‘Positive Reinforcement’ Articles

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NFL Kick-Off: Can the Pats write a new ending to the Haynesworth and Ochocinco sagas?

September 8th, 2011

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ochocinco2It’s that time of the year again, when diehard football fans anxiously await the start of the new NFL season.  This off season has been particularly interesting. Yes, because of the lockout but more so because of the ‘shuffling’ of players and coaches around the league.  One in particular caught my eye and has me wondering if it was a sound business decision or not.

It appears that the New England Patriots have bought themselves a “peck of trouble” when they signed both Albert Haynesworth and Chad Ochocinco.  It is not unlike what I saw in my former clinical practice where a person would marry an alcoholic with the sincere belief that he/she could reform the other.  Not that it can’t be done, but it is in fact rarely done. Albeit, history has been on Bill Belichick’s side, as he has reformed troubled players in the past, and I assume, he thinks he can do the same for these two. I, on the other hand, am not so sure.

First, there is no evidence that I know of that says that Ochocinco has shed any of his “it’s all about me” behavior.  While everyone says he is a very talented receiver, the Pats may find that he may be more concerned about doing things that keep the spotlight on him than on the team. Not five minutes after he was traded was he calling out through the media that he wanted to “buy” his #85 jersey from his new Patriots teammate who had already been wearing that number in seasons past.  There have been many other such examples that I won’t even go into.

As for Haynesworth, assistant coach Pepper Johnson, who has been entrusted with the “care and feeding” of Haynesworth, says that since he has reported he has done everything asked of him and he is working hard to make-up for the time he lost from training camp by reporting late.  Johnson declares the “the past is past” and that he is only evaluating him on what he is doing now.  Certainly that approach is needed but if he is to change the behavior that led to his being traded, it may take a different approach that involves effective consequences.  Haynesworth has a long list of troubles with coaches, on-field incidents and off-field legal troubles.  Johnson will need help from Belichick, other coaches and the other Patriot players.  Whether that will happen is a long shot.

There is no question that reform of Haynesworth’s many bad habits will require a high frequency of reinforcement and potentially the use of effective consequences.  Whether Coach Johnson has the behavioral knowledge and the ability to gradually shape new habits is suspect.

While I know that any behavior can be changed, I am not sure that the Patriot coaches and supporting players have the behavioral knowledge and the patience required to reform such well-established dysfunctional patterns of behavior on the part of Ochocino or Haynesworth.  It’s been said that they are looking for redemption from past failed seasons.  I hope they are as there have been too many “talented players” in sports that have flamed out before they delivered the performance their talent promised.

Consequences, Positive Reinforcement

Parenting and Behavior: Examples from Real Parents

August 30th, 2011

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CB106473I want to start by saying ‘thank you’ to those who sent me stories of how you applied the tools and principles of behavioral science to your parenting challenges.  I wish I could recall all of the stories I’ve heard through the years but in the end what is most satisfying to me is seeing people light up about how well the behavioral technology worked and how it leads to positive behavior where previously it had been problematic, and in their view, unresolvable.

With that, I share the following stories, from real parents, about the positive impact the science of behavior has had on their personal lives:

Learning to Drive

When my son, Sam, was learning how to drive, even though I knew better, I found myself only calling out the things he did wrong. Once I realized what I was doing wrong; I had to force myself to pay attention and identify the things he did right, and then specifically tell him about it.  The first behavior I made a point to notice was following the speed limit.  After watching him drive across town for a little while, I told him I noticed how well he did in following the speed limit.  He was so happy and proud that I noticed, and said “I know! I do it all the time!”   His response reinforced me to start noticing more of what he does right.  I then made a list of specific driving behaviors to remind myself to observe them such as, maintaining 3 second following distance, making complete stops, or stopping with enough space to see the bottom of the tires of the car in front of you.  I only picked one at a time so that I wouldn’t overdo it.  It really made me realize the strong tendency to fall back into the pattern of only noticing the things he does wrong. Without a deliberate effort to watch for specific behaviors (that I had to write down and look for), I would have fallen back into the old ways.

