Mm, I'm really not an expert and don't have anything constructive to add except to simplify what I said: IMO the key thing is that the work is done in open mod

Mm, I'm really not an expert and don't have anything constructive to add except to simplify what I said: IMO the key thing is that the work is done in open mode, and the results are observed critically. This means that the constraints, implicit or explicit, should be as unlimiting as possible, because all constraints will limit the space of solutions that people can think of. This includes such limits as performance metrics and various financial incentives. Which means if you want creative output, you should generally fund peoples and projects, and not milestones. And then when they deliver something, gauge that critically, and if the thing they make sells well, give them a bonus so they will feel fairly treated. But don't incentivize the innovation process itself and don't hold the bonus up as a promised gift they will wait for. This is of course completely different way than you would incentivize sales people or people doing linear repetitive tasks where performance based incentives are shown to work pretty well. Dan Pink's TED lecture is pretty good. https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation?language=en#t-906824 https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation?language=en...