Incentive Systems

I have an insatiable drive to try and understand why things occur and the underlying systems that create them.

I've spent most of my career in consulting so I was always able to function as an outsider or observer.

Corporations seems to constantly misunderstand human behavior. The systems they create include bad incentives for people. Incentives to avoid decisions, deflect responsibility and act in ways that are against the goals of the firm. It's maddening.

Take decision making for example. For an individual executive, descisions incent inaction and risk aversion. The risk is asymmetric. The downside of any major decision is eventual job loss, while the upside might be a relatively small bonus. This also incents committee based decision making. The committee doesn't so much as serve to make a better choice. It serves to diffuse ownership of the downside.

Simple salaried employees incent people to avoid taking on more work.

These aren't solvable problems, but they are fascinating.