I once worked with a scientist who was adamant that he would not participate in collaborations with more than three people.
The reason: a Nobel Prize may not be shared by more than three individuals.
Though he hasn’t won a Nobel Prize (yet), he is an exceptional scientist who has made many contributions to his field. Yet, I can’t help but wonder what other—and perhaps greater—benefits to humankind might he have unlocked if he would relax his rule of three for collaboration and more readily share and exchange ideas?
From Nobel Prizes to performance management to the typical hiring process, most of our systems incentivize us to spend too much time and effort worrying and arguing about how to divide the success of an outcome.
What if instead we implemented systems that better incentivize people to work together to create something worth dividing?