Household Chores

Pinpointing seemed overwhelming to me when I thought about my work environment but it became more manageable after I first applied it at home. I learned its importance when working to teach my son John to wash the dishes when he was about 7 or 8.  It was his task at night to wash and my task to dry.  When we first started, I was confused when he left the kitchen with several dirty pots and pans in the sink and went to play.  I said “Wait a minute, you’re not done!”  He said “Yes I am!”  I said “What about these?,” pointing to the dirty pots and pans.  He looked at me begrudgingly saying “You said I only had to do the dishes!”

What Makes Them Happy

My daughter used an approach to identify things that were reinforcing to her twin daughters when they were 18 months old. She wanted to determine effective reinforcers for behaviors associated with toilet training and also for other toddler behaviors. Individually, she placed several objects in front of the first child and whatever item the daughter picked first was identified as a reinforcer. She then placed the remaining items in front of the child and repeated the process until 3 items were identified. She then went through the same process with the second child. Once she did this with both girls, she had effective reinforcers. It’s worth noting that reinforcers do change so the process, or a modified version, will need to be repeated over time. By the way, the twins picked different objects.

Seeing Eye to Eye with Your Teenager

While I thought I had tried everything to improve my relationship with my teenage daughter, our relationship still felt strained.  After learning about the 4:1 Rule (four positive comments to one negative), I thought it was worth a try.  Over a one week period, I consciously worked at applying this rule, and did so as genuinely as possible.  I saw improvement in the first day and kept at it.  By weeks end, our conversations had significantly improved, and were even enjoyable. This not only taught me how to improve my personal relationships but it also taught me that when you focus on the positives, you see more things you would have otherwise not seen.

Consequences, Negative Reinforcement, Positive Reinforcement, Rewards, feedback, punishment

Lean: The missing piece is behavior

July 30th, 2011

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9780937100202For many years the lean champions who have been through our Performance Management classes have all said the same thing, “This is the missing piece.”  Most of them had experienced the same problem — after a short time, interest and enthusiasm for the initiative began to wane.  They found themselves prodding, pleading, and even threatening in order to keep things going.  Managers began to question why the initial gains were slipping or in some cases why they disappeared altogether.

No initiative can be implemented or sustained without behavior.  I have said many times that every organization should be constantly “leaning.”  It should be built into the organizational DNA – the way they do everything.  Why would any company not want to eliminate waste?

The problem is that when exposed to the “lean” training, employees are excited about it because it is positively reinforcing to learn new things and to have a change from routine work offered by the training session. However, if the reinforcement is novelty, it only lasts a very short time.  After you have done one or two projects, everything new is old again.  Unless you build positive reinforcers into the lean process, it becomes like every other initiative that began with a promise but ended with a question.

Without an understanding of reinforcement, a worthy initiative frequently ends in a premature death.

Read more about sustaining your gains at www.sustainyourgains.com

Behavior 101, Performance, Positive Reinforcement

Horrible Boss? KILL them with kindness…or more specifically, Positive Reinforcement!

July 8th, 2011

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horrible bossesWith all of the hype surrounding the new movie release “Horrible Bosses,” it forces those of us that have had a horrible boss in the past to relive our own experiences.

In an article I read this week on the topic, How to handle a bad boss (without killing them), a few anonymous people spoke up about their own dreadful experiences. I was surprised, although knowing what I know about positive reinforcement I’m not sure why, that in each example, they put up with the bad boss behavior rather than do something to combat it.  I realize it’s normal to have ‘fantasies’ of bad bosses getting their just desserts but why not do what you can to redirect bad boss behavior?

Unfortunately most executives, looking only at results, don’t see the organizational costs of bad boss behavior.  You certainly don’t get discretionary behavior but you almost always get reduced personal output that spreads to other employees not directly affected by the “bad boss”.  It is not infrequent that employees resort to some form of sabotage.

