Thought You Should See This

September 26, 2011

"A consulting company once told me they made a rule that if you stayed until 8 in the office, you could order food and use the car service to get home. So what happens? A ton of people are there at 8. Nobody’s there at 8:05."

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Short, must-read piece from behavioral economist Dan Ariely, who warns of the dangers of creating a “complete contract,” ie, being too specific about who must do what, when. In the Bloomberg Businessweek story, How to Pay People, Ariely details the benefits of instead getting employees to buy into the broad objectives of a company, trusting that they might actually be smart enough to do what’s right. Quelle idee.

Update: My colleague, Colin Drylie, pointed out this great article on the same theme, from The Economist. Got Talent? has some great examples of the lengths employers such as Google, Netflix and Zappos are going to in order to attract and retain the best workers. Well worth the read.

9:55am | URL: https://tmblr.co/ZLv7dx9yznP9
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(Notes: 112)