In his new book,  Mixed Signals: How Incentives Really Work,  Uri Gneezy explains why leaders often create incentives that are misaligned with their organization’s goals.

Gneezy, the Epstein/Atkinson Chair in Management Leadership at UC San Diego’s Rady School of Management, is one of the world’s leading experts in behavioral economics, and his insights have become a staple in courses around the world. He teaches managers how to be incentive-smart—how to avoid mixed signals and design incentives that are simple, effective, and ethical.

Together with Martin Reeves, Chairman of BCG Henderson Institute, Gneezy discusses how incentives work, and how we can apply them in the workplace to change habits and spark innovation—he explains why, counterintuitively, successful organizations and initiatives may actually have a greater need to examine their incentives than unsuccessful ones.

Key topics discussed:

[01:11] How incentives send signals
[02:08] Incentives in the workplace
[09:14] Incentivizing innovation
[12:29] Understanding the use and limitation of incentives
[18:22] Changing habits

Additional inspiration from Uri Gneezy: 

• The Why Axis: Hidden Motives and the Undiscovered Economics of Everyday Life. (PublicAffairs, 2013)
• Highly cited articles:
  • Ariely, D., U. Gneezy, G. Loewenstein and N. Mazar (2009) “Large Stakes and Big Mistakes”  (The Review of Economic Studies, 76(2), 451-469)
  • Gneezy, U., and A. Rustichini(2000) “Pay Enough or Don’t Pay At All.” (Quarterly Journal of Economics,115(3), 791-810)
  • Gneezy, U., and A. Rustichini (2000)“A Fine is a Price” (The Journal of Legal Studies, 29(1),1-17)