Just as your boss changes your behavior (attitude, motivation, etc.) you also change hers.  Although most people don’t realize the impact their behavior has on the boss, it can be significant and can turn a bad boss into a good one.   The problem is that most employees do not see it as their responsibility to train the boss.  However, if your life is made miserable by living with a boss 40 hours a week, it will benefit you to take on the task.

It bears repeating, as I say this quite often, that if you think that you get too little recognition or positive reinforcement for what you do at work; think of your boss because he/she gets less. Before you act (if even just in fantasy) on ousting your boss, try any or all of the following.  Knowing what I know about the science of behavior and positive reinforcement, your work environment, and your relationship with your boss, is bound to improve.

  1. Look for some improvement on the part of the boss. Don’t look for large changes, but for any small behavior that is an improvement over the usual.   Tell him or her that you appreciate how they handled something at work or a decision that they made. Find something to positively recognize your boss for not only today, but next week and even next month.  Positive reinforcement is the most effective way to change any one’s behavior, even the boss.
  2. Say ‘Thank You’ to your boss. Thanking your boss for something that he or she has done that is helpful to you in some way is always appreciated by the boss. Bosses usually only get the bad news about things people don’t like; it’s rare that they hear about things they do that people actually like.
  3. Tell your boss what’s going on. Keep the boss informed about things that ARE going well.  Bosses usually only get the bad news about things that aren’t going well. Give them a reason to celebrate what is working.
  4. Help your boss be successful. Respond positively to initiatives, priorities and decisions set forth by your boss (assuming, of course, that you think they are good). Any time you help your boss be successful, his or her behavior will likely improve.
  5. Help others on your team. Go out of your way to help others who are working to implement and address the boss’s initiatives and priorities. This causes most bosses these days to relax as they are able to see that the total burden of creating results does not fall on their shoulders.

A little positive reinforcement goes a long way to improving bad boss behavior. All people need positive reinforcement to do their best – bosses included. You have the ability to strengthen your boss’s good habits and improve other behaviors by how you respond to the boss’s behavior. Positive reinforcement will do the trick. Learn as much about it as you can.  Doing it at the wrong time, in the wrong way or the wrong place will make things worse, but if you do it right and do it often, you and your boss will be the better for it.

Behavior 101, Consequences, Leadership, Negative Reinforcement, Positive Reinforcement, punishment

Gambling with Safety

June 15th, 2011

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Why companies unknowingly put
themselves at risk

It’s probably a fair statement to say that companies are interested in supporting a safe work environment in their organizations. But it is all too apparent through today’s news headlines that organizations gamble with safety, including Sky Express, a bus company that had a recent deadly crash in Virginia. While bus companies and other government regulated industries have legislation in place to protect the public, private organizations are on their own to ensure that their safety practices yield safety by design.

In this latest video blog, Judy Agnew, co-author of Safe by Accident?, discusses the misnomer of incident rate as a predominant indicator of a company’s safety level and why companies need to invest in the science of behavior in order to manage all aspects of safety.

Behavior 101, Behavior Based Safety, Consequences, Culture "Change", Positive Reinforcement, punishment

What You Might Not Know, but Should, About the Effective Use of Measurement

June 10th, 2011

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measurementMeasurement gets a bad rap!  In business, measurement can be used to solve problems and help companies perform better, but one of the most frequent uses of measurement is to identify performers who aren’t measuring up.  What I have seen over my many years is that while clients think they understand measurement, there is a lot they don’t understand including how to use it to improve company, employee, and individual performance.

The following is adapted from my management classic, Bringing Out the Best in People, and gives you what you need to know about how to effectively use measurement.

