Hope Springs Eternal

I have quoted the poet, Alexander Pope, a lot lately, but he wrote so many good things.  He wrote, “Hope springs eternal in the human breast; …” As I think back about all the problems in our…

Great Example of Natural Reinforcement In Action

The Fun Theory is a clever marketing campaign from Volkswagen that has caught the attention of behavior analysts because it shows how to change behavior (in this example increase exercise) by…

Missed Tackles + Missed Blocks = Tebow Tears: The Danger of Being #1

I confess to being a Gator fan. Darnell Lattal, President and CEO of ADI, is an Alabama graduate and fan. I don’t know what to call her, a Tide? I sure won’t call her an elephant. Alabama uniforms…

Fun With Positive Reinforcement

ADI - Aubrey Daniels International, Fun with positive reinforcement. Contact an ADI consultant today.

Young Entrepreneurs Get It

I spoke last week to a group of 500 managers at Fortune Small Business Growth Summit, a yearly conference in Dallas organized by Verne Harnish. The group was composed of small business owners and…

Praising the Boss on Boss’s Day? Not So Fast.

Patricia Bays Haroski who worked for her father in a State Farm Insurance Agency in Deerfield, Ill., registered October 16 as Boss's Day with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in 1958. She chose October…

Ask Aubrey: Dead Man Question

Question: In your recent article for Business Week, you state "A million hours without an accident, a reduction in errors, or perfect attendance can all be accomplished by a corpse. This doesn't…

Expert Performance: Apologies to Dr. Ericsson, But it is Not 10,000 Hours of Deliberate Practice

Dr. Anders Ericsson's research on expertise has finally received some good attention in Malcolm Gladwell's book, Outliers and Geoff Colvin's book, Talent Is Overrated. These books place a new…

Google is Looking for Answers in the Wrong Place

In a May 19th article in the WSJ, Scott Morrison wrote, Google Searches for Staffing Answers. The article is about the fact that Google has recently lost a number of top executives and other midlevel…

Talk Does Not Cook Rice

On hearing of the North Korea test of a nuclear bomb, Obama said, "The U.S. will take action." I hope he will. However, I am afraid that he meant that he will get other people (U. N. and China) to…

“We Are Lost, But We Are Making Good Time”

 In a USA article about GM’s decision to close 15 plants for 9 weeks, Stephen Spivey, a senior auto analyst for the research company of Frost & Sullivan is quoted as saying, "Production has…

Ask Aubrey: Behavior of the Ages

A blogger up for a new postition recently posed this question to Aubrey:   "How would you advise approaching and managing a new staff that could possibly be older than you?"…

Knowledge of Behavior Is Never Irrelevant

Can you believe it, they have me blogging. At age 73, no less. Hey, behavior changes. I have just read Growing Up Digital the latest book by Don Tapscott. He talks a lot about the NetGeneration, ages…