Briefly overviews the problems of rewards in the classroom and the impact it has on teacher's performance.

My grandmother [The great LiL Ruffle from Adelaide] is still riding at 85yrs old after a long long racing career and still loves everyday she goes out on the bike. Some of her old pals 'Gave up Racing' and quit riding altogether and everyone of them has rued their decision. NB, Lil rode and finished the 100km Adelaide Amy Gillet ride on a hot, windy, hilly course a few weeks back.

I have always been intrigued in the many disciplines of bike racing that I have competed in, by those who gave up riding when they stopped racing. I cant imagine life without riding and taking the time to enjoy the sunrise & sunsets as I wizz along or stop at a favorite view point.

Pedal on Brothers & Sisters

Awesome!

+1 on Kohn's stuff – good for organisational development and parenting!

I've read Freakonomics and enjoyed it. The other one sounds rather hard to get through :).

I HIGHLY recommend “Punished by Rewards” by Alfie Kohn. A little old now, but very useful for the office, the classroom, and the home. He also wrote a book called “No Contest” which is good, although it doesn't deal much with sport.

If you're interested in the unintended effects of carrots and sticks in public policy and other areas, a couple of references – one populist, one practical:

1. Levitt and Dubner's “Freakonomics” – entertaining and accessible exploration of behavioural economics, and

2. On a dryer but more practical note, Rummler and Brache's “Improving Performance: How to Manage the White Space in the Organization Chart” – good intro to assessing organisational behaviour in terms of a balance of consequences. The OHS case you cite is a classic example of rewarding inappropriate behaviour.

Thanks for sharing :)

It's a very long and tedious article that was prepared for the US government in an attempt to improve the OHS audit process. You'll find information on this specific issue summarised in the second paragraph on pg 2 and pages 11-17 contain more detailed information about this.

While I'm quite bored by the content, what is interesting to me is how our entire system of health and safety, and indeed our entire society, is built upon a structure of carrots and sticks. We seem to believe that people are not capable of self-governance, motivation, and optimal performance unless we bribe or threaten. And our sporting activities are no different. Sure, we live in a society now where sportsmen and women are paid to compete at the highest level. But the point here is that too many of our structures move the focus away from performance and towards reward, whether in OHS or on the bike.

Great post. The recetn article you mentioned in a reply re. reward programs tied to OHS measures, would you be able to point me in the direction of that?