Motivation

It’s built into what we do with our clients, in understanding and applying the science of behavior.  While it may not seem revolutionary, correctly applying the 4:1 Ratio matters and does affect…

It’s generally agreed that persuading employees to give more than required can make or break a company. Yet many leaders struggle to get that discretionary effort. The 2022 Gallup State of the…

Goal setting is a common practice in organizations and can lead to improved performance and productivity. But many companies struggle to properly execute the goal setting process. Check out our…

This post originally appeared on Aubrey’s blog 8-19-09  Let's say that you make business decisions where the impact on the future of the business is not well-thought out. The decisions are…

It’s hard to believe but Stack Ranking has found its way back into corporations as a means for motivating employees. What will it take for leaders to understand that this practice doesn’t work and in…

Jack Welch joined the fray about Microsoft’s abandoning “rank and yank” in a Wall Street Journal op-ed titled “Jack Welch: ’Rank and Yank’? That’s Not How It’s Done.” Welch now says that rank…

Who would have thought in our lifetime there would be contingent reinforcement in Russia? Apparently you can perform squats on an interactive machine and earn free subway rides. Now that's a real win…

Hewlett-Packard Chief Executive Meg Whitman has rekindled the debate over whether to telecommute with a memo urging employees to show up at the office more often. She wrote that “HP needs all hands…

Managers can’t be everywhere all the time. So an important part of providing positive reinforcement to keep desired behaviors going is to build it into the work. This is referred to as natural…

When will they learn?  I wrote my book Oops! 13 management practices that waste time and money in 2009 and the one that has caught the most attention is Performance Appraisal. An article by Will…

Let me start this by saying that I am a fan of Clark Howard, the consumer empowerment guru.  However, he just wrote a piece titled, “What makes workers happiest?  It’s not money!”. I think…

 On NPR this week I heard a report of a study on teacher education in the US. The study evaluated over 1400 colleges of education and found that 7 out of 10 are doing a poor job in teaching…

Behavior is all around us: the good and the bad.  Yet so often the actions and reactions of others go by without thought. In support of our quest to bring the science of behavior to the masses…

Maybe it is because I turned 78 last week, but it seems that every day I read something or see something on TV that drives me crazy. Even though by the usual standards, I am at the age where people…

Well, it had to happen.  I received an email advertising a series of papers, HR Lessons from Angry Birds.  It seems that what or whoever becomes famous will sooner become the subject of a…

I have written on this and will probably do so again but an email advertisement for a book, Wars at Work, caught my attention recently.  The author, Kaveh Mir, believes that psychometric tests…

However inconvenient it might be sometimes, emptying your bladder is inevitable. You might want to do it at the time, especially if the time is the middle of a long road trip, but it’s not something…

In a recent blog post, on a topic I was attempting to have some fun with, I received a very passionate comment that I felt warranted its own attention. I referred the comment to someone whom I…