The Temptation to Do Good

 

Issue No. 281 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (July 8, 2013) features a little-known book from  Peter Drucker who said,“We now accept the fact that learning is a lifelong process of keeping abreast of change. And the most pressing task is to teach people how to learn.” Plus, this reminder: check out my Management Buckets website with dozens of resources and downloadable worksheets for your staff meetings.  ----------------------------------------------------------------------- A Novel Way to Understand Management  It's summer here in the Northern Hemisphere and time to find a book for the beach, the backyard, or the mountains.  One colleague admitted that his spouse complained recently, “Do you need to read so many management books? Can't you read at least one book, just for fun?”    So I loaned him the World War II heart-stopping true story, Operation Mincemeat:  How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory, by Ben Macintyre. (Confession: I titled my review, “Operation Details,” because I also learned a lot about management. Spoiler alert: the Allies won.) But...if your spouse or colleagues think it's time you should read a novel, here's a good one: The Temptation to Do Good.   Since I'm traveling this month (including some R&R), I'm reaching back to Issue 31 (April 2007) to remind you about one of my treasured books, autographed for me by the author, Peter Drucker. His first novel, The Temptation to Do Good, was published in 1984. It’s a great title and a quick read for busy leaders and managers who need a change of pace from the growing pile of must-read books.   Drucker introduces us to Father Heinz Zimmerman, president of a Catholic university.  He faces all of the leadership challenges common to nonprofit CEOs: budgets, donors, staff conflicts, board members, ethical issues and more.  Throw in student and faculty expectations and you’ll appreciate your current organization more—no matter how complex it is!   In this delightful novel (just 152 pages), Drucker addresses this subtle “temptation to do good” syndrome  that gets many religious leaders into trouble.  You’ll enjoy the story and Drucker’s memorable insights. Earlier this year, I added the book to my Top-10 list for My Ideal Bookshelf.   To order this book from Amazon, click on the title for The Temptation to Do Good, by Peter F. Drucker. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions: 1) Why might “the temptation to do good” get you into trouble? 2) Not all life-long learning comes from non-fiction.  Describe a leadership or management insight you received from a novel you’ve read. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- “Take That!” Water Cooler Ammo Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit If colleagues handed over $100 every time they roped you into the “Management versus Leadership” argument, you'd be wealthy.  So for your next round at the water cooler, just hand them the article from Olan Hendrix, "Management That Leads" (referenced in Chapter 17). Olan Hendrix writes,  "Leaders must learn to manage,  and managers must learn to lead.  When we see the two as interdependent we are more apt to improve at the work of getting work done through other people. When we see the two as totally separate we more easily excuse our deficiencies in one or the other and thereby deny ourselves the potential for learning."   Visit my Operations Bucket webpage here and download a PDF of the two-page article.  Hendrix quotes Warren Bennis, “People will do a good job if they are provided with management that leads.”     NOTICE! Issues No. 1 to 657 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (2006 to 2025), previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to this new blogsite: John Pearson's Buckets Blog. MORE RESOURCES: • BLOG: Pails in Comparison • SUBSCRIBE: Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews • JOHN'S BOOK REVIEWS: on Amazon  • WEBSITE: Management Buckets • BLOG: Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations • PODCASTS: John Pearson's Buckets Podcasts  ECFA BLOG on “Governance of Christ-centered Organizations”   Add your thoughts to John's latest blog post for boards, "The 6 D's: Discerning Decision-Maker," on six criteria for recruiting board members. PLUS! View the short video on the ECFA Governance Toolbox Series: No. 1: Recruiting Board Members and No. 2: Balancing Board Roles (DVD and Viewing Guides).

The Path

 

