You Get the Team You Believe You Have
Your assumptions about people quietly shape your decisions, expectations, and rules.
A sawmill was losing about $1 million a year to theft. And every attempt to catch the thieves made things worse.
Stealing had become a sport. Workers competed to see who could walk out with the biggest piece of equipment. Getting away with it was the point. Most didn’t need what they took. They didn’t sell it either. The thrill was the reward.
Management wanted to double down on control. They considered surveillance cameras and harsher punishment for anyone caught.
But the risk of punishment would only make the game more exciting. That’s what organizational psychologist Gary Latham concluded after interviewing employees. Surveillance would raise the stakes. Some employees even fantasized about stealing the cameras.
Latham recommended a counterintuitive approach: let employees borrow equipment legally. He suggested an amnesty for people to return the “borrowed” equipment. Management and the union backed the recommendation. Workers responded to the new system and returned the equi…
