Bush Said It "He Rules"

As for a future Scooter Libby pardon on top of his wiped away 30 months in jail, President Bush said "As to the future, I rule nothing in and nothing out."

Apparently the President is aware that extrinisic motivators diminish over time. More and more needs to be offered to get the "desired behavior", which in this case could be silence. Will the remarkably tight lipped Scooter stay that way? With a plum private equity or Wall Street job, a full pardon, and a $250,000 rebate courtesy of Uncle Sam, the price could be right. Where's Bob Barker when you need him?

NYC Turns Families to Rats

Some 2,500 families will soon enter New York City's Skinnerian public school rewards program. For children living at 130 percent of federal poverty level and below, the city will bribe them to attend school, go to parents-teacher conferences, get a library card, pass the Regents exam, and even to graduate.

Extrinsic motivation programs are proven to kill instrinic motivation as attention shifts to "how much are you going to pay me to do that joyless task?" External rewards lose their juice over time, often needing to be increased to have the same impact.

Expect any "improvements" from this program to be short lived and the long term consequences to be similar to stock option incentive plans over the last decade. Will 30% of poor students cheat to reap the prize like their CEO counterparts? Look for them all at the bar, pressing madly for the pellets. So much for the "wise leader" knowing the reward for doing the work arises naturally from the work itself? Where have they gone, our wise leaders?

The State of Executive Pay & Bribing Children

The news reported on more parents resorting to bribing their children to behave appropriately or perform expected tasks, things their parent's just expected. Kids today are given goodies to not act up in restaurants, brush their teeth, get good grades, and sleep in their own bed through the night.

In the business world governing boards call it "pay for performance". In both cases it requires big and bigger bribes over time to induce the desired behavior. One mom noted her child frequently asks "what are you going to give me?"

Some experts shared their concern about rewards being excessive in light of the behavior. One father promised a child a Nintendo Wii game system for scoring a couple of goals in a soccer game. The business counterpart can be seen by perusing the latest Sallie Mae SEC filing.

CEO Thomas Fitzpatrick made $16.6 million in 2006, nearly $14 million in stock and option awards, not altogether different than the Wii video game. What happened to giving kids a fair allowance and then trying to get them to forget about money as they fulfill their individual and family responsibilities? Likewise, what happened to paying employees fairly, giving the a good job to do and the resources to succeed?

Instead the board suite is poisoned by the same disease as many of today's parents. The CEO is but another employee, one with an important leadership job. Is their task no better than potty training that they need to be bribed to perform?