Beware What You Reward

In Graduate School, I had a charismatic business professor who had a real-life story for every lesson. Today, I remember his stories first, and the lesson second. I ran into this professor at a recent conference and one particular story about measurement and reward immediately came to mind. “Did I ever tell you about the time I worked as a dishwasher in a hospital kitchen?” Suddenly, everyone in the room forgot they were in a graduate level business psychology course, and were transported to a 1970’s industrial kitchen with turquoise blue tiles. Jim was a young dishwasher who quickly learned … Read More