Im p r ove...the per formance of the peo-ple a round you by usingposit ive reinforcement toshape their behavior.

Over com e...the typica l bar r iers tha tkeep most people frombelieving tha t they canactua lly change anotherpersons persona lity.

Un d er st a n d ...how and when you shoulduse each of the four types ofconsequences that influencebehavior: posit ive rein-forcers, negative reinforcers,punishment, and penalt ies.

Avoid ...the four major er rors tha tmost people make whenthey a t tempt to use posi-t ive reinforcement .

Ap p ly...a systemat ic approach toget t ing outstanding results:Pinpoint the behavior youwant to see, measure thenumber of t imes it occurs,and then give feedback.

A su m m ary of th e origin al text .

As Mark Twain oncedecla red, "Noth ing soneeds reforming as other peo-ples habit s." In OtherPeople's Habits, psychologistAubrey C. Daniels set s ou t astep-by-step program formaking the changes in peo-ples behavior tha t youvewanted to make for years.

As the founder and cha irmanof the management consult -ing firm Aubrey DanielsIn terna t iona l, Daniels con-su lt s with For tune 500 com-panies on management andhuman per formance.

He is a lso the au thor of the1994 best -seller, BringingOut the Best in People, whichfir st spelled ou t h is h igh lyeffect ive program for usingposit ive reinforcement toimprove employeesper for -mance. Our summary of tha tbook has proven to be one ofthe most popular and usefu lweve ever crea ted.

In h is new book, Danielsexpla ins how you can applyhis mot iva t iona l methods,which a re now in use a tmajor companies like 3M,Dow Chemica l, and

Honeywell, to your own busi-ness and persona l life.

This summary will help youto judge people on their cur -ren t behavior, not on theirpast mistakes; to avoid set -t ing limit s on what you , andthose a round you , canachieve; and to modify peo-ples unproduct ive behaviorso you can improve their per -formance.

TURNING B EHAVIOR INSIDE-OUT

At the hear t of Danielsapproach is the power of posi-t ive reinforcement to changepeoples dest ruct ive habit s.He asser t s tha t , in businessand throughout society, mostof the biggest problems resu ltfrom a lack of understandinghow consequences changebehavior.

Daniels relies on behavioranalysis, a scien t ific approachto managing human behavior.Unlike fads and pop psychol-ogy, it will a llow you toachieve measurable and pre-dictable resu lt s. Behavior

Volume 10, No. 1 (2 sections). Section 2, January 2001 2001 Audio-Tech Business Book Summaries 10-2.No part of this publication may be used or reproducedin any manner whatsoever without written permission.

To order additional copies of this summary, referenceCatalog #1012.

ana lysis is based on researchtha t has been conducted overthe past 80 years, as well ason the au thor 's 25 years ofexper ience in applying theseinsigh ts to a ll aspects of busi-ness.

All of tha t research confirmsthe fact tha t you can changethe behavior or per formanceof others. Moreover, you a realready in fluencing thebehavior of people a round youa ll the t ime, most ly in uncon-scious and often unin tendedways.

To put it simply, peoplebehave in ways tha t givethem posit ive reinforcement .Any behavior tha t is posit ive-ly reinforced will be repea ted,and any behavior tha t is notreinforced will dimin ish .

Six pr inciples gu ide the effec-t ive use of posit ive reinforce-ment :

1. P ositive re in force m e n th as to be cu stom ta i-lore d to e ach in div id-u al. There is no one-size-fit s a ll solu t ion .

2. P ositive re in force m e n tdoe s n ot se t lim its onw h at pe ople canach ie ve . You cant pre-dict how well people willper form based on howhigh or low they havescored on IQ test s.However, if you reinforceimprovements in peoplesper formance, the resu lt swill amaze you .

3. P ositive re in force m e n tdoe s n ot ju dge pe opleon th e ir past pe rfor-m an ce but on their pre-sen t behavior. Danielshas taken employees whowere on the verge of beingfired and turned them in tothe best per formers in thecompany.

4. P ositive re in force m e n th e lps pe ople to be com ese lf-con fide n t an d se lf-re lian t. But th is on lyworks if people a rerewarded for genuineachievement . If you fla t -ter people just to givethem an ego boost , yourereinforcing them to cont in-ue the wrong behavior.

5. Usin g pos itive re in -force m e n t re affirm s th em orality of th e qu idpro qu o. People feelgrea ter mora le and self-respect when they earnwhat they get , whether it sa huge cash bonus or con-gra tu la t ions on a job welldone.

6. Th e se be h avioral prin -c ip le s are u n ive rsa l.The basic laws of humanbehavior a lways apply, nomat ter where you live orwhat you do. Daniels hasimplemented h is approachin a wide range of busi-nesses in the U.S. and in18 other count r ies. Onceyou master h is ideas, youcan see immedia te resu lt sin the behavior of peoplearound you .

Everyone exper iences prob-lems a t work and throughoutthe rest of their lives. Mostpeople agree tha t they wouldhave fewer problems if otherpeople would just do whattheyre supposed to do.

Tradit iona l explana t ions forsuch universa l compla in ts a rea imed a t examining what 'sgoing on inside another per -son 's head. Tha t kind ofth inking can be t raced backto Sigmund Freud, thefounder of modern psychia t ry.Freud theor ized tha t behaviorstems from the unconsciousmind.

However, near ly a cen tury of

a t tempts to change peoplesbehavior from with in simplyhave not worked. For exam-ple, it s easy to say tha t a per -son is a compulsive ta lkerbased on what you see tha tperson doing. Freudsapproach blames the behavioron what the person is th ink-ing or feeling: She must havea deep-sea ted problem withinsecur ity or anxiety tha t canonly be resolved through psy-choana lysis.