Issue No. 696 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (Nov. 2, 2026) spotlights a modern-day Pilgrim’s Progress with this question, especially for those under 30: “What if the way of Jesus is different than you thought?” Plus, click here for back issues posted at the new location for John Pearson’s Buckets Blog, including my review of The Reward Trap (learn why your reward system might backfire!). And check out these bite-sized book summaries (7- to 9-minute videos)—perfect for your weekly staff meeting. The moment you browse through this special book, you'll begin ordering copies for friends and family members. (You've been warned!)   On the Fringes of Joy and Delight Ten months ago, I shared my list of 12 inspirational books I planned to read and review in 2026. (See the list here.) Apparently, I’ll need to take a speed-reading course to finish the list by year-end. Somehow, it morphed into 14 inspirational resources, but who’s counting? This is one of my favorites:   THE PATH:  What If the Way of Jesus Is Different Than You Thought?  (A Contemporary Allegory of  Faith, Purpose, and Identity in Today’s World)  by Robby Angle, Brittany Coulson,  Benjamin Crawshaw, and Bruce McNicol (April 8, 2025)   I’m pretty sure that someone in your family, company or organization, neighborhood, church, or coffee shop—will deeply appreciate this book. My wife, Joanne, and I have already given three copies away (so far!). Here are two options for learning more:   OPTION #1. VIDEO. View the 5-minute video for Chapter 1 of The Path. The book creatively uses a page-turning allegory to inspire the next generation to address timeless issues and opportunities. The journey begins in the city of Ican. (Yikes! Maybe that name means something?) View the trailer. Think of two friends or family members (under 30) who seem to be on different paths (success and disappointment). How might you encourage both of them? (Hint: The Path.)   OPTION #2. READ MY REVIEW. No spoiler alerts here—because I don’t want to minimize the impact of this powerful story. Why this book?   Many Gen Z and young Millennials are in crisis. Some are not “launching” (still living at home), not dating or marrying, and confused about identity, calling, and purpose. While they're searching for answers, “many are looking in the wrong places—chasing success, followers, or experiences that leave them feeling more empty than before.” The Path promo promises “a fresh way to engage young adults with timeless truths about identity, purpose, and grace through a compelling story they'll actually want to read.” I agree.   The authors—all part of the Trueface team—have crafted a memorable story (like a business fable—only better and more important) to communicate the truth about the possibilities of a “new life” in Christ (not a religion), where “the pressure’s off.”  The Path is encouraging! “If you find yourself wandering in the woods rather than enjoying the Kingdom Table, don't worry. We've all chosen the fringes over our rightful seat many times. Relax. Breathe. Grace specializes in imperfection. And the Father is always inviting you to come enjoy. He's saved your seat right next to him.”   Echoing the powerful themes from Trueface’s earlier books (see The Cure and Bo's Cafe, and others), The Path’s relatable story follows Tal in his professional journey—seeking to measure up to his architectural firm coworkers and friends.    “Abba” tells Tal: “…remember this moment in the days to come. My children so easily go back to living like they're in Ican. They are afraid they need to measure up, keep up, and work hard enough to earn their seat at the table. They stay on the fringes of the joy and delight that I offer them, longing for the warmth but not believing that they deserve it until they've done enough. Shame tells them that it can't possibly be this simple—that I've done it all for them. It breaks my heart, Tal.”   Know anyone with shame and/or anxiety issues? After listening to the message of the “Shamesong,” Tal mistakenly agrees, “I…I wasn’t enough. I’ve never been enough.”    The good news: “But the Shamesong is no match for the gracesong, or the Windsong as you call it.”   You’ll love the lexicon of The Path. Much like the memorable themes from John Bunyan’s classic, The Pilgrim’s Progress (“The Slough of Despond,” “Vanity Fair,” and others), you’ll add potent phrases from The Path into many of your future conversations and deep discussions.   Each chapter concludes with “Guide Notes” for the reader. (There is also a study guide for groups, plus videos.) The notes for Chapter 5, “The Wound,” quote Tina Turner: “If you don’t address the wounds of your past, you continue to bleed.” There’s more on this critical topic: “What if your deepest wound is where God longs to bring your deepest healing?”   The authors remind us, “Each of us carry wounds” and “all of us are wounders.” So, the story and the guide ask and answer this:    • “So why don’t wounds heal on their own? Why can’t our wounds be reduced to, ‘It is what it is,’ or ‘Time heals all wounds?’”    • “Something deeper than the wound itself is at work. There's a superficial wound (what happened to us), and there's a deeper, more chronic wound (what it means to us and what we think it says about us).”    • “Shame is the deeply embedded voice that causes us to ask, ‘Am I enough?’”    • “It’s not even asking, ‘Did I do wrong?’ (guilt) but instead, ‘Is there something wrong with me?’ (shame).”   The Path answers: “This question is an identity statement. Shame doesn't just want to get at our behaviors. Those are small fish. It wants to get at our very core, who we believe we are. This will then affect every area of our lives.”    READ THIS TWICE!  “This is why we never graduate from learning to trust God with who we are.” FRIENDSHIP IS RISKY. Tal, the main character we follow in The Path, hits numerous rough patches (sounds like us). In “The Gathering” chapter, the guide identifies “seven truths to lean into as you navigate this stunning, terrifying, glorious road of deep friendship.” The fifth truth you already know: “Friendship is risky.”  