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Ideas for Impact

People Do What You Inspect, Not What You Expect

January 24, 2025 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

People Do What You Inspect, Not What You Expect Expectations alone won’t cut it. Without active monitoring, goals quickly go off the rails. In the restaurant business, setting food quality standards without inspection is like leaving the door wide open for trouble. Left to their own devices, staff will cut corners, skip steps, and serve subpar meals, leading to under-cooked food and neglected health standards.

Without oversight, people do just enough to stay out of hot water. Worse, if they think no one’s watching, unethical shortcuts slip through the cracks.

Inspection shows you’re serious, holding people accountable and keeping them on track. It drives performance, prevents complacency, and shuts down any funny business.

Idea for Impact: What gets inspected, gets done.

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Filed Under: Business Stories, Managing People, Mental Models Tagged With: Ethics, Goals, Motivation, Performance Management, Persuasion, Targets

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About: Nagesh Belludi [hire] is a St. Petersburg, Florida-based freethinker, investor, and leadership coach. He specializes in helping executives and companies ensure that the overall quality of their decision-making benefits isn’t compromised by a lack of a big-picture understanding.

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