Projects Not People is organize around outcomes and projects rather than fixed org-chart roles. It sits in the Cognition dimension (COG) of the Human Behavior Taxonomy™ as element HBT-COG-0556, within the Strategy family. The core principle: organize around outcomes and projects rather than fixed org-chart roles. In incentive terms, it matters because it changes the payoff people perceive before they choose — which means it can be designed for, or exploited.
Scientific Definition
Organize around outcomes and projects rather than fixed org-chart roles.
Plain-English Definition
Organize around outcomes and projects rather than fixed org-chart roles.
Feynman Explanation
Reorgs are theater. Project assignments are reality.
Core Principle
Organize around outcomes and projects rather than fixed org-chart roles.
Mechanisms
Pending editorial review.
Organize around outcomes and projects rather than fixed org-chart roles.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Talent fluidity in fast-changing markets.
Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
Reorgs are theater. Project assignments are reality.
Examples
- Lean and agile teams formed around bets, dissolved on completion.
- Talent fluidity in fast-changing markets.
Pending editorial review.
Original analysis from The Incentives Lab — how this element behaves inside real payoff structures.
Why this element matters to incentive design
This element is common enough to feel like human nature and specific enough to be engineered around. The mechanism underneath it is straightforward: organize around outcomes and projects rather than fixed org-chart roles. You can recognize it in the field by its signature: reorgs are theater. Project assignments are reality. Every element in the Cognition dimension changes the perceived payoff of an action before the action happens, which is exactly where incentive design has leverage.
How it gets exploited
Left undesigned, talent fluidity in fast-changing markets. It is amplified whenever talent fluidity in fast-changing markets. Inside organizations that shows up as talent fluidity in fast-changing markets. The pattern is the same one Goodhart's Law describes: the measurable proxy attracts the effort, and the purpose behind it quietly loses funding.
How the Lab designs around it
The redesign move is to refresh project portfolios quarterly; let roles follow work, not the other way around. The leverage is not in explaining the behavior to people. It is in changing what the behavior earns.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Refresh project portfolios quarterly; let roles follow work, not the other way around.
Measurement Approaches
Pending editorial review.
Evidence
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
The Perverse Incentive Lens™
How this behavior is exploited — and how to redesign around it.
- Refresh project portfolios quarterly; let roles follow work, not the other way around.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Interactive Mini Network
Click any neighbor to re-center the graph and follow the threads of connection.
Knowledge Graph Neighbors
Auto-linked to the rest of the Human Behavior Taxonomy by family, domain, dimension, and shared keywords.
Basics first (health/finances), then depth (mastery/impact), then altruism (widening circle).
A problem whose solution requires people to change their values, beliefs, or habits — not just apply expertise.
Holding a different — and correct — set of tools than everyone else.
Someone who incites others to take illegal or rash action, often to expose or discredit them.
Sun Tzu's ancient treatise on strategy, deception, and positioning.
Conflict between belligerents with very different resources and tactics.
Start from the desired future and work backward to the steps that make it inevitable.
Winning the disputed population, not just defeating the visible opponent.
Countering hostile narratives with truthful, well-timed alternatives.
Sort situations into Clear, Complicated, Complex, Chaotic, or Confused — each needs a different response.
Eroding the will to act, even when capacity remains.
Munger's principle: the surest way to get something is to deserve it.
Where Projects Not People is cited in the corpus
Essays, field guides, and diagnostics from The Incentives Lab that apply this element.
- EssayGoodhart's Law in the Real World
How measurable proxies capture judgment.
- EssayThe Perverse Incentives Hiding in Your KPIs
Cognitive shortcuts turned into scorecards.
- EssayAI Agents Inherit Your Incentives
How this element propagates into automated systems.
- ReferenceThe Periodic Table of Human Behavior
The full 1,267-element map this page belongs to.
- CourseIncentives 101
The free ten-part primer on reading a payoff structure.
Questions about Projects Not People
- What is Projects Not People?
- Projects Not People is organize around outcomes and projects rather than fixed org-chart roles. It sits in the Cognition dimension (COG) of the Human Behavior Taxonomy™ as element HBT-COG-0556, within the Strategy family. The core principle: organize around outcomes and projects rather than fixed org-chart roles. In incentive terms, it matters because it changes the payoff people perceive before they choose — which means it can be designed for, or exploited.
- What is an example of Projects Not People?
- Talent fluidity in fast-changing markets. The Incentives Lab catalogs everyday, organizational, and historical instances of this element on its Human Behavior Taxonomy™ page (HBT-COG-0556).
- How is Projects Not People exploited?
- Talent fluidity in fast-changing markets.
- How do you design around Projects Not People?
- Refresh project portfolios quarterly; let roles follow work, not the other way around.
- Which behavioral dimension does Projects Not People belong to?
- Projects Not People is classified in the Cognition dimension (COG) of the Human Behavior Taxonomy™, family "Strategy", class "Mental Model". Its permanent identifier is HBT-COG-0556 and its evidence grade is B.