But the sixth truth is a gut-check—“Friendships take sacrifice.” The book quotes Tim Keller:   “If you love a nice person, a person whose life is all pulled together, and everything's fine, and they don't need any changes. If you love a person like that, it costs nothing. It's wonderful. It's fun. And there are four or five of these people in New York City. You oughta find them and become their friends.”   Keller (1950-2023), who also wrote The Prodigal God, adds, “But, if you ever try to love somebody who’s got needs, who's got brokenness, who's got trouble or who is in trouble, who's persecuted, or emotionally wounded, it's gonna cost you. You can't love them and bring them up without you going down. All real life-changing friendships require sacrifice.”   There’s a lot more in this “story”—and everyone who receives this book from you—well, they’ll thank you. The scenes are striking:    • The owner of a guest house: “Sometimes people just need to sit or whittle or talk things through with an old guy like me. I help them learn the rhythms of grace that Jesus taught.”    • Why the old guy told Tal: “…that is absolute crap.” (LOL!)    • One of six questions about the “gifts” (sometimes called rhythms of grace, spiritual disciplines, or holy habits): “Are they aimed at improving yourself or enjoying God?”    • PowerPoint worthy quotations from Frederick Buechner, C.S. Lewis, Beth Moore, Dallas Willard, Rachel Held Evans, Richard Foster, and many others, including this from Andrew Farley: “What if you truly are who God says you are? After all, when our view of ourselves disagrees with God’s view of us, who’s right?”    • And this: “No bad day, left turn, or flat-on-our-face failure will change who we are and whose we are.” (Mistakes are okay.)    • Jesus does not call us to “God and work.” He does not say, “Go and worry.” Nor “Go and fear.” No. He calls us, throughout the ages—“Go and live.” Did I mention? We’ve already bought three copies for family and friends. TO ORDER FROM AMAZON, click on the title for The Path: What If the Way of Jesus Is Different Than You Thought? (A Contemporary Allegory of Faith, Purpose, and Identity in Today’s World), by Robby Angle, Brittany Coulson, Benjamin Crawshaw, and Bruce McNicol. Attn: Pastors and Youth Leaders! In your work with students and young adults, check out The Path Resource Kit.   YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS: 1) The authors of The Path write, “Perhaps the greatest joy that the Gifts offer is the space to let Jesus love you. Fight the temptation to overthink or over-spiritualize this. Find where your heart more naturally connects with the Father. That's what Jesus seems to have done. Perhaps for you this is going for a hike, or sitting with a good early morning coffee, or late nights by the fire reading. QUESTION: Who, in your circle, would be enriched by reading this book? 2) The Path notes this: “Dallas Willard classified spiritual disciplines into two main types: Disciplines that help us exercise our ‘doing’ muscles, and disciplines that help us exercise our ‘not doing’ muscles.” What muscles need your focus this week?          SECOND READS: Fresh Solutions From Classic Books You have changed—and your problems have changed—since you read this the first time! Book #63 of 99: Little Bets For your team meeting this week, inspire a team member to lead your “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” session by featuring Book #63 of 99 in our series, “Second Reads.” The big idea: REREAD TO LEAD! Discover how your favorite books (and articles) still have more to teach you and the people you’re coaching and mentoring. Little Bets:  How Breakthrough Ideas  Emerge From Small Discoveries by Peter Sims (April 19, 2011) This fascinating book notes that when Jeff Bezos was Amazon’s CEO, he built an “experimental discovery mentality” so that “whether or not employees are doing so is a part of their performance reviews.”    • Read my review (Issue No. 217, May 15, 2011).    • Order from Amazon.    • Management Bucket #3 of 20: The Strategy Bucket. With dozens of fun-to-read mini case studies, the book surprised me. I expected cute little success stories like, “Well…I just flipped the spaghetti onto the wall—and it stuck!” Instead, the innovators of little experiments were actually productive creative teams of “rigorous, highly analytical, strategic and pragmatic” people. There are no step-by-step formulas. (I’m still quoting from this book 15 years after reading it.)   CLICK HERE FOR BOOKS BY JOHN     View the video summary (8 minutes) of “Mistake #7: Minimizing Murphy’s Law. I was not yet a believer that ‘If anything can go wrong, it will.’” See the workbook, Mastering Mistake Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—and What I Learned (10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning Workbook), by John Pearson with Jason Pearson. NOTICE! Issues No. 1 to 657 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (2006 to 2025), previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to this new blogsite: John Pearson's Buckets Blog. How to Read a Book! Finally! I read a book on how to read a book! View the summary video (8.5 minutes) of John’s review of The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life: How to Get More Books in Your Life and More Life from Your Books. Read John’s review: “Give Yourself the Gift of Empty Shelves.” BONUS! As of today, 45 video podcasts (7 to 9 minutes each) are posted here. Perfect lifelong-learning snippets for your weekly staff meeting. MORE RESOURCES: • BLOG: Pails in Comparison • SUBSCRIBE: Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews • JOHN'S BOOK REVIEWS: on Amazon  • WEBSITE: Management Buckets • BLOG: Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations • PODCASTS: John Pearson's Buckets Podcasts  Remembering Dr. Richard Swenson Last month, I updated my review of Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives, by Dr. Richard Swenson—upon hearing the news of his homegoing. He was 78. He authored nine books, including the bestseller, Margin. Read my review at the Pails in Comparison Blog.

