What Is Taylorism and Its Impact Beyond Waterfall
Explores how Taylorism shaped modern management, leading to rigid hierarchies, bureaucracy, and dehumanising work practices that persist beyond …
Bonuses reflect mistrust, not motivation. True engagement in knowledge work comes from purpose, autonomy, and meaningful challenges—not financial rewards.
Bonuses are not incentives. They’re symptoms of a system that doesn’t trust people to care about their work.
In a knowledge economy, the best people are not motivated by a few extra pounds or dollars. They’re motivated by purpose, autonomy, and the chance to solve hard problems.
You don’t need to bribe great engineers to do their job. You just need to stop getting in their way.
If your company still relies on carrots and sticks, it’s not agile. It’s not modern. It’s just Taylorism with a friendlier HR policy.
The knowledge age demands agency—not compliance.
If your performance systems are designed for factory work, don’t be surprised when your team acts like factory workers.
Stop optimising for output. Start building for outcomes.
Are your incentives helping or hurting?
If you've made it this far, it's worth connecting with our principal consultant and coach, Martin Hinshelwood, for a 30-minute 'ask me anything' call.
We partner with businesses across diverse industries, including finance, insurance, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, technology, engineering, transportation, hospitality, entertainment, legal, government, and military sectors.
ProgramUtvikling
Kongsberg Maritime
Philips
Hubtel Ghana
Akaditi
Emerson Process Management
Alignment Healthcare
Slaughter and May
Healthgrades
Lockheed Martin
Graham & Brown
Illumina
Deliotte
Epic Games
Xceptor - Process and Data Automation
Capita Secure Information Solutions Ltd
Jack Links
Boeing
Ghana Police Service
Department of Work and Pensions (UK)
New Hampshire Supreme Court
Nottingham County Council
Washington Department of Enterprise Services
Royal Air Force
Cognizant Microsoft Business Group (MBG)
Alignment Healthcare
Hubtel Ghana
Illumina
Lean SA
CR2