But what if we flipped our thinking—and designed our workplace policies for the 85 percent rather than the 15 percent? In his book, Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age, New York University professor Clay Shirky argues that when we design systems that assume bad faith from the participants, and whose main purpose is to guard against nasty behavior, we often foster the very behavior we’re trying to deter. People will push and push the limits of formal rules, search for every available loophole, and look for ways to game the system when defenders aren’t watching. By
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