The Checklist Manifesto

    

Issue No. 173 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (Feb. 8, 2010) highlights a fascinating book on checklists—and how this “basic, basic, basic” tool can enhance teamwork and eliminate errors and disasters. Warning—the surgery stories are vivid! And this reminder: check out my Management Buckets website with dozens of resources and downloadable worksheets for your staff meetings.

Fly the Airplane!

I’ve mentioned before that I measure a great book by how often I’m reading sections to my long-suffering wife/listener, Joanne. Another indicator: I read the book slowly, tasty morsel by tasty morsel. Lastly, there’s serious emotion when I turn the last page—somehow hoping it could go on and on. This book scores 10s on all counts.

Really? A book about checklists is that good? Yes. If you enjoyed Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, you’ll love this one.

[x] 1. Atul Gawande, a surgeon and staff writer for The New Yorker, leads the World Health Organization’s Safe Surgery Saves Lives program. If you didn’t believe in checklists before, you’ll be a born-again checklist-maker after Chapter 1.

[x] 2. He quotes a 1970s study on “necessary fallibility.” It cites two reasons we fail at stuff: a) ignorance and b) ineptitude.  In the latter, “…the knowledge exists, yet we fail to apply it correctly.”

[x] 3. Caution! If you’re having surgery soon, or have friends or family facing the knife, you may want to skip this book—or ask your surgeon’s views on operating room checklists. (In a recent global experiment, a two-minute pre-surgery team review of a standard checklist has dropped infection rates, death rates and complication rates by a staggering amount.)

[x] 4. Pilots have long been the checklist gurus—but the art and science of well-crafted checklists have not found favor in other professions or industries…yet.  The Captain Sully story, though expected, still caused my heart to beat fast.  You’ll appreciate how checklists saved the day for the “Miracle on the Hudson.”

[x] 5. The chapter, “The End of the Master Builder,” takes you into the elite world of checklists created under the hardhats of McNamara/Salvia, a Boston high rise construction firm. The dingy construction trailer is long gone. In its place, “…on the walls around a big white oval table, hung sheets of butcher-block-size printouts of what were, to my surprise, checklists.”

[x] 6. Checklists are “ridiculously simple.” What seems obvious, isn’t.  Checklists enhance teamwork—even among virtuoso surgeons. “There’s a reason much of the world uses the phrase, operating theater.”

[x] 7. Boeing’s checklist expert uses “pause points” when building checklists for pilots in crisis. Within each pause point, he limits the checklist to between five and nine items. I had no idea that there were checklist connoisseurs.

[x] 8. For crisis lists, decide whether you want a DO-CONFIRM checklist (do what your gut tells you, then go back and confirm you did it) or a READ-DO checklist (more like a recipe).

[x] 9. Gawande interviewed the managing partner of a California investment firm who is a checklist zealot. He cited the “cocaine brain” that researchers often experience when investigating company financial reports. Without a thorough checklist (honed over years of experience), a greed mode kicks in and wipes out thoughtful discernment. They use a “Day Three Checklist” to avoid disasters. “Forty-nine times out of fifty, he said, there’s nothing to be found. ‘But then there is.’”