The t ru th is tha t th is personsbehavior, like everyone elsesact ions, is dr iven by the reac-t ions of other people. If peo-ple smile, nod, and ask ques-t ions when she is t a lking,they a re reinforcing her tokeep t a lking.

The good news, then , is tha tchanging behavior is not aninside job. This is cr it ica lbecause if the key to changingother peoples behavior wereto lie inside them, you wouldbe power less to help. Instead,th is is an outside job: If youwithdraw the posit ive rein-forcement , the problembehavior will disappear.

B ARRIERS TO CHANGINGB EHAVIOR

In spite of the fact tha t every-one has problems with otherpeoples behavior, most peopleresist a t tempt ing to changethe behavior of another per -son . Let s consider four of themost typica l reasons.

The most common reason istha t people th ink a personspersonality cant be changed .Consider what a persona lityrea lly is: It is a un ique collec-t ion of habit s tha t character -ize an individua l.

A person who has a "good per -sona lity" exhibit s a wide

2 A U D I O - T E C H

range of posit ive behaviors,such as smiling frequent ly,giving compliments, andoffer ing to help others.

When these behaviors occurfrequent ly, they becomehabit s. It follows tha t if wecan change behaviors, we canchange habit s. And if we canchange habit s, we can changepersona lity. People whobreak enough bad habit s willt ransform a "bad" persona lityin to a good one.

Another bar r ier to changingsomeone elses behavior is themyth tha t people have towant to change. If tha t weret rue, no one would ever devel-op nega t ive habit s. The poin tis tha t people change a ll thet ime without rea lizing it .These changes occur becausepeople a re constan t ly in flu-enced by what people do andsay to them. There's no rea-son why those changes can 'tbe for the bet ter.

The th ird reason tha t peoplegive for not changing anotherpersons habit s is tha t itm eans controlling them . Thisimplies tha t people a recoerced to do th ings theywouldnt do otherwise, or pre-vented from doing th ings theywant to do. But posit ive rein-forcement isnt malicious.

The fact is tha t we cont rolpeople a ll the t ime, th roughnormal in teract ions. If youca ll someones name and helooks up, you have got ten h imto change what he was doingand respond to you . If hedoesnt respond, he cont rolsyour behavior by forcing youto ca ll h is name aga in .

Cont rol is on ly a problemwhen it is used to get peopleto do someth ing tha t is ille-ga l, immora l, or aga inst theirbest in terest s. If, however,you use reinforcement to

improve their behavior, youare helping ra ther than hur t -ing them.

Fina lly, the four th reason fornot changing othersbehavioris the belief tha t it cant bedone because change startswith the other person . Yet , bychanging what you do, youchange what others do. Thebest illust ra t ion of th is con-cept is an exper ience tha tDaniels had when he was giv-ing a seminar for Blue Crossand Blue Shield of Alabama.Dur ing a break, the groupsecret ly decided to test h istheor ies of behavior modifica-t ion .

After the seminar resumed,whenever Daniels addressedthe r igh t side of the room,people began yawning, look-ing down a t their notes, andsta r ing a t the clock. When headdressed the left side of theroom, they smiled, nodded,and laughed a t h is jokes. Bythe end of the lecture, he wasta lking exclusively to the leftside of the room and had noidea why unt il one of the par -t icipants told h im.

Not ice how small an effor t ittook on the par t of the audi-ence. You can see how yourunconscious everyday behav-ior can change those a roundyou. Often the behavior yousee in others tha t you wishyou could change is actua llybeing caused by someth ingyou 're doing, especia lly ifyou 're a corpora te leader withmany people working for you .

Since you a lready changetheir behavior every day, youmight as well lea rn a system-a t ic way to help your peopleand improve your companysper formance.

RELEARNING YOUR ABCS

Everybody has theor ies aboutwhat mot iva tes people to dowhat they do, and most ofthese ideas a re wrong.Without formal t ra in ing, weare left to our common sense.But common sense usua llydoesnt lead to the r igh tanswer ; it merely leads us tomake the same mistakes tha teveryone else makes.

Daniels often gives a simpletest to managers with whomhe consult s. It includes suchquest ions as: "How long didthe Hundred Years War last?"and, "Who's bur ied in Grant 'stomb?"

If you follow common sense,you 'll reach the wronganswers. The Hundred YearsWar actua lly lasted 116 years.Ulysses S. Grant is bur ied inGrant s tomb, bu t so is h iswife, J u lia .

Behavior based on tha t typeof fau lty logic cost s business-es billions of dolla rs annua lly.Tha t 's why it was such aquantum leap forward whenquality exper t W. EdwardsDeming set up a system formanagers to take measure-ments and base decisions onda ta , not common sense. Theva lue of the scien t ific methodlies in the fact tha t it is sys-temat ic and based on rea l,measurable da ta . Changingthe behavior of people a roundyou is a science, too, and hasthe same requirements.

The most damaging conse-quences of common-senseth inking occur when peoplet ry to make a connect ionbetween behavior and resu lt s.For example, one might "logi-ca lly" conclude tha t walkingmakes people fa t . The rea-son: If you observe peoplewho walk for exercise, manyof them are fa t . Of course, we

B U S I N E S S B O O K S U M M A R I E S 3

can easily rea lize tha t theywere obese before sta r t ing anexercise program to loseweight .

In other situa t ions, it s not aseasy to see the flaws in ourth inking. Consider the bosswho a lways cr it icizes anemployee when she makes ara re mistake, bu t never pra is-es her accomplishments. Likemany managers, he th inkstha t if he told her tha t shesdoing well, she will feel self-sa t isfied and will slack off.Instead, by fa iling to reinforceher good per formance, heskeeping her from even bet terper formance.

