From A million little cuts (emphasis mine):

Most businesses don't fail dramatically.

They do it slowly…

The answer, more likely than not, is to consistently and regularly stop the bleeding. To improve the boring stuff.

Organizations fail slowly. They often succeed fast, though. That's where the remarkable comes in. So, if I had to summarize it: You take a big step up… by being bold. But you avoid a slow death by getting every little thing right.

I suspect that it's much easier to get every little thing right when your monkeys are happy. Think of it the other way around: I bet your coders would be happier if you encouraged them and challenged them to get every little thing right.