Leaders In Motion
November 2008 Issue
A periodic “ah hah!” for Executive Leaders & HR Professionals, compliments of Visioning In Action
An inside peak:
Are you short on time but want to develop new skills in your leaders? A concept called “shaping positive behaviour” is a time-honoured and simple technique that you can use to groom your people in 20 seconds a day. Read on to pick up 3 quick tips right now.
Next issue: "How to Boost Your Emotional Intelligence"
3 Sure-fire Tactics to Shape Positive Behaviour
Are you short on time but want to develop new skills in your leaders? A concept called “shaping positive behaviour” is a time-honoured and simple technique that you can use to groom your people in 20 seconds a day.
What Is It?
Shaping positive behaviour simply refers to bestowing positive reinforcement, such as praise upon a person for progressive accomplishments until they achieve a desired performance. Begin by praising the individual for a behaviour that approximates what you are looking for, then stretch and shape them by providing the positive reinforcement each time they attain the next level of skill. Continue until they reach their goal.
It’s quick, it helps the person stay motivated and it works.
For some of you, the idea of praising someone as they learn and grow may be stating the obvious. I was prompted to write about this topic this month as I have experienced a recent run on workshops filled with people who have flabbergasted me by being unable to cite the last time they received simple praise from their team leader. So, I'm on a mission to remind people that a little praise goes a long way. To this end I have decided to haul Herman the Vermin out of my psychology closet to illustrate my point.
What Works & What Doesn’t: Lessons Learned from a Rat
When I was completing my degree in Psychology, one of my more weird yet memorable experiences involved creating behaviour modification programs to teach a new behaviour. In the lab, I had to design and run three different programs to train a rat to run through a maze and hit a lever to receive a delicious food pellet.
The ultimate optimist, I began with a variable reinforcement program, which basically meant that I issued a food pellet to my rat on a random basis regardless of what he was actually doing. In practice, this meant that the rat could be in any part of the maze when he would hear the food pellet drop. He would then scurry around until he accidentally stumbled across the correct path and found the pellet on the ground. Needless to say, after three long and boring sessions spent in a dark room staring at my rodent as he wandered uselessly about, silently willing him to do what I wanted, my little rodent friend never did learn to go down the correct path, and he certainly did not learn how to use the food dispenser. Lesson learned? Tactic #1: Reinforcement must be directly connected to the desired behaviour.
Along came rat number 2. Against my natural instincts but in the interest of scientific discovery, I instituted a negative reinforcement program next. This refers to punishing a negative behaviour and only issuing a reward if and when the final desired behaviour is achieved. So, every time my rat strayed down the wrong path in the maze, I flashed a light at him. He did not like this light and eventually learned not to go down certain paths. After a lengthy process of elimination, my rat finally stumbled onto the correct path. Unfortunately, he was pretty tired by then and he just hunkered down for a nap, no doubt to recover from all the stress. (I was feeling the same way myself.) The final result was that my rat never found the food dispenser, certainly never pushed the lever and was not issued a single food pellet. So, not only did negative reinforcement not teach him what to do, it created a whole new set of problems – complete performance shutdown. This remarkable failure only took only one session in the lab. Lesson learned? Tactic #2: Avoid punishing someone for doing a task the wrong way while withholding praise until they perform perfectly. This will frustrate them, quickly de-motivate them and will not teach them the new skill.
By this point, I was suffering from acute rodent attachment syndrome and was seriously thinking of switching my degree to business admin. My professor urged me to persevere so I decided to put my third rat (a spectacular looking fellow whom I dubbed Herman) through my third program called “shaping positive behaviour”. This technique refers to providing progressive positive reinforcement, such as praise each time the individual does something that approximates the desired behaviour until they reach their goal. With Herman, I began by issuing him a food pellet the first few times that he strayed near the entrance to correct path in the maze. Then, I waited until he actually wandered down the correct path before rewarding him. I continued to reward him each time he appeared further along the path until he got all the way to the end of the maze. As Herman began to zero in on the food dispenser, things quickly became pretty exciting. The first time he accidentally brushed against the lever to the food dispenser, I issued a food pellet. Next, I waited until he put his paw on the lever. From there, it was a matter of seconds until he learned that he had to push down on the lever to get his reward. Success! Herman was rewarded with a steady stream of food pellets as he continuously hit the lever to get food. In one short hour, my rat had learned how to navigate the maze and obtain food. The best part was that he retained his performance memory. Even when I put Herman at the beginning of the maze, he knew how to find the way to the food dispenser at the other end and how to push down on the lever as soon as he got there. Lesson learned? Tactic #3: Praise the individual for all positive behaviours that move them in the direction of the desired behaviour until they reach their goal.
Workplace Application
How can you use this technique in the real world? Suppose Ben Leader exhibits negative body language. Your goal is for Ben to demonstrate positive body language, such as smiling and using an appropriate tone of voice. Begin by saying something like: “Ben, you have such a great smile. I notice that your team members relax when they see you smiling.” Next time, praise Ben when he smiles AND uses positive voice tone. Then, praise him when he does this consistently for a week. Voila! Mission accomplished in 20 seconds a day.
Recipe for Success
Here’s a quick summary of what to do:
Step 1. Identify the desired behaviour.
Step 2. Begin by praising any behaviour that approximates the desired behaviour.
Step 3. Stretch the person’s behaviour by providing positive reinforcement as they progress until they attain the desired behaviour.
By the way, yes indeed, I did get caught trying to smuggle Herman out of the psych lab twenty-five short years ago. How did you guess?
Thanks for your time. Talk to you in December.
As always, warmest regards,
Michele Gervais
Professional Speaker, Facilitator & Coach
Visioning In Action
Professional Member of Canadian Association of Professional Speakers (CAPS)
Expert Author, EzineArticles.com
Email: mgervais@visioninginaction.com
Tel: 204.899.4046
www.visioninginaction.com
To purchase the right to publish one of our articles, suggest a topic for an upcoming issue of Leaders In Motion or include your organization’s best practices in our next issue, please email the author directly at:
mgervais@visioninginaction.com
To subscribe to Leaders In Motion, click on Subscribe Now. It will be sent to you on a periodic basis with our compliments.
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, please send an email to mgervais@visioninginaction.com with “unsubscribe to articles” in the subject line. Thank you.
Our Mission Statement
"Founded in 1989, Visioning In Action vitalizes organizations by facilitating customized strategic planning, visioning and goal-setting sessions; coaching individual leaders; and speaking on topics related to visioning. We align and mobilize organizations, teams and leaders “From Vision To Action” by helping them to assess where they are now, create a compelling vision of where they want to be and implement a plan to get there."
Tactic #1
Reinforcement must be directly connected to the desired behaviour.
Tactic #2
Avoid punishing someone for doing a task the wrong way while withholding praise until they perform perfectly.
Tactic #3
Praise the individual for all positive behaviours that move them in the direction of the desired behaviour until they reach their goal.
Good
Old-fashioned Praise