To change someones behaviorin a posit ive way, you mustunderstand the two factorstha t in fluence behavior. Thefir st is what happens before abehavior occurs. This isca lled the antecedent. Thesecond factor is what happensduring or after the behavior.This is ca lled the conse-quence.

The an tecedent set s the stagefor the behavior to occur thefir st t ime. The consequencescause the behavior to occuraga in and aga in .

This leads us to the ABCmodel for changing behavior :

A is for antecedent.

B is for behavior.

C is for consequence.

For example, paren ts some-t imes wonder why they haveto tell their ch ildren to go tobed three t imes before thechildren do what theyre told.The answer is simple:because the paren ts tell themthree t imes.

Each demand for the ch ildrento go to bed is an an tecedent .

Dur ing the fir st two a t tempts,the ch ildren know there willbe no consequence if they donot change their behavior.Theyve lea rned, however,tha t the th ird t ime is the sig-na l for act ion .

The same scenar io plays ou tin the workplace. If youthrea ten to fire an employeeevery week and never followthrough, the an tecedent ofthe th rea t will never be asso-cia ted with the consequenceof being fired. As a resu lt , itwill make no impact on theemployees per formance.

The lesson is tha tan tecedents become effect ivea t producing behavior onlywhen they a re a signa l for apredictable consequence. Sothe fir st th ing you need toask if you a re confront ing aproblem with someone whoworks for you is: What hap-pens after the person does thebehavior tha t I don 't like?Invar iably, you 'll find tha t thebehavior is being reinforcedsomehow.

Consequences either strength-en a behavior, meaning theyincrease the probability tha tit will occur aga in ; or theyweaken it , meaning theydecrease it s probability. Toknow if a behavior has beenst rengthened, t rack how oftenit occurs. If it occurs moreoften than usua l, it is beingst rengthened by it s conse-quences. If it occurs lessoften , it is being weakened.

Specifica lly, four types of con-sequences in fluence behavior :

1. Posit ive reinforcers.

2. Negat ive reinforcers.

3. Punishment .

4. Pena lt ies.

If you want to increase abehavior, you can either useposit ive or nega t ive rein-forcers. If you want to seeless of a behavior, you can usepunishment or pena lt ies.

While a ll four types of conse-quences a re usefu l, on ly posi-t ive reinforcement a ffect s theperson in a posit ive way.Before we explore th is power-fu l tool, however, let s exam-ine the other th ree conse-quences.

The most frequent ly usedconsequence for in fluencingbehavior is n e gative re in -force m e n t. It is effect ivebecause it causes people to dosom eth ing d ifferen tly in orderto avoid being punished . Forexample, a supervisor maysay, "Do th is r igh t now, or youwill be fired."

Unfor tuna tely, people who a renega t ively reinforced per formonly up to the level necessaryto avoid pa in . It produces anenvironment character ized byst ress, hard feelings, andmediocre per formance.

However, many managersthroughout the years havesa id, "I dont ca re if they likeit . I just want them to do it ."Even if you dont ca re aboutmora le, remember tha t nega-t ive reinforcement is t ime-consuming because it requiresconstan t supervision . Anybehavior cont rolled by nega-t ive reinforcement will stopas soon as the fear of punish-ment is removed.

The second type of nega t iveconsequence is the use ofpu n ish m e n t it self. In somesitua t ions, it makes sense topunish a person in order tostop inappropr ia te behavior.

By punishment , were notrefer r ing exclusively toimposing suffer ing, shame, or

A U D I O - T E C H4

loss on a person . As usedhere, punishment meansdelivering a consequence aftera behavior to reduce its fre-quency.

People often deliver a punish-ment without even in tendingto. It could be a luke-warmreact ion to someone's work.It could be forget t ing some-one's name. Whether in tend-ed or not , punishment tendsto stop a behavior.

The problem is tha t punish-ing an undesirable behaviordoes not guaran tee tha t adesirable one will t ake it splace. The new behavior maybe even worse. For example,one manager punished anemployee for making exces-sive persona l phone ca lls inthe office. The ca lls stopped,but the employee then devot -ed h is t ime to ta lking to otheremployees about persona lmat ters. Now he was notonly not doing h is work, hewas a lso in ter rupt ing thework of others. Therefore,when you punish one behav-ior, you must posit ively rein-force a const ruct ive behaviorto take it s place.

The th ird type of nega t iveconsequence, pe n alty, is hardto dist inguish from punish-ment . Both types reduce abehavior, bu t there is one dif-ference. A pena lty occurswhen a person loses som e-th ing he cares about as a con-sequence of h is behavior. If ach ild misbehaves, you takeaway h is a llowance. If amotor ist speeds, he pays afine.

The drawback is tha t if theconsequence of bad behavioris losing someth ing, whathappens when the person hasnoth ing left to lose? Themost ext reme example is thedea th pena lty. A murdererhas noth ing more to lose by

commit t ing more murders.

Pena lt ies can be used effec-t ively if they a re used carefu l-ly. A br ief rest r ict ion or ligh tfine can solve a problem inper formance or behavior. Butif you find tha t you a re usingthem more and more, you a reprobably in a counterproduc-t ive situa t ion .

Now tha t you have a basicunderstanding of nega t ivereinforcement , punishment ,and pena lt ies, th ree poin tsshould be clear :

F ir st , these consequences a reinvolved in a ll normal in ter -act ions.

Second, they a re difficu lt touse effect ively.

Third, they never solve aproblem by themselves. Evenif they stop an undesirablebehavior, you st ill need to useposit ive reinforcement tost rengthen a desirable behav-ior.

