Punishments and rewards are two sides of the same coin and that coin doesn't buy you much.

When was the last time you spent the entire day with only 42 year olds?

Trying to do well and trying to beat others are two different things. Excellence and victory are conceptually distinct . . . and are experienced differently.

Contrary to what you think, your company will be a lot more productive if you refuse to tolerate competition among your employees.

Being a team player should not imply a demand for simple obedience and conformity.

If I offered you a thousand dollars to take off your shoes, you'd very likely accept--and then I could triumphantly announce that 'rewards work.' But as with punishments, they can never help someone develop a *commitment* to a task or action, a reason to keep doing it when there's no longer a payoff.

Punishment and reward proceed from basically the same psychological model, one that conceives of motivation as nothing more than the manipulation of behavior.