Are other peoples’ fears the cause of your frustration?

I was working with a pharmaceutical distribution business that needed to innovate, and fast. Drugs were coming off-patent, and industry forces were going to change who made money and how. The MD was worried.

He was also frustrated that his senior managers, who he described as excellent operations people, were failing to come up with innovative responses to the new needs of their customers.

As we discussed his objectives, he was able to paint a picture of how he wanted these managers to innovate.

Then he said, “But they damn well better still hit their monthly KPIs.”

This was just not going to work.

Why?

Well put yourself in the shoes of the managers. Their incentives are clearly to keep operating well and not to worry about the innovation.

Here’s how it goes in the mind of the manager: “If I try to innovate, I’ll have to find the extra time Only These sorts of calculations are done instantaneously, often unconsciously. If you are finding that people agree to cross-sell, report problems or support strategic changes, but then don’t, ask yourself how they are weighing up the various incentives.

In my last newsletter, I recommended that you do this I’ve come up with a visual for this: I call it the Incentive Audit. Last week I gave a talk about the role of fear in organizations, and I showed the visual. The audience found it valuable, so here it is:

Andy’s Advice: How to use this in your company

If you are frustrated because people aren’t following through, develop your empathy for the way those people weigh up incentives Want to know more about rational and irrational fear in organizations? Download my whitepaper: “Rationally Fearless: A Leader’s Guide to Bad Fear, Good Fear and No Fear”.