

This is the second Law because it can only be superseded by the First Law. The subtle problem is that it often very hard to figure out what is being rewarded and what is being punished because people insist on being different.

Some people are rewarded by a job well done and they resent being told to produce crap. Some people are rewarded by praise and will produce all the crap you want in exchange for praise. Some work for more personal power while others work for “the greater good”. Some people will do anything to avoid repetitive jobs while others strive to avoid creative jobs. Most people work for more than one type of reward. What is rewarding to one may be a punishment for another.

In all cases, what the person perceives as a reward will get preference over what the person perceives as a punishment.

Quality is a great example. Many companies and organizations say they believe in quality, but I have never heard of a case of a manager or employee shipping quality late being rewarded as well as those who shipped crap on time. The words say “Quality” while the rewards say “Time”.

This leads to a corollary:

The difference between what you say and what you do
        will teach people how to respect you.

Children, in particular are good at seeing this kind of hypocrisy.