Whenever people I work with get surprised why certain changes, outcomes or goals are not met, I often ask about incentives. The learning that I have encountered many times is that most people do not care about company goals, societal goals or anything else unless there is some personal benefit for them to pursue it. This benefit can, of course, be financial. This is why in sales commissions are incredibly important as a sales person will focus his or her effort where the commissions are earned the easiest. However, we all are subject to incentives, perceived or real, to guide our actions. These incentives can be reputational, increasing someone’s status in a group, or purely driven by acceptance in a group. So, whenever you feel like there is a lack of progress towards a goal or the behavior of an organization or team seems illogical, look for the incentive structures that the organization, team or individual is operating in. However, whenever incentives and what we consider important for ourselves are not aligned with each other, we have the liberty to NOT align with the incentives and act at odds with these. In the end, it’s all about incentives, but you do have a choice.