Sylvain Mareschal, Ph.D.
Bioinformatics engineer
January 26, 2014 at 23:29
Management
The soft approach : « to make people cooperate, we need to make them like each others. Improve interpersonal feelings, the more people like each others, the more they will cooperate ». It is totally wrong. It is even counter-productive. Look : at home i have two TVs. Why ? Precisely not to have to cooperate with my wife. Not to have to impose tradeoffs to my wife. And why i try not to impose tradeoffs to my wife ? Precisely because i love my wife ! If i didn't love my wife, one TV would be enough : you will watch my favorite football game, if not happy how is the book or the door ? The more we like each other, the more we avoid the real cooperation that would strain our relationships by imposing tough tradeoffs.

You need to reward those who cooperate, and blame those who do not cooperate. The CEO of the Lego group, Jorgen Vig Knudstorp, has a great way to use it. He says : « blame is not for failure, it is for failing to help or ask for help ». It changes everything.

Yves Morieu, As work gets more complex, 6 rules to simplify, TED conference