The most expensive work happening in your organization right now may be the work that looks like work but produces nothing. Research calls it performative productivity. Most performance management systems never catch it.
A study of nearly 20,000 workers found one personality trait consistently higher in managers, supervisors, and entrepreneurs than in everyone else. It was not charisma or IQ. It was Conscientiousness. Research has a way of confirming what experience already knew.
A meta-analysis of 128 controlled studies found that tangible recognition rewards consistently undermine the intrinsic motivation of the people receiving them. Most organizations have spent years building exactly the wrong system.