Comments on: Countering Perverse Incentives in Project Management

By: How to Fail by Succeeding | Drew Kime

How to Fail by Succeeding | Drew Kime — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 20:48:51 +0000

[...] Christiansen over at Information Technology Dark Side is talking about perverse incentives in project management, which he defines as: Any policy, practice, cultural value, or behavior that creates perceived or [...]

By: Project Shrink Links 22-12-2007

Project Shrink Links 22-12-2007 — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 16:48:44 +0000

[...] Countering Perverse Incentives in Project Management [...]

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 20:11:24 +0000

“Thank team members for informing you of problems.”

I think this is key in making sure your team know you care about their issues.

I also make it a point to explain the reasons I have for wanting to know their problems early on. Explaining to them that I will not be upset if I hear it from them before I hear about the problem from a customer.

By: Charlie B

Charlie B — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 19:24:22 +0000

Thanks for a great article Dave. I couldn’t agree with you assessment’s any more. I have always found that not submitting employees to a checklist is beneficial to a company. It allows ideas to flow freely on every step of the corporate ladder. Also , I have never been a big fan of punishing employees unless it is absolutely necessary( I live by the golden rule). One way that i have weeded out many of the communication eras in my company is by investing in collaboration software. I have been using Communiclique’s software for close to 6months and it has really improved that way that my company operates. I can now monitor my employees progress (they can also monitor other co workers progress) with out being invasive , annoying and redundant. My employees also now feel more like a team since they are sharing all their documents over the internet on a regular basis. It also gives your company a greater awareness of all the operations of the company. This software has really helped me bridge the communication gap in my company.

By: Drew Kime

Drew Kime — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 17:58:46 +0000

Dave, you give some really good examples of negative incentives, which encourage the wrong behavior. What I find trickier are the missing positive incentives: the cases where there is simply no incentive to do the right thing.

This post was getting really long, so I put it over on my blog:

http://drewkime.blogspot.com/2007/12/how-to-fail-by-succeeding.html