So, it turns out it there wasn’t a big chess tournament this past weekend.
Kansas City Chiefs player Jerick McKinnon chose to not score a touchdown near the end of the Super Bowl game on Sunday. He instead ended the play on the 1 yard line, forgoing scoring a touchdown. At the Super Bowl.
This choice helped his team run down the clock, making it more likely they’d win. He saw his team’s success as greater than his own bragging rights and probably did ensure his team’s victory.
Now, you may say, “He had an individual incentive of $157k, the payout each player on the winning team gets,” and I’ll respond, “exactly.”
He had the presence of mind and the incentive, and he took the action.
If he had been rated merely on points scored and threatened with demotion or firing based on solely that, he might have acted differently.
An optimized system is going to have unoptimized parts, so make sure you incentivize your people to support the global goals, even if it means they, ah, score lower on their own.
