Ran across this quote today....
“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”
From the Business Week Blogspotting section.
Which reminded me of this quote...
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."
The very interesting thing is that both quotes come from Albert Einstein - father of some of the most complex ideas ever.
This got me thinking about incentives and reward programs. Too often the rules to earn an award require five pages of explanation, two Excel spreadsheets and the formula for finding pi to the 10th digit.
Take some advice from the master (Einstein, not me) - make it as simple as it can be (but not simpler - that's when you get unintended consequences) - and make sure you can explain it simply as well.
Just an Incentive Intelligence quickie!
(image courtesy of www.hetemeel.com - customizable images - very cool.)
Good suggestion - there is no reason why the rules or guidelines to earn awards or recognition need to be convoluted. You shouldn't dumb down the assessment, but simplify the explanation.
Posted by: Talent Management Guy | February 01, 2008 at 01:22 PM
That's the key... taking a lot of complicated data and analysis - but make it actionable for a lot of people.
Posted by: Paul Hebert | February 01, 2008 at 01:27 PM