Pattern 1.12

The Unaligned Bonus

The budget holder’s targets don’t include what the team delivers, so the work is ignored or quietly dropped.

In This Context

In large organizations, leaders are strongly incentivized to hit specific targets or KPIs. This is by design: executives want unit leaders focused on the same goals as them, and not distracted by initiatives they might find more interesting. Anything not tied to those targets may be ignored or removed. A shared platform, invisible to the executives setting the targets, is not part of anyone’s plan. Even its success can count against it: more users can mean more noise and complaints for managers who aren’t rewarded for the growth. The signal is a budget holder who can’t explain the work’s expenses to their own boss.

Targets are set before the work is proposed.
Cross-unit benefits are rarely in anyone’s targets.

Therefore

Find out what the decider and your boss’s boss are measured on, and align the proposal to it (Learn What They’re Measured On). Where you can change the incentives themselves, give unit leaders a share in the group’s savings (Share the Saving).

Consequently

The proposal helps someone hit a number they already care about.
But left alone, shared or cross-unit work is ignored or quietly dropped.
But incentives changed in a hurry get gamed (see The Imposed Target).

Seen In

Chapter 1, “A Water-Cooler Moment”.