[x] 10. “Fly the airplane,” amazingly, is the first item on a checklist for engine failure on a single-engine Cessna airplane. “Because pilots sometimes become so desperate trying to restart their engine, so crushed by the cognitive overload of thinking through what could have gone wrong, they forget this most basic task. FLY THE AIRPLANE.”

In one study of 250 staff members (surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses and others), 80 percent reported that the new checklist had improved the safety of care and 78 percent “actually observed the checklist to have prevented an error in the operating room.” Yet, 20 percent gave it a thumbs down. 

Then Gawande asked one more question, “If you were having an operation, would you want the checklist to be used?”  A full 93 percent said yes!

To order this book from Amazon, click on the title for The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right, by Atul Gawande.

Note! Another must-read by Atul Gawande: Being Mortal.


YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
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1) The author notes a study on the “science of complexity.”  The researcher defined three levels: simple (use a recipe to bake a cake), complicated (sending a rocket to the moon), and complex (raising a child). How much of your work time do you devote to these three levels?

2) Does this “manifesto on checklists” intrigue us enough so that someone here should read the book and report on it in a month?

More on Checklists: Smart Moves for People in Charge: 130 Checklists to Help You Be a Better Leader

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5-Step Crisis Card
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit

One of the big ideas in the Crisis Bucket, Chapter 13, in Mastering the Management Buckets, is to create simple, step-by-step instructions and plans BEFORE a crisis hits. For example, World Vision has an Emergency Response and Disaster Mitigation (ERDM) team. Team members carry a wallet-size, laminated card with instructions on what to do when disaster strikes.

To review World Vision’s five-step card, download and read the article, "We've Got an Emergency: Essential Lessons Every Manager Needs to Learn Before a Crisis Hits" (The Inside Story of How World Vision Responded to the Tsunami Disaster). Visit the Crisis Bucket webpage.

MORE RESOURCES:

• BLOG: Pails in Comparison
• SUBSCRIBE: Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews
• JOHN'S BOOK REVIEWS: on Amazon 
• WEBSITE: Management Buckets
• BLOG: Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations
• PODCASTS: John Pearson's Buckets Podcasts 

NOTICE! Issues No. 1 to 657 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (2006 to 2025), previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to this blogsite you are on now (John Pearson's Buckets Blog).

Humility

    

Issue No. 141 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (May 26, 2009) tackles humility and the Program Bucket—two subjects rarely combined. And this reminder: check out my Management Buckets website with dozens of resources and downloadable worksheets for your staff meetings.

The Root of Every Virtue

Andrew Murray (1828-1917) was a South African Dutch Reformed pastor and Christian leader who authored 240 books and devotional writings, including With Christ in the School of Prayer and this week’s book, Humility.  No jazzy subtitle, just the one word—humility.

The book caught my eye because a candidate for a CEO position included it as one of three books he would recommend to his senior team members. Wow. I must confess that I have exerted untold wasted energy being outraged more over arrogant leaders than I have in reflecting on the cure: humility. This book whacked me—and is still poking at me, yet the edition I read is only 59 pages, with big print.* Here you go:

   • “Humility, the place of entire dependence on God, is, from the very nature of things, the first duty and the highest virtue of the creature, and the root of every virtue.”

   • “The chief mark of counterfeit holiness is its lack of humility.”

   • “Pride can lift its head in the very temple of God, and make His worship the scene of self exaltation.”

   • “Humility is the only soil in which the graces root; the lack of humility is the sufficient explanation of every defect and failure.”

   • “Humility is not so much a grace or virtue along with others; it is the root of all, because it alone takes the right attitude before God, and allows Him as God to do all.”

   • “The truth is this: Pride may die in you, or nothing of heaven can live in you.”

   • “No tree can grow except on the root from which it sprang.”

Every page convicts—you probably shouldn’t read this book. There’s more. “Is it any wonder that the Christian life is so often feeble and fruitless, when the very root of the Christ life is neglected, is unknown?”  And thus Andrew Murray (who also wrote The True Vine and Abide With Me) elegantly pictures the battle between pride and humility (“the two master powers”)—documenting the futility of living a God-honoring life without humility. The path to the higher life? “Down, lower down!”