THE N ATURE OF P OSITIVEREINFORCEMENT

Only posit ive reinforcementoffers a permanent way tochange behavior. It a lso cost snoth ing to use, and you don 'tneed a budget or permissionto pu t it in to act ion . Also, itis fun to give and receive,resu lt ing in h igh product ivity,increased coopera t ion andcrea t ivity, and a pleasantworking a tmosphere.

Posit ive reinforcement is anyconsequence that follows abehavior and resu lts in anincrease of that behavior.Posit ive reinforcement is notdefined by what you do; it sdefined by what happens topeoples behavior a fter you doit .

This means tha t , by defin i-t ion , positive rein forcem entalways works. Regardless ofwhat you do, if the behaviorincreases, it was posit ivelyreinforced. If it does notincrease, even a fter you th inkyou 've given posit ive rein-forcement , then what yougave was someth ing else or itwas delivered incor rect ly.

Tha t 's why many managersare confused about suchth ings as a pa t on the back, acompliment , a cash bonus, oreven an employee-of-the-month award. These may infact be negative reinforce-ments, depending on howthey impact peoples behavior.

Posit ive reinforcement occursevery t ime you do someth ingtha t produces an effect inyour environment tha t youlike. When your tape or CDplayer comes on , it posit ivelyreinforces pushing the "play"but ton on the console.

Computer games deliver morethan 100 posit ive reinforce-ments per minute. Whenevera player pushes a bu t ton andthe characters move in thedesired direct ion , the playeris reinforced. It 's no wondertha t some people becomeengrossed in them.

Posit ive reinforcement canjust as easily increase anundesired behavior as it can adesired behavior. For exam-ple, a t eacher in a classroomfinds tha t the more she tells astudent to sit down, the morehe stands up. Why? Becausethe behavior gets a t ten t ion ,which can be a posit ive rein-forcement .

The solu t ion is to spend t imewith the ch ildren who a resea ted, while ignor ing the onewho is standing. Then , oncehe sit s down and sta r t s doinghis work, the teacher can

B U S I N E S S B O O K S U M M A R I E S 5

reinforce the desirable behav-ior by giving h im a t ten t ion .

Daniels once worked with asupervisor in a label-makingfactory who kept t rack of howmany labels the workers weremaking and gave them ada ily ta lly of their product ion .He not iced a sudden drop inthe number of labels theywere making. Perhaps it wasthe way he told them.Perhaps they didn 't like h imspying on them. Whateverthe reason , the da ta con-vinced h im tha t he was notusing posit ive reinforcement ,because the behavior hewanted to encourage actua llydecreased.

In order to find a posit ivereinforcement for a given per -son , lea rn what she likes.Watch how she spends herleisure t ime or discret ionaryincome. Discover people'shobbies. Everyone has pas-sions tha t a re the keys to pos-it ive reinforcement .

People tend to th ink tha trepet it ive tasks a re bor ing.It 's rea lly what happens dur-ing the repet it ion or immedi-a tely after it tha t is bor ing.Usua lly what happens isnoth ing: Theres no reinforce-ment . Sewing, cooking, gar -dening, and a lmost a ll spor t sa re repet it ious, bu t they'renot bor ing to those who en joythem.

If you see a lot of job dissa t is-fact ion , you can be cer ta intha t it is not because of thena ture of the work. The prob-lem is a lack of posit ive rein-forcement .

In cont rast , some people con-sider their work to be a hobbytha t consumes even their freet ime. Tha t a t t itude resu lt sfrom receiving more posit ivereinforcement in their jobsthan in any other act ivity.

Therefore, to susta in posit ivebehavior, give it enough rein-forcement to keep it going.When the reinforcementstops, the behavior dies ou t .The technica l t erm for th isphenomenon is extinction . Itis a very impor tan t concept insusta in ing behavior becausemany of the problems man-agers have with their workersare caused by inadver ten t lyext inguish ing posit ive behav-iors. In shor t , they don 't giveenough posit ive reinforce-ment , or else they fa il to con-t inue it .

Every t ime an individua l doessometh ing without seeing aposit ive reinforcement , tha tbehavior is weakened. Theprocess of ext inct ion involvesthree steps:

First, th e be h aviorin cre ase s . This is ca lled an"ext inct ion burst ." When theperson stops get t ing rein-forcement , he t r ies harder.For example, if paren tsignore a ch ilds tan t rums, thechild typica lly responds witheven louder tan t rums beforehe rea lizes th is wont work.

Se con d, e xtin ction le ads toe m otion al be h avior. Anexample would be kicking avending machine tha t tookyour money and gave younoth ing in return . It 's a na t -ura l par t of the ext inct ionprocess and can be expected.

Th e fin al s te p in e xtin c-tion is re su rge n ce . The oldbehavior disappears for at ime and then pops up aga in .This is usua lly the resu lt ofinadequa te reinforcement forthe new behavior. To ext in-guish any behavior complete-ly, provide a grea t dea l of pos-it ive reinforcement for thebehavior you want to take it splace.

In using ext inct ion , keep

three cau t ions in mind:

1. Extin ction on ly w orksw h e n you can w ith h olda l l th e re in force m e n t.For example, in the case ofthe woman who ta lks toomuch, if you ignore herbut everyone else listens,she will cont inue to ta lktoo much, bu t not to you .

2. Extin ction take s t im e .Many repet it ions of thebehavior and the conse-quences have to take placefor effect ive lea rn ing tobegin . Be pa t ien t andst ick with your plan .

3. Extin ction is d ifficu ltto accom plish . If you setou t to ext inguish a behav-ior and then lose yourresolve, you 'll have aworse problem than whenyou sta r ted. If you 're notgoing to st ick with it , don 'tt ry th is way of solving aproblem.

