The Harambee Stars of Kenya in early March of this year traveled to Nigeria for the first match and as history had it, the Kenyans were fated to another loss. We were not in any way conceivable to beat Nigeria and their Super Eagles knew this well.
Thus, the Kenyan team was not given good reception, they slept in dorms, they were denied access to places of practice and a nasty bus to take the “Pathetic team around.
The Nigerians seemed not to understand what was motivating these boys to face fate and they were trying to kill their morale. They trained and worked their morning practice in the all-weather playground and awaited their match.
Mike Sonko, the newly elected senator of Nairobi, was interviewed on Livewire of Nation TV and he said that he had promised the Kenyan team one million Kenyan shillings ( around USD 11,751) for a win or a draw. To get a million Kenyan shillings is a dream that many wish will come true before their death.
This is a very good incentive for a team, the best of the many that there ever was. He also revealed that he had talked to the president and he had agreed to offer the team 3 million Kenyan shillings for the subsequent match that was going to be played at home.
The Kenyan team went confidently into the field and managed a draw and Mike Sonko delivered his promise on their landing in Jomo Kenyatta International airport, Kenya. He was very excited and Nigerians were really amazed. A team that they were predicting 4 – 0 or even many more managed a good draw of 1 – 1. Then the incentive worked and delivered results.
The next match was held yesterday and this was not a one million but a four million match. If incentives do work, if more incentives are added then better and better results should be attained. This is just pure logic. The outcome this time defied logic and Kenya lost 1- 0 to Nigeria. Then should we just say that the Kenyan football team is just bad and that is why they lost or that there are other factors affecting success other than incentives.
We should be inclined to take the later with caution because incentives never work. If you ask me, I will tell you that the incentives caused the loss because it stimulated individualism in a game that requires team work for success. Everybody wanted a share of the grand price, so there was competition which destroyed the effectiveness of the Harambee Stars. This is just another one of those things that is explained by; good intentions that lead to bad outcomes. More is needed in order to ensure future success for the Kenyan team other than incentives.
by Dennis
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4 comments:
Interesting. I have been reading the book "Drive" by Daniel Pink and, contrary to what other people say, he says that incentives can only work in the short term. Unfortunately, in the long term incentives can even be the cause of failure and this article is just another evidence for this argument.
Interesting my friend. A lot of people assume that when there is an incentive there should be a positive result. That is why when a team does not do well we say that they are not being incetivised properly by the government. Instead of of improving resources for training and other factors. Interesting
Yes, the Kenyan team needs to find a way to improve its resources. However, the question is how to do it? The government came up with the solution to incentivize the Kenyan team. Unfortunately the solution didn't work. Why? According to Daniel Pink, incentives can only be effective for algorithmic tasks - those that depend on following an existing formula for its logical conclusion. But incentives don't work for the tasks that require creativity, inventiveness, or flexible problem-solving skills. In this case, to win a soccer game is not as straightforward as to solve 2+2. To beat Nigeria requires Kenya to INVENT a formula. That requires creativity and the ability to think outside of the box. Unfortunately, incentives most often stifle creative thinking. For this reason, Kenya failed to beat Nigeria. However, I must confess, to beat Nigeria is a very difficult task, Mr. Dennis. :P
That is true too. Beating Nigeria is hard but we have to dream hehe. Thats interesting about the formula probably there should be one. The formula influences the outcome despite the fact that these two are things that have no life.
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