fiendishly clever-there!
do you know the book "you really oughta wanna?"- subtitled something like problem analysis and resolution? its a small volume, but its a great problem solving tool.. (its about 30 years old, and still in print! some of the 'problems' it address have become passe-which serves to better make their point! (since one of 'problems' that is addressed is long hair on guys! -- there was a time when management was bend out of shape about this!
it makes a good point, that people often really want to do the right thing, and will most often try to do the right thing.. you just have to make sure your right thing and their right thing are the same..
(one point they make is management provides "negative rewards" for doing the right thing..ie, we have 100 envelopes to address.. each of us gets 50.. an hour later, you are done, and i (did i mention i was goofing off, and talking on the phone?) have only got 10 done.. so the boss give you half again of the remaining envelopes.. ( and hour later, you're done, and i have only done another 10.. so half again go to you, and in the next hour i finish off my final 5.. so i did 25%, and you did 75% work, and the boss says "good job you two!"
so the next time a job comes up, you work as slow as i do, and we both take 4 hours to do a 1 hour job! (or you continue to do 75% of the work, and i continue to do 25%, and we both end up getting raises.. you get 3%, and i get 2.5%)
pretty soon, you either quit, or develop a negative attitude, (and why not, your doing most of the work, and i am goofing off!) You keep giving negitive rewards to people, and you end up with negative people!
but what most managers will see is the negitive attitude that developes in the hard worker,not the irresponsibility of the goof off.. and eventually the negative worker starts getting poor review, and 1% raises,and the goof off still collects his/her 2.5% year after year...and management complains its hard to get "good worker like me, who are always cheerful, and pleasant to work with!"
there are lots of other negative rewards (Oh Jackie, you are so calm, and caring, you do so much, i am going to give you the hardest cases, the most negative people to deal with, since you remain calm with them... or Helen, you do a great job, we need you here, in this department, we want you here! (unspoken, is and we are not going to approve your transfer to that department where you can earn more money..)
in many companies, that go getter who starts the bridge with no planning is a "go getter, stand up guy" and he get rewarded-- even though, his poor planning results in cost overruns when mistakes have to be rebuilt.