EVERYBODY THINKS THEYREDOING IT

Most managers believe theyare a lready providing posit ivereinforcement . Yet if you asktheir employees when theylast received posit ive rein-forcement from the boss, theycant remember ever get t ingit .

This doesnt mean anyone islying. If the employees dontfeel they have been posit ivelyreinforced, they havent been .However, the manager proba-bly made a t tempts to rein-force, bu t just because he hadgood in ten t ions doesnt meanit worked.

In fact , most of the problemsbusinesses face in terms ofsafety, product ivity, qua lity,and mora le would not exist if

6 A U D I O - T E C H

a ll people who thought theywere providing posit ive rein-forcement were actua lly doingit .

And despite the fact tha ta lmost everyone would agreetha t posit ive reinforcement ismore desirable than punish-ment , most work gets donethrough nega t ive conse-quences.

Take th is t est : Review thedisciplinary procedures a tyour company. If your compa-ny is like most others, thepolicy for discipline is theelabora te resu lt of manyyears of effor t .

Now compare it to your com-pany's posit ive reinforcementpolicy. If your company islike most others, it doesnthave such a policy.

Tha t 's because what peoplesay and do a re two very dif-feren t th ings, with the resu lttha t there a re behaviora lproblems throughout mostcompanies tha t cost rea lmoney.

People tend to make fourmain er rors in using posit ivereinforcement :

1. Percept ion

2. Cont ingency

3. Delay

4. Frequency

Well cover each of theseissues in depth .

ERROR #1: P ERCEP TION

Th e pe rce ption e rrorinvolves making assumpt ionsabout what other people like.If your percept ion is wrong,you will th ink tha t someth ing

will reinforce a personsbehavior when in fact itwont .

For example, not everyemployee wants more respon-sibility or the r igh t to makedecisions about h is or herwork. Some people want ajob in which theyre toldexact ly what to do. You haveto offer the r igh t reinforce-ment for each individua l.

Tha t 's why most managersget it wrong when they t ryposit ive reinforcement .Surveys indica te tha t mostpeople do not like to be sin-gled out a t work for theiraccomplishments. These peo-ple will actua lly feel punishedif you give them an employee-of-the-month award for excel-len t per formance.

To find ou t what each individ-ua l considers to be posit ivereinforcement , you must ask,observe, and exper iment .

Asking is the most obviousway to ident ify a personsreinforcers. However,many people simply dontknow what they want . Inother cases, they may saywhat they th ink you wantto hear. But somet imesyou can lea rn by asking,for example, what some-one did on a vaca t ion ora fter work.

Observing is more usefu l.How people spend theirmoney and t ime a re grea tindica tors of what rein-forces them. If you seetha t a person frequent lyplays golf, t a lks about it ,reads about it , and buysa ll the la test equipment ,youll know tha t golf is anact ivity tha t provides a lotof reinforcers for h im.Instead of reinforcing h isbehavior with an engravedplaque dur ing a meet ing,

you could give h im a fewgolf ba lls and a morningoff when the wea ther isper fect .

The th ird method for iden-t ifying reinforcers is exper-im entation . Remembertha t posit ive reinforce-ment is defined as any-th ing tha t increases adesired behavior. So ifyou t ry someth ing and thedesired behavior increas-es, you have h it on ther igh t solu t ion . If not , t rysometh ing else. In manycases, just the fact tha tyou 're t rying can be posi-t ive reinforcement .

It s usefu l to make a list ofyour own reinforcers. Reviewit frequent ly and add newitems to it . In Daniels com-pany, everyone crea tes a list ,ca lled a "reinforcer survey,"tha t is kept in a book in thefront foyer. When peoplewant to do someth ing to showapprecia t ion for some effor t oraccomplishment by a fellowemployee, they can refer tothe survey to lea rn what isreinforcing to tha t person .

For example, here a re a fewitems from Danielsown list :

Time with my wife anddaughters.

Pra lines and cream icecream.

Reading scien t ific booksand a r t icles.

A cheese Whopper withoutpickles and onions.

A good joke.

Logo golf ba lls fromclien ts.

Hear ing about someonessuccess with posit ive rein-forcement .

B U S I N E S S B O O K S U M M A R I E S 7

If you asked a ll of the peopleyou manage or work with tocomplete such a list , it wouldbe very easy to reinforce theirbehavior very effect ively a tan individua l level.

ERROR #2: CONTINGENCY

Once you have discovered apersons reinforcers, you needto address the issue of cont in-gency: Positive rein forcem entonly in fluences the behaviorthat is occurring at them om ent it is given . Count lessproblems in business a re theresu lt of misunderstandingth is concept .

The rela t ionsh ip between abehavior and a reinforcer isknown as a contingency.Supervisors m ake th e con -tin ge n cy e rror a ll the t ime.They don 't want to in ter ruptan employee while he's work-ing, so they wait un t il hestaking a break to encouragehim. So they end up reinforc-ing h im for taking a breakra ther than working.

It s a lso essen t ia l to paya t ten t ion to what other peo-ple a re saying before youreinforce them. If you wantto thank someone for helpingyou with a task, and as youwalk up hes compla in ingabout a co-worker, th is is nota good t ime to reinforce h im.Choose another t ime to saythanks.

This insigh t a lso applies toen t ire organiza t ions. Forexample, the management ofT he Washington S tar recent lyt r ied to lift the poor mora le init s newsroom by giving thesta ff free coffee. The execu-t ives were dismayed to dis-cover tha t people compla inedabout the qua lity of the cof-fee.

The reason is simple: Thereward was given while thenega t ive behavior of com-pla in ing was occur r ing, sopeople compla ined even more.Again , the t iming was off: Ifmanagement had waited togive the free coffee un t ilmora le had sta r ted toimprove even sligh t ly, itwould have encouraged h igh-er mora le.