  1. Why use it: The purpose of measurement in a performance management system is to use it to enable employees to do better. Measurement alone does not change behavior but rather provides the data to help create conditions where people see opportunities for improvement.  Measurement is most effective when it is used as a tool for delivering positive reinforcement.  Celebrate improved measures and instead of delivering punishment for low measures, work with employees to improve.
  2. Overcoming resistance: Employees typically want to avoid measurement because history tells them that it is usually accompanied by negative consequences. If people in your organization try to avoid or delay attempts to install job measurement, and you want to begin measuring more precisely, there are two things you should do:
    • Increase the frequency of positive reinforcement for desirable behaviors as they occur in the workplace.
    • Pair reinforcement with existing measures.
  3. How to Measure: There are two basic ways to measure: counting and judging. Counting is generally recognized as the best way to measure because it is more objective. When you can, you should count. Be warned, counts that are not paired with positive reinforcement when improvement occurs will give you only marginal improvement. When you establish a measure using counting, consider using the raw data rather than a mathematical function, such as percent. The further you move away from raw data, the more data you lose. By examining the raw frequencies you might be able to spot a problem and correct it much earlier than if you had only percent measures. If you don’t know the actual frequency you can’t adequately evaluate performance.
  4. Rate not Rank: One of the most frequently used, yet ineffective, measurement methods is ranking.  Any method that sets one employee against another is counterproductive to getting improved employee performance across the board. In ranking, there can be only one number 1 and only a limited number of winners. By using ratings, you compare performance against established criteria. In this way, it is possible for everyone who meets the required criteria to be rated as a top performer. A company of winners will be a winning company.
  5. Use behavioral measures: When measuring behavior, it is important to compare behavioral measures against results. If behaviors are judged to be good but the results are not, you may have the wrong pinpoints. The behaviors you originally pinpoint may have to be revised and/or refined a number of times until they give you the desired pinpointed result.
  6. Celebrating small changes: One of the most important reasons for establishing a good measurement system is to enable you to see small, incremental changes. Most improvements do not occur suddenly.  Frequently improvement has begun and you hardly notice it. Many initiatives have been canceled when progress was under way, but there was no measurement system in place to let anybody know about it.

I’m sure I don’t have to sell you on the importance of measurement in business.  In business, we have to keep score.  But measurement used to set the occasion for positive reinforcement has benefits that you may never have imagined. More than keeping score, measurement can help you significantly in your efforts to bring out the best in people.

Consequences, Incentives, Negative Reinforcement, Performance Pay, Positive Reinforcement

Can you Speak Up? I Can’t Hear You

May 4th, 2011

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Guest post by Bart Sevin, Ph.D.

CB051666Maureen Dowd recently wrote an Op Ed piece in the New York Times entitled Giving Doctors Orders, in which she discusses the importance of speaking up and asking your doctor to wash his or her hands in front of you prior to beginning an examination. She cited CNN reports and book authors who all recommend saying something to your physician if you don’t see them wash their hands with your own eyes. Sounds like a good idea, right? So what’s the problem? Well there are actually two problems: 1) getting people to start speaking up, and then 2) getting them to keep doing it. I have seen this all too often in working with clients, particularly on the safety side (but also on the non-safety side). Dowd’s article echoes one of the biggest challenges employees at all levels face, speaking up and giving feedback to others about their behavior, particularly those in authority.

Why is it so important for people to speak up in the moment when they see someone either engaging in a desired behavior (e.g., doctors washing their hands in front of patients) or an undesired behavior? And, why do people sometimes remain quiet even when they observe someone engaging in behavior that could (or will) negatively impact others or themselves? Why won’t they speak up more often, and what will it take to get them to start speaking up and doing so on an ongoing basis? The answer to all these questions is consequences.

