Paying for performance seems like an all-purpose principal. Daniel Pink argues that it is not.
From TED: Career analyst Dan Pink examines the puzzle of motivation, starting with a fact that social scientists know but most managers don’t: Traditional rewards aren’t always as effective as we think. Listen for illuminating stories — and maybe, a way forward.
I like the Fed Ex day and 20% time ideas very much. If a job offered me a deal like that (and I believed them), I’d quit and go there – and I am not unhappy at my current job.
You’re right, though, that there are a lot of better solutions most “knowledge workers” could create if they were just given the time. I can’t count the number of times I have given someone a ‘good enough’ solution because that was all the time I had, when I know not only that it would have been possible to have done something brilliant but exactly how to do it – if I was given the time.