The cardina l ru le of reinforce-ment is: Be carefu l what yourein force, because you 're sureto get m ore of it.

To understand cont ingencies,a lways ask: What exact lydoes the person have to do toget th is reward? The sta tedcont ingency and the rea l con-t ingency may be differen t .

Behaviora l cont ingency is acont ract . It defines the rela -t ionsh ip between behaviorand reinforcement . Forexample, "If you sell th isproduct , I will pay you a com-mission" is a cont ingency cont ract . The problems withcont ingency cont ract s lie withthe management of them.

For example, if the sa les per -son is given a commissionbefore the paperwork hasbeen done, then the paper -work won't get done. If thecommission a r r ives on ly a fterthe paperwork a r r ives, thepaperwork will come in notonly on t ime, bu t ea r ly.

Reinforcement works on lywhen it 's ea rned. If youreward employees regardlessof what they accomplish , orgive an a llowance to ch ildrenevery week even if theybehave badly, you a re rein-forcing the wrong behavior.

You can a lso apply th is pr inci-ple to your own behavior. Goover your list of reinforcers.Then make a cont ingency

cont ract with yourself:"When I fin ish th is repor t , Iwill play golf." Or, "After Iexercise, I can ea t desser t ."

ERROR #3: D ELAY

Good con t ingency manage-ment and t ime managementcan both be developed byusing the Prem ack Principle.This pr inciple, discovered bybehaviora l psychologist Dr.David Premack, st a t es tha t ahigh-probability behavior canserve as a rein forcer for alow-probability behavior.

In pract ica l t erms, it workslike th is: F ir st , iden t ify anact ivity tha t people do whenthey have a choice, andanother act ivity tha t isrequ ired bu t more oft enavoided. For example, youmigh t like to wa tch footba llon t elevision , bu t you have todo your t axes.

Next , set a goa l: EveryMonday n igh t , you will workon t axes for one hour beforethe game. Then and on lythen , you 'll get to wa tch thegame. The en joyment of foot -ba ll gradua lly r ein forcesdoing t axes, making youmore effect ive and increasingsa t isfact ion .

The Premack Pr inciple a lsoprovides the most effect ivet ime management systemever known. Begin by mak-ing a list of th ings you haveto do, r anking them from themost en joyable to the least .Then start at the bottom , soas you complete each t a sk,you move to one tha t youen joy more than the la st .The fu r ther up the list yougo, the more rein forcing thework becomes.

The subject of t ime manage-ment br ings us to the th ird

8 A U D I O - T E C H

major mistake people oft enmake in using posit ive rein -forcement : th e de lay e rror.

The biggest problem in rein -forcing behavior in corpora teset t ings is tha t rewards aregiven for resu lts, not behav-ior. They a re genera llydelayed well beyond the t imewhen the behavior occur red.As a consequence, they haveno effect on shaping fu tu rebehavior.

In fact , r ewards may oft enrein force the wrong behavioror else occur so la t e and be sounpredictable tha t the recipi-en t feels anger, not gra t itude.

Most r ewards su ffer becausethey a re not t a ilored to theindividua l bu t genera lized fora group. As weve a lreadydiscussed, r ewards must bepersona l, appropr ia te, andmean ingfu l. The best r ewardis someth ing a per son wan t sto buy or do, bu t can 't a fford.And the best st r a t egy is towa it un t il t he per son is doingsometh ing you wish to r ein -force, and then give thereward.

If you do not per sona lly seethe behavior, the on ly wayyou can rein force it is to cele-brate it . The celebra t ion isan occasion to a sk the per son ,"How did you do tha t?" Th isgives h im the oppor tun ity todescr ibe how difficu lt thetask was, how hard heworked, and how he came upwith a br illian t solu t ion .Th is conversa t ion by it self isposit ively rein forcing, and itcrea tes a connect ion betweenthe behavior and the rewardhe receives.

ERROR #4: F REQUENCY

The best founda t ion for effec-t ive rewards and recogn it ion

is a solid r ela t ionsh ipbetween the giver and thereceiver. If the rela t ionsh ipis filled with posit ive rein -forcement , your employeeswill r ega rd you as sincerewhen you reward them. Ifyou on ly approach themwhen they did someth ingwrong, they will becomedefensive a s soon as they seeyou .

Too many managers a rest ingy in giving posit ive rein -forcement . They gr ipe, "Irein forced her, bu t she didntchange." A single r ein force-ment does not change abehavior. Th is is the fre -qu e n cy e rror.

Remember, r ein forcementtakes repet it ion . It 's a slowprocess. All the resea rchshows tha t in a lmost everysitua t ion , people r ein force toolit t le.

When th is situa t ion is cor -rected, the resu lt s a reastounding. Behaviora lresea rchers Ken t J ohnsonand J oe Layng found tha twhen ch ildren receive hun-dreds of r ein forcer s an hour,they make progress in lea rn -ing a t four to six t imes thenormal r a te.

The ha rdest cla sses in school,and the toughest jobs in theworkplace, a re not the oneswhere you have to do a lot .Instead, they a re the oneswhere you have to do a lotwithou t nearly enough rein -forcem ent.

In spor t s, crowds applaudevery play. No one applaudswhen people do wha t theyresupposed to do a t work. Andwhen employees do some-th ing t ru ly except iona l, evenif other s not ice, it s r a re tha tanyone will r ein force thebehavior. Typica lly, bossessay, "He knows tha t I appre-

cia te wha t he does."

Yet , pra ise is so ra re tha tsome people ca r ry a round let -t er s of pra ise tha t their boss-es gave them a decade ago,simply because it was thelast one they received.

