Why don’t we ever discuss what executives are bonus’ed off of?

Here’s another absurd article from Harvard Business Review about “the pillars of effective organizations.” The 10 they identify are:

• Encourage cooperation
• Organize for change.
• Anticipate the future.
• Remain flexible.
• Create distinctive spaces.
• Diversify and be inclusive.
• Promote personal growth.
• Empower people.
• Reward high performers.
• Foster a leadership culture.

This is a great, great, great list on face, but in reality this list means almost nothing. Why? Incentive structures. Most executives in corporate white-collar are not bonus’ed or comp’ed on any of these things. In many cases, they are compensated on exactly the opposite of the thing mentioned above. Take the first bullet as an example: “encourage cooperation.” Executives will discuss that at all-hands meetings, sure. But in reality they tend to want a very competitive environment where high-achievers (purportedly) are fighting each other for their respect, and working all hours being “productive” to get to the next level — in the eyes of the executive, of course. They would much rather undercutting hustlers than cooperative…