In any group, figure out what people get rewarded for. That’s what they’ll actually do.

What a group says it values and what it rewards are frequently different, and behaviour follows the rewards every time. If minutes go to the loudest trainer, people get loud. If marks go to length, essays get long. Understanding the real scoring system explains nearly everything that looks irrational in a team, a class or a workplace, because people are responding rather than confused.

Spend this week working out what actually gets noticed where you are. Watch who gets praised and for what. Then decide whether you can win on those terms honestly, or whether you would rather be somewhere else.