Th ink of r ein forcemen t a sthe fuel t ha t keeps goodbehavior going. Wheneveryou wonder, "How muchlonger do I need to r ein -force?" r emember t h isanswer : "As long a s youwan t t he behavior t o con t in -ue."

A good ru le to follow is torein force more than youth ink you shou ld. If thebehavior is increasing, it isget t ing enough rein force-ment . If it is fa lling off, itisn t .

Another way to t ell if you 'r eproviding enough rein force-ment is to wa tch howengaged a per son is in h iswork. With h igh ra tes ofrein forcement , a t t en t iondoesn 't wander. If you haveworkers who a re easily dis-t r acted, they'r e not get t ingenough rein forcement .

Before we move on , let sreview how you can avoid thefour common er ror s wevediscussed. You must makesure tha t :

1. The rein forcement ismean ingfu l to the recipi-en t .

2. The rein forcement isea rned.

3. It is immedia te.

4. It is fr equen t enough toincrease the desiredbehavior.

If you follow these gu idelines,you will be amazed a t the

B U S I N E S S B O O K S U M M A R I E S 9

power of posit ive rein force-ment to make changes inyour life and in the lives ofpeople a round you .

MEASURING THE SUCCESS OFREINFORCEMENT

As ment ioned ea r lier, theana lysis of human behavioris a science. As such , itr equ ires measurement , ha rdda ta , and a systemat icapproach . Th is approach canbe ca lled PMF, an acronymfor th ree st eps:

1. P inpoin t precisely wha tyou wan t other s to do.

2. Measure what is beingdone.

3. Feedback what youvemeasured to the per son .

The fir st st ep in the processis to pin poin t th e be h aviorth at you de s ire . Often , peo-ple know wha t they dontwant other s to do, bu t theycant expla in wha t they wantthem to do.

If co-workers were concernedtha t one of their peer s isbecoming "too bossy," r eframethe problem to focus on pre-cisely wha t they wan t her todo. She migh t need to "askfor other s opin ions," or to"compliment other s moreoften ." Once you can pin -poin t the specific behavioryou wan t , you can rein forceit .

The second st ep is to m e a-su re th e n u m be r o f t im e sth e be h avior occu rs . Thisgives you a baseline fromwhich you can st a r t measur -ing improvement . For exam-ple, Dan iels consu lt ed with aclin ic where nurses com-pla ined tha t pa t ien t s had towa it too long to see the doc-

tor s. He asked the nurses tokeep da ta on pa t ien t s wa it -ing t ime.

On average, pa t ien t s wa it ed55 minu tes. The doctor ssa id, "I knew it was bad, bu tI didn 't know it was thatbad." The nurses agreed tohelp doctor s who reducedwait ing t ime by doing theircha r t ing. With in two weeks,wa it ing t ime had dropped to20 minu tes.

The fina l st ep in the PMFst ra tegy is to tran s la te th em e asu re in to fe e dback ,which a llows people to cor -rect their behavior. It s bestto pu t measures of behavior sand resu lt s on a graph togive visua l feedback.

People who can see how wellthey'r e doing t end to do bet -t er work. Dan iels hasincreased product ivity innumerous companies simplyby using graphs to show thefrequency of desired behav-ior s r ising over t ime.

Th is approach has provensuccessfu l for people in everyoccupa t ion , from assembly-line workers to accoun tan t sto motel ma ids. Likewise,people who a re t r a in ing for amara thon , or t rying to loseweigh t , will find it h igh lyrein forcing to graph theirprogress.

THE D OS AND D ONTS OFREINFORCEMENT

You can follow a ll of theadvice weve presen ted so fa r,and still fa il to r ein force thebehavior you wan t to see.You may have the best ofin ten t ions, bu t someth ing cango amiss tha t leads a per sonto t ake your effor t s the wrongway.

With tha t in mind, here a ren ine ru les for developinggood skills a t behavior modi-fica t ion :

1. Establish you rse lf asre in forc in g . If you offerfeedback tha t cou ld betaken the wrong way,youll get the benefit ofthe doubt if youve devel-oped a t r ack record forposit ive rein forcement .

2. Don 't fake i t . Peopleknow if you 'r e insincere.You have to say wha t youmean , and mean wha t yousay.

3. Don 't u se flow e ry lan -gu age . Dont over-do itby ca lling a per sonssligh t ly above averageper formance the "mostwonder fu l, ou t st anding,ext raordina ry work Iveever seen ."

4. Don 't u se th e w ord"bu t" w h e n re in forc in g .For example, saying, "Youdid a good job, bu t . . ." isone of the easiest ways tosabotage posit ive rein -forcement . Th is leadspeople to view you assomeone who can never bepleased.

5. Don 't re in force an dpu n ish a t th e sam etim e . "Sandwich ing" apun ishment between tworein forcements is a com-mon method t augh t tomanagers abou t how togive nega t ive feedback.For example, "J ohn , youare one of the bestemployees we have. Nowif you don 't st a r t showingup on t ime for work, we'r egoing to have to let yougo. And it 's a shame,because you 've got somuch t a len t ." The in ten tis to soft en the blow, bu t itdoesn 't work. Instead it

10 A U D I O - T E C H

weakens the in fluence ofboth the pun ishment andthe pra ise.

6. Don 't re in force an d askfor m ore a t th e sam etim e . For example:"Sa lly, you did a grea t jobon tha t la st r epor t . Sincewe're runn ing la t e on theother one, I 'd like you todo tha t one, too." Aga in ,the two messages workaga inst each other. Itcast s doubt on your sin -cer ity, and it doesnt r ein -force the behavior.

