Topic
Fun and Performance
The spine under the whole publication: enjoyable and high-performing are not opposite dials, and the people are almost never the part that needs fixing.
-
The Team Was Fine. The Scoreboard Was Lying.
Five months in, the number looked like a verdict on the people. It was a timing artifact of a setup nobody had updated.
-
Fun Is Not a Perk
Most leaders treat enjoyable and high-performing as two dials pointing in opposite directions. I have never seen them behave that way. What actually moves both is duller than culture, and far more fixable.
-
Motivation Is an Output
The speaker, the offsite, the bonus pool: all of it pours energy into a setup that quietly drains it. Stop the tax before you buy the stimulus.