To order this book from Amazon, click on the title for Humility, by Andrew Murray. (*Note: There are numerous editions of this book on Amazon.)

BONUS BOOK: Superhabits: The Universal System for a Successful Life, by Andrew V. Abela (Read more on virtues from a business school dean!)

YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
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1) Andrew Murray writes, “…humility towards men will be the only sufficient proof that our humility before God is real; that humility has taken up its abode in us; and become our very nature; that we actually, like Christ, have made ourselves of no reputation.” What does this mean to you?

2) What’s the balance between pride and humility when we tell our organization’s story in publications, brochures, donor letters, and Rotary speeches?

NOTE: Humility is one of "18 Best Board Books" in my series on recommended reading for nonprofit board members. See the list here.

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Thus Saith the CEO
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit

One of the big ideas in the Program Bucket, Chapter 6, in Mastering the Management Buckets is to do research. “If you have $10,000 to spend, invest $5,000 in researching and understanding your audience," recommends Bob Hisrich.

Truth be told—in this economic downturn—the reason some companies, churches and nonprofits are dropping programs right and left is that they should never have been launched in the first place. Some were started because the leader came down off the mountain and announced, “Thus saith the CEO.” No research. No ask the customer. No second guessing.  Just full speed ahead. That’s not faith—that’s stupidity.

So…before you launch your next big idea, invest 50 percent of the budget in researching and understanding the market. You’ll save a ton of money—and often, a ton of embarrassment. (Read more in Marketing Your Ministry, by Robert Hisrich and yours truly.)

For more help, download "Worksheet #6.2: Top 10 Questions to Ask About Program Capacity and Sustainability" from the Program Bucket page at my Management Buckets website. Plus, check out the book recommendations listed for this bucket.

MORE RESOURCES:

• BLOG: Pails in Comparison
• SUBSCRIBE: Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews
• JOHN'S BOOK REVIEWS: on Amazon 
• WEBSITE: Management Buckets
• BLOG: Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations
• PODCASTS: John Pearson's Buckets Podcasts 

NOTICE! Issues No. 1 to 657 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (2006 to 2025), previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to this blogsite you are on now (John Pearson's Buckets Blog).

The Reward Trap

 