7. Te ll pe ople th e y areappre c ia te d , an d te llth e m ofte n . Managersoften assume theiremployees know they a reapprecia ted. Don 't maketha t a ssumpt ion . Tell peo-ple clea r ly and frequen t ly.

8. Occas ion a lly pa ir soc ia lre in force rs w ith a tan -g ible i te m th at an ch orsa m e m ory. When sayingsometh ing kind or compli-menta ry abou t someone'swork, give the per son anit em to memor ia lize it .

9. Give pe ople th e oppor-tu n ity to re live th e iraccom plish m e n ts . Letthem ta lk abou t how disci-plined, r esourcefu l, andpersist en t they were inach ieving their r esu lt s.Th is is the kind of cele-bra t ion tha t we ment ionedear lier. The quest ion :"How did you do tha t?"can do more to increaseposit ive rein forcement ina rela t ionsh ip than any-th ing else you can say.

If you want to change otherpeoples habits, you muststart by changing your ownbehavior. By now, you realizethat the most effect ive way tochange another person is touse posit ive reinforcement.From now on, you will need tochange the frequency of yourreinforcement, the t iming of it ,and the quality of it .

Years ago, Daniels introducedthe "four-to-one" concept tobusiness. A study of teachershad found that those who hadhigh achieving and well-behaved students gave outfour t imes as many posit ivereinforcements as punish-ments.

Daniels t rained managers tocount the posit ive and negative

B U S I N E S S B O O K S U M M A R I E S 11

RECEIVING REINFORCEMENT

We've talked a lot about givingpositive reinforcement, butwhat about receiving it? Doyou ever feel that you don'tget enough recognition?

If you want to receive morereinforcement, you must rein-force the behavior of reinforc-ing. Yet, many people whocomplain about not gettingenough reinforcement punishpeople who try to do so.

Take a simple example. Youcompliment someone on herclothes, only to have her say,"Oh, these old rags?" Theimplication is that if you com-plimented such "rags," youmust have poor taste in cloth-ing.

In another case, a boss told aworker that he was able to gether a 5 percent raise. Sheresponded, "You call that araise?"

Always remember that if youpunish peoples attempts atreinforcement, you cantexpect them to keep doing it.For example, Max, the vicepresident of a textile mill,asked a consultant fromDaniels firm to sit in on a costmeeting. The consultantcounted 54 negative com-ments by Max during themeeting, and no positive com-ments. Max said that he neversaw anything to positivelyreinforce.

During the next cost meeting,the consultant signaled Maxwhenever he saw somethingto positively reinforce. Withinthe first 15 minutes, Max made10 attempts to reinforce.Then, in the next hour, heignored the consultants sig-nals and made no moreattempts.

The consultant asked themanagers to stay after themeeting. He explained that itwas obvious that they werenot reinforcing Maxsattempts at reinforcingbecause he had stoppeddoing it early in the meeting.The managers revealed thatthey were so surprised byMaxs positive commentsabout their cost data that theydidnt know what to say, sothey said nothing. Their dis-comfort was punishingenough to Max to stop hisnew reinforcing behavior.

The consultant rehearsed themanagers in a simple way torespond to positive reinforce-ment: saying, "Thank you."

The key to getting reinforce-ment is to learn how tobehave when you receive it.And if you're not receiving it,it probably means you're notgiving enough of it, either.

reinforcements they gave out ,and to try to maintain a four-to-one rat io. Before thetraining, the best rat ios werein the range of one-to-two,meaning that the managershad twice as many negativeinteractions with employees asposit ive ones.

However, once they started totrack their behavior, they foundmore and more opportunitiesfor positive reinforcement.Before long, the average ratiorose to 20 positive interactionsfor every negative one. Thissimple change in supervisoryperformance led to dramaticimprovements in performancein the workplace.

In work situat ions, once posi-t ive reinforcement begins, it

spreads. Workers who receiveit encourage their bosses togive it to others who theythink are deserving. Posit ivereinforcement is so powerfulthat it requires only 5 percentof any group pract icing it toget the whole group to changeits behavior.

What does this mean in termsof business? It means every-thing. Customer service,sales, quality, and product ivityall come down to the individ-ual behaviors of thousands ofpeople, a ll working to createwhat your company is anddoes.

If those effor ts are a ligned,they produce a powerful andrewarding effect . If they arein conflict , the result can be

disastrous. And yet , simply bystar t ing small, by rewardingminute changes in behavior,you can orchestra te a ll thoseeffor ts to move in the samedirect ion.

Any company that makes amajor change in st ra tegy anddoes not launch a systematiceffor t to give posit ive reinforcement for the newbehavior will meet with disappointment . However,individuals can change anent ire company simply byusing the powerful tools ofposit ive reinforcement tochange their own behavior, aswell as other peoples habits.

12

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Au br ey C. Da n iels is a pioneerin in t roducing the pr inciples ofbeh a vior a l psych ology t o t h eworkplace. His award-winningbook Bringing Out the Best inPeople is now in it s second edi-t ion Dr. Daniels is an Associa teof Harvard Universitys J ohn F.Kennedy School of Government .H e h a s a u t h or ed a n d coa u -t h or ed n u m er ou s a r t icles forbusiness magazines and profe-siona l journa ls, wr ites a month-ly colu m n on m ot iva t ion forE n trepren eu r.com m agazin e,and is the founder and publisherof Perform an ce M an agem en tMagazine, now in an online for -mat a t w w w.pm e zin e .com .

Other Peoples Habits summarized by arrangement with McGraw-Hill, Inc., from Other Peoples Habits:How to Use Positive Reinforcement to Bring Out the Best in People Around You by Aubrey C. Daniels.Copyright 2001 by the McGraw-Hill Companies.

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