Incentive structures get set once, usually near the start of a hold, and then rarely get revisited with genuine scrutiny until something’s clearly gone wrong, at which point the fix is reactive rather than preventative, and considerably more disruptive than a periodic review would have been. 

The most common problem isn’t that incentive structures are poorly designed at the outset, most are reasonably sensible given what was known at the time. The problem is that the business changes, priorities shift, and the incentive structure quietly stops matching what the business actually needs, without anyone deciding to change it, simply because nobody scheduled a moment to check. A sales incentive structure built around new logo acquisition, entirely sensible in year one, can become actively counterproductive in year three if the growth plan has shifted toward expansion revenue and retention, because the sales team is still being paid, in practice, to prioritise exactly the behaviour the business no longer needs most. 

The tell that this drift has happened is usually visible before anyone formally reviews the incentive structure, if you’re looking for it. Behaviour that seems individually rational for the people involved but collectively unhelpful for the business, a sales team chasing new logos in low-value segments while ignoring higher-value expansion opportunities, a customer success team optimising for satisfaction scores in ways that don’t actually correlate with retention, is usually a symptom of an incentive structure that’s drifted out of alignment with what the business currently needs, not a symptom of the people involved lacking judgement. 

The practical discipline: review incentive structures against current strategic priorities on a genuine, scheduled cadence, not just when a problem becomes visible enough to force the conversation. An incentive structure that made sense a year or two ago deserves active reconfirmation that it still makes sense now, rather than an assumption that it does simply because nobody’s complained yet.