First and foremost, it’s important to speak up in the moment (rather than saying something to the doctor later as you’re leaving the office) because the immediacy of the feedback increases its effectiveness.  By interrupting the at-risk behavior and helping the person begin practicing the correct behavior now, it also holds the performer personally accountable for doing the correct behavior.  Unfortunately the consequence history of people who typically say nothing when they should is one of being punished or penalized when they have given feedback in the past or they have ‘rules of conduct’ about respecting authority learned at an early age. The rule might be “respecting doctors means not questioning them about their practices”. In Dowd’s example, for instance, the negative consequences for asking your doctor to wash his or her hands might have been the doctor dismissively telling you his or her hands are already clean and even anticipating a sideways look that screams, ‘You dare to challenge me?”

What is needed to get people to speak up more often and keep doing so, is more positive reinforcement (R+). There are strategies that help to build in more R+ for speaking up and giving feedback. The first is to make sure that the person giving the feedback focuses on giving positive feedback for desired behavior, not just correcting undesired behavior. Dowd’s article focuses on correcting doctors when they fail to wash in front of you, but she doesn’t mention what patients should do when doctors do wash their hands in front of you. I’m sure we all can think of a number of times we’ve witnessed physicians washing their hands in the examination room just before beginning the examination. That’s an opportunity to speak up and strengthen that behavior!

Secondly, when giving constructive or negative feedback, plan before you do it. By doing this you help build in positive reinforcement for the giver. A very common strategy in sales is to anticipate the objections you’ll get from customers and plan what you’ll say to overcome the objections so you move one step closer to closing the sale. In my experience coaching frontline workers, I use the same approach: anticipate the push-back a co-worker (or your doctor) will give when you speak up about their undesired behavior, plan what you’ll say to overcome their resistance and move them closer to beginning to practice the desired behavior now.

Successfully overcoming resistance and getting people to demonstrate the correct behavior are usually very reinforcing to the person giving the feedback. In fact, many sales people begin to see objections as reinforcers because they represent an immediate opportunity for them to address any concerns and move the customer closer to saying yes.

Finally, it’s possible to build in more R+ for the person giving feedback by coaching the person receiving feedback on how to accept feedback well, such as thanking the person giving it and demonstrating strong listening skills by attempting the correct behavior. Apply these lessons to yourself as well.  Learning to speak up about others’ behavior may require that you look at your own at-risk behaviors, addressing the feedback you get from co-workers, reinforcing them for providing you corrective feedback, and inviting feedback in the first place.

We have many opportunities in our everyday environment to speak up when we see both desired and undesired behavior. By understanding the science behind reinforcement, you can positively impact your own behavior and the behavior of those with whom you interact.

Consequences, Negative Reinforcement, Positive Reinforcement, feedback, punishment

Eliminating Rare Errors – Even Sleeping Air Traffic Controllers

April 10th, 2011

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It’s happened again! An air traffic controller deliberately made his bed and slept in it while 7 different aircraft were trying to safely land at a Tennessee airport. I think it’s safe to assume this controller is a fine person who means no ill will. So why would someone in such a critical role take such a risk?

While the FAA continues its investigation into this and other claims of sleeping air traffic controllers, those who understand behavior from a scientific perspective will tell you that the solution to this problem does not lie in adding another controller in the tower or in punishing the offender.

For a better understanding of what should be done to eliminate situations that lead to unsafe conditions, I invite you to view a new video interview where I discuss the topic of Eliminating the Rare Error.

Behavior Based Safety, Consequences, Motivation, Negative Reinforcement, Positive Reinforcement, Technology, training

Badges in Social Media: A Behavioral Psychology Perspective

April 7th, 2011

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iStock_000000056638MediumAn article recently came past my desk that should be filed in my “drive me crazy” pile; Badges in Social Media: a Social Psychological Perspective, by Judd Antin and Elizabeth F. Churchill of Yahoo Research.    The article summary states that “this paper deconstructs badges and presents five social psychological functions for badges in social media contexts: goal setting, instruction, reputation, status/affirmation and group identification.” Badges, for those who aren’t up to speed on this fairly new techno classification, are digital artifacts (icons if you will) that are awarded to users who complete certain activities.

