Page 220 - The Power to Change Anything

Design Rewards and Demand Accountability 209

are, in fact, rewarding the very behavior they claim to want to
change.
For years U.S. politicians have wrung their hands over the
fact that Americans save so little money. For a time they looked
jealously across the ocean at Japanese citizens, who save money
at many times the rate of Americans. Some analysts speculated
that there was just something different about Japanese charac-
ter. Perhaps they were more willing to sacrifice. But then
again, maybe the difference could be attributed in part to in-
centives. For example, in the United States interest earned on
savings is taxable. For many years in Japan it wasn’t. In the
United States during that same time period, interest on con-
sumer debt, like that from credit cards and home loans, was tax
deductible. In Japan it wasn’t. Maybe we were more alike than
we thought.
Many organizations set up an entire reward system that, by
design, motivates the wrong behavior. Dr. Steve Kerr first drew
attention to this problem in his now classic piece, “On the Folly
of Rewarding A, While Hoping for B.” For example, some vet-
erans and scholars were concerned at a phenomenon that had
occurred in previous wars, but increased significantly during
the U.S. war in Vietnam. While still not the norm, U.S. sol-
diers in Vietnam were more likely to avoid conflict—even “frag-
ging” their own officers to do so—than soldiers in previous wars
had been. And instead of going on search-and-destroy missions,
as had their predecessors, many learned to “search and escape.”
How could this happen?
Clearly soldiers in Vietnam labored under a set of con-
flicted emotions that had no corollary in World War II. It’s hard
to imagine how U.S. soldiers in Vietnam functioned at all,
knowing how hostile many of their fellow citizens were to their
mission. And yet, according to Kerr, there was more going on
that influenced this behavior than a fuzzy mission and a hos-
tile citizenry.
Examine the reward structure. Both generations of soldiers
wanted to go home. That was a given. Nobody liked putting
his or her life at risk. The typical GI from WWII knew that in