Jackson: Concepts and Consequences

Designing reward structures that make desired actions the easiest and most appealing

Punishing undesired actions exclusively through strict regulation

Using random experimentation without theory to discover incentives

Relying solely on moral persuasion without altering external constraints

Implement sweeping changes immediately to outpace competitors

Wait for full certainty before acting to avoid mistakes

Rely only on expert opinion without field testing

Adopt iterative testing and small pilots to learn and adapt quickly

Considering feedback loops and emergent properties

Using scenario planning to explore possibilities

Seeking diverse perspectives on system behavior

Assuming linear cause-effect models explain all outcomes

Prioritizing aesthetic brand consistency over function

Avoiding partnerships to keep control centralized

Assuming linear cost growth so budgeting is straightforward

Ensuring mechanisms remain effective and affordable at larger scale

Engaging only the most powerful stakeholders to speed decisions

Actively involving affected parties to co-design solutions and surface trade-offs

Informing stakeholders only after decisions are made

Outsourcing engagement entirely to consultants

That experiments can reveal causal effects

That changing context can influence actions

That information alone will reliably produce sustained behavior change

That collaboration improves solution quality

Prioritize long-term legitimacy and redesign for sustainable outcomes

Ignore trust impacts if metrics look good

Double down on short-term tactics until targets are met

Replace stakeholders who disagree with the approach

Using randomized or well-constructed comparison designs to infer causality

Relying solely on anecdotal success stories

Measuring only process metrics without outcomes

Using incentives to bias outcomes toward desired results