The only value I can see in this kind of article is that it satisfies some work or academic requirement or some social reinforcement for the authors.  While that assessment may seem harsh for someone who writes and speaks about positive reinforcement, the article has no data and is mostly speculation of the mental processes of the computer gamers and others trying to create some level of status (eg. Foursquare).  One does not need to speculate about how badges “provide personal affirmation” or “a sense of solidarity.”  Either badges work to increase participation in a game or activity or they do not. 

Of the 11 references, none refers to the vast body of behavior analysis research on reinforcement.  Badges are secondary reinforcers, that is, they have either been associated with primary reinforcers such as food, water, sex, etc. or with other secondary reinforcers such as money and social approval.  Badges motivate those who have experienced more reinforcement when they have earned a badge than when they haven’t.   It is as simple as that.  Most people who earn a badge get more social reinforcement than those who don’t.  If attaining an on-line badge did not occasion comment from other gamers or provide opportunity for positive conversation with friends and associates, the badges would lose motivational value.

The problem for game designers and organized social networks is not to study social psychology to understand motivation but to learn about behavioral shaping and schedules of reinforcement.  These will provide more practical application to the design of games and social systems than “researching how or why they are valuable or useful.”  That research has already been done thousands of times (Google: behavior analysis). 

Without digging into the findings on positive reinforcement, shaping, or schedules, game designers could simply focus on how to help more players be successful on their first attempt to play the game.  Therein lies the secret to the motivation of badges and the intrinsic motivation that follows.

Motivation, Positive Reinforcement

Translating Sports Philosophies to Business: A lesson for us all

March 30th, 2011

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CB106837Just recently I was asked to comment for an article that was published on Mainstreet.com, Famous Sports Wisdom to Use at Work. This was no far stretch for me as I have collected various quotes delivered by coaches and players alike through the years.  With the start of MLB a day away, I shamelessly feel the need to share my outtakes that didn’t get published in the piece.  There is much we can take from sports coaches, players and executives to use in understanding your business environment.  Enjoy.

  • Coach K (Duke): “Effective teamwork begins and ends with communication.”

Believe it or not, Coach K is wrong.  Effective teamwork in business, as in sports, begins when each player is positively reinforced for helping a teammate be successful.

  • Mike Tyson: “It’s nothing personal, but I’m going to kill this guy.”

In the final analysis, in business and in sports everything is personal.  If you don’t think so, do something to upset your star performer and watch what happens.

  • Yogi Berra: “The future ain’t what it used to be.”

Organizations create the future by the behavior they positively reinforce today.  It used to be that only hard work and accomplishments were rewarded but today we tend to reinforce everything that moves.  Therefore the future ain’t what it used to be as Yogi correctly asserted.

  • Lance Armstrong: “A boo is a lot louder than a cheer. If you have 10 people cheering and one person booing, all you hear is the booing.”

The average person has been punished more for doing something wrong than praised for doing it correctly.

  • Bill Veeck (former baseball executive): “It isn’t the high price of stars that is expensive, it’s the high price of mediocrity.”

When pay is based on performance the organization wants you to make a lot.  Salaries are a high price to pay when doing just enough to get by will keep you on the payroll.

  • Michael Jordan: “Republicans buy sneakers too.”

Stay out of politics.  It is bad for business.

  • John Wooden: “If you let your emotions take over, you will be outplayed.”

Negative emotions almost always lead to poor decision-making.

  • John Wooden: “It takes 10 hands to make a basket.”

As the former Governor of Georgia once said, “If you see a turtle on the fence post, you know he didn’t get there by himself.” In business, as in any team sport, very little is accomplished by an individual acting alone.

  • John Wooden (you can tell I think very highly of Coach Wooden): “Think small; work hard; get good.”

Those who accomplish the most got good by working hard on the details.

    Now let’s play ball! (Go Braves)

Consequences, Performance Pay, Positive Reinforcement, Results, coaching, punishment

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