Issue No. 695 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (Oct. 24 2026) warns that those bonuses, bribes, and rewards might be a big mistake at your office—and at home! Plus, click here for back issues posted at the new location for John Pearson’s Buckets Blog, including my review of Awakened by Grace: The Life Story of Chuck Swindoll. And check out these bite-sized book summaries (7- to 9-minute videos)—perfect for your weekly staff meeting.   The Reward Trap explains why offering rewards to employees (and your kids and grandkids) just might backfire! (Grandkid: "If there are no more reward stickers, do I still need to read these books?" LOL!)   Why Rewards Backfire! Occasionally when reading a new book, I’ll look for the most interesting chapter title and read that chapter first. If it’s unrewarding, I’ll set the book aside. So how ironic it would be if a chapter from the new book, The Reward Trap, was unrewarding. Trust me on this—you’ll change your thinking about rewards when you read Chapter 9, “How Do Rewards Affect Creativity?” I love this book!   The Reward Trap:  Why Rewards Backfire  and the Real Science of Motivating Kids by Özgür Bolat (Aug. 18, 2026)   In just eight pages, I found myself in the front row of a master class—learning how students (and your coworkers) approach achievement, motivation, and rewards (and maybe bribes!). Psychologists have identified two groups: those who are all about “performance orientation” and those who focus on “learning or mastery orientation.”  GROUP 1: PERFORMANCE ORIENTATION. The goals of these students “are to get high marks, to prove themselves, to outperform others, and to demonstrate their skill, ability, and intelligence. Success, for them, is about comparison, standing out, winning, or proving themselves.”  GROUP 2: MASTERING ORIENTATION. This group is “driven by something different. These students aim to understand the material deeply, stretch their thinking, and improve over time. They aren’t primarily concerned with how they rank compared to others. They’re more interested in how much they’ve grown compared to who they were yesterday.” And here…with all the books I’ve read (and workshops attended) I thought I knew a thing or two (or three) about motivating team members, volunteers, board members, donors, our son, our five grandchildren, and others. And…I thought I knew when reward systems work—and when they don’t. (Oops! Back to the drawing board—and this book!) MISTAKE-MAKING! According to the author, Dr. Özgür Bolat (Harvard Fulbright Scholar and Cambridge Ph.D.), the two groups approach mistake-making from different perspectives.    • The performance-oriented group believes “a mistake is a cause for concern. They tend to hide their mistakes.”    • The mastery-oriented group sees “any mistake as an opportunity to learn and to grow.” ASKING QUESTIONS. Did you know this?    • The performance-oriented group will generally ask a question to demonstrate their intelligence to the class and make judgments or ‘show off’ their knowledge.”    • The mastery-oriented group “will ask questions to learn.”  “Regardless of whether the first group learns or not, they are happy when they receive the approval of the teacher or get high marks, especially when those marks are higher than another student. The second group, on the other hand, is disappointed if they don’t learn anything.” Gut check! After that new info, Dr. Bolat then coaxed me into reading this entire book (fascinating!) with this question: “Which orientation serves our children best?” WAIT…WHAT? While much of the book’s research on the efficacy of rewards are from the classroom and from parenting (all ages through college), there’s a ton of practical information and insights applicable to your workplace. Example: THE BRIBE EFFECT! The author posits two workplace scenarios. “Your manager calls you with an offer.” Which one would you take?    • Scenario 1: “We have an important project on the horizon at work. I think you would be a great fit with your experience and skills. Are you interested?”    • Scenario 2: “We have an important project on the horizon at work. I plan to give a bonus to the one who agrees to work on the project and I think you would be a great fit. Are you interested?” Noting that Scenario 2 is a big mistake managers make, the author explains: “Most people would choose the first option. Why? The bonus offered in the second proposal gives the hidden message that the project is negative in some way and requires the extra financial incentive to compensate for its unattractiveness. It might even mean that the proposal the manager is offering brings more value to the company that it does to you.” Dr. Bolat explains with this classroom example: “…children are offered rewards for the books they read. Those rewards give the message that reading is not fun in and of itself. We see this same pattern not just in schools and offices, but also in entire societies. Even governments have unintentionally proven how offering rewards can backfire.” Hilarious! Dr. Bolat visited a classroom where a “well-meaning teacher” had created a reading incentive program. Each book read = one sticker. Ten stickers = a toy. Yet one boy starting gaming the system and “read” only picture books!  “Another stopped mid-novel when he realized he had already reached his sticker quota. Finally, one bold child asked, ‘If we’re not getting stickers anymore, do we still have to read?’” Dr. Bolat: “The reward had become a trap.” (Did I mention? This is a fascinating book.) FAVORITE CHAPTER: “How Do Rewards Affect Creativity?” (Chapter 9). The author believes that “Creativity is one of the most important twenty-first century skills. Most managers want employees in their organizations who are creative thinkers, and most teachers want creative students. What we see, however, is that although children may be encouraged to be creative in school, we do not generally raise creative children.” This reminded me of the statement from Sir Ken Robinson in the book, Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge From Small Discoveries (read my review): “We are educating people out of their creativity.” Yikes! Dr. Bolat’s research notes this: “Most teachers claim they want creative students in their classrooms, but it turns out those creative children are not their favorite students. On the contrary, the creative students are usually the least favorite students. They're the ones who get labeled as disruptive, hard to manage, or ‘too much.’” Really? “In an effort to preserve classroom order, many teachers, often unconsciously, reinforce compliance and obedience over creativity. One of their primary tools for this is reward. And get this: Harvard professor Teresa Amabile, “a leading expert on creativity,” has concluded that “children offered rewards tend to show less creativity in their work.” Reward Warnings! Prof Amabile also notes, “…children are more likely to describe a task as ‘work’ if they are offered reward, and more likely to label it as ‘play’ if no reward is offered.” (Attn: Parents, Teachers, and Managers: read this book!) THERE’S MORE:    • Performance-oriented children “are more likely to experience anxiety, avoid asking for help, rely on surface-level study strategies, and even engage in self-sabotaging behaviors.”    • “Their fear of failure can also lead to increased test anxiety and a higher risk of academic dishonesty.”    • But only mastery-orientation “supports both well-being and long-term success.” LOL! My unresearched suggestion: “Thanks for your interest in applying for our office accounting position. Here’s my first question: Did your second grade teacher offer you rewards for reading books?” DON’T SKIP:    • Why performance-oriented students pick the easy jobs.    • Why rewards contribute to “cognitive tunneling” or “inattentional blindness.”    • This metaphor: “Rewards act like a flashlight…” but “creativity needs a lantern…”    • The emotional side of creativity: “broadening” and “narrowing.”    • The research results with college students working on creative tasks—such as producing drawings or ad slogans. Per the expert judges, “…the non-rewarded group consistently outperformed the rewarded group.”    • How the theory of “cognitive dissonance” relates to a study called “the worm-eating experiment”—when rewards send the wrong message. I hope you’ll read this book and—NO—I’m not going to give you a reward sticker for reading it! This new book reminded me of some old friends (books) on creativity, including Little Bets, Creators, and Entrepreneurial StrengthsFinder. TO ORDER FROM AMAZON, click on the title for The Reward Trap: Why Rewards Backfire and the Real Science of Motivating Kids, by Özgür Bolat. And thanks to the publisher for sending me a review copy.   YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS: 1) Dr. Bolat says he wrote The Reward Trap “because I want children to grow up feeling loved without needing to earn it. I want parents to know there’s another way.” Yikes! Would it be prudent for our organization to review our bonuses, “bribes,” and other rewards and incentives currently in place? 2) "When Could Rewarding Be Appropriate?" In Chapter 16, the author mentions he suggested to a governor that instead of offering a computer or a tablet as prizes for a story-writing contest, they consider a shift. "Instead of gadgets, maybe you can offer all three winners access to different prestigious writing courses in the UK or the USA." Does that give us any ideas for our "rewards" system in our organization?          SECOND READS: Fresh Solutions From Classic Books You have changed—and your problems have changed—since you read this the first time! Book #62 of 99: Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us For your team meeting this week, inspire a team member to lead your “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” session by featuring Book #62 of 99 in our series, “Second Reads.” The big idea: REREAD TO LEAD! Discover how your favorite books (and articles) still have more to teach you and the people you’re coaching and mentoring. Tribes:  We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin (Oct. 16, 2008) Seth Godin, bestselling author of Poke the Box, This Is Marketing, and other books, says there are three steps in tribe work: motivating, connecting and leveraging. His real-life examples: adrenalin-starters! His pithy bursts of wisdom: memorable. “My friend Fred has a new book coming out and he was trolling around for marketing ideas. I think he’d be surprised at this one: Sell one.”    • Read my review (Issue No. 127, Feb. 16, 2009).    • Order from Amazon.    • Management Bucket #2 of 20: The Customer Bucket. Oh, my! One word, one paragraph, not even one page can adequately describe Seth Godin’s epistle on leadership—because it’s more about marketing. No, it’s about tribes. No it’s about the Internet and factories. No, it’s about how leaders build communities (tribes, again) and focus on true fans versus thousands. Well, actually it’s about heretics, nonprofits, faith, religion, Steve Jobs, unicorns, and the Printing Bucket—and how movements are looking for leaders—and how you can lead your tribe (I think). Aw…forget it. I can’t really explain this book, but I’m going to read it at least twice. You should too. CLICK HERE FOR BOOKS BY JOHN     View the video summary (9 minutes) of “Mistake #6: Prioritizing Convenience Over Generosity. I failed to inspire and give permission for the staff to call audibles.” See the workbook, Mastering Mistake Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—and What I Learned (10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning Workbook), by John Pearson with Jason Pearson. NOTICE! Issues No. 1 to 657 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (2006 to 2025), previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to this new blogsite: John Pearson's Buckets Blog. We remember 2016! Go Cubs! View the summary video (9 minutes) of John’s review of The Cubs Way: The Zen of Building the Best Team in Baseball and Breaking the Curse, by Tom Verducci. Read John’s review, “Recalibrate in 17 Minutes.”  BONUS! As of today, 43 video podcasts (7 to 9 minutes each) are posted here. Perfect lifelong-learning snippets for your weekly staff meeting. MORE RESOURCES: • BLOG: Pails in Comparison • SUBSCRIBE: Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews • JOHN'S BOOK REVIEWS: on Amazon  • WEBSITE: Management Buckets • BLOG: Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations • PODCASTS: John Pearson's Buckets Podcasts  13 Books on Time Management! See my list of 13 books on time management (and more) at the Pails in Comparison Blog and consider starting with this one: The 10-Second Rule: Following Jesus Made Simple, by Clare De Graaf. (Read my review.) The author writes, “Just do the next thing you’re reasonably certain Jesus wants you to do—and do it within the next ten seconds.”