Your company’s most powerful cultural signals are determined by promotions and bonuses. In an effort to be objective, most compensation frameworks are based on financial results and numerical targets.
Writing for Strategy+Business, Adam Bryant and David Reimer say this oversimplified focus on the what rather than the how of results triggers unintentionally lopsided cultures that promote short-term thinking.
A small but growing number of businesses are creating innovative compensation plans that place more weight on how results are achieved while still incentivising business performance.