Weekly Wisdom #295 - How to get the most out of the people you work with

Incentives, Book Recommendations, Cheapest Places to Live & High-Performing Teams

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Happy Monday!

"Show me the incentive and I will show you the outcome.” — Charlie Munger, former vice-chairman of Berkshire Hathaway

Incentives drive our behaviour.

At work, we aim to improve and get better so we can get promoted and get paid more.

In our lives, we aim to be funnier and healthier and more interesting so we can find a good partner, fit in with friends, and live longer to be with our families.

And while we all respond to some of the same incentives, we respond very differently to others.

And when you reward certain behaviour, you tell others "this is how you act to get rewarded."

This Tweet describes one of those situations well: punishing a team for missing a deadline vs. rewarding them for being aggressive.

When we interact with others, every action we take (or don't) sends a message to those around us: this behaviour does (or doesn't) get rewarded.

Much of succeeding in life with other people is recognizing and being able to predict how those around you respond to incentives.

Punish a particular behaviour, and you disincentivize that behaviour in the future.

Reward a particular behaviour, and prepare to see it more often.

Choose your incentives wisely.

Have a great week!

Graham

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Links

📚 Book Ideas: 13 Books to Read in 2024 - My friend Dickie asked his 375K followers on Twitter what their favourite reads of 2023 were, and this is the list.

Makes a great list to start with in 2024 if you haven't read them yet.

Dickie Bush 🚢-->

@dickiebush

I asked 375,000 people for their favorite book of 2023.

These 13 books showed up the most often (so they must be worth reading):

8:28 AM • Dec 21, 2023

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📖 The Cheapest Places to Live in the World in 2024 - I've often wanted to experience the full digital nomad life (I've done it for short stretches), and this list would be a good place if I was starting.

As it is, I'd like to start adding a couple months a year in one of these kinds of places (ideally avoiding some cold weather while doing so).

Currency arbitrage is something possible for more people as the world moves to remote work.

📷 These shots of a B-2 Spirit bomber are stunning:

Scott Lowe-->

@tropicostation

Hiked up for some incredible shots of the awesome @Whiteman_AFB B-2 Spirit (93-1086) Rose Bowl flyover today. More below! 🇺🇸 🦅 📐 📸

9:1 PM • Jan 1, 2024

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Tweet of the Week

The Tweet I shared in the intro is a long-form explanation of why teams start slowing down. A critical thing to understand for anyone working to improve team performance, and well worth the full read:

Shreyas Doshi-->

@shreyas

As a senior executive, you care a lot about your teams moving fast.

So when a team misses its committed launch date, you show great displeasure.

You demand more accountability.

You make an example out of this team.

Other teams see this.
They are not stupid.
So they learn.… https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1745961777257656628

7:11 PM • Jan 12, 2024

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