Using Better Mousetraps

A common aphorism is that if you “build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door."  Although that was not really what Ralph Waldo Emerson said, this common expression survives…

A Kiss is Just a Kiss

Or is it? What makes things the same and what makes them different? When I say “a kiss” or “she kissed me,” certain images are conjured up. What is conjured, however, may vary hugely. A kiss given by…

A Review of "The Natural History of the Rich" by Richard Coniff

Richard Coniff takes some of the lessons he has learned from writing a number of books on natural history, specifically, the behavior of nonhuman animals in their natural habitats, and extrapolates…

You Get What You Pay For: More on Shaping Behavior

Environments shape behavior even when people don’t.  A more fundamental behavioral process is difficult to imagine. Skilled shapers - people like animal trainers in amusement parks, most…

Focusing on "Focus"

Announcer during the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, after watching US gymnast Gabby Douglas fall off the balance beam in that event’s final competition: “Her focus is just not on today.”   “…

When Training to Competency Does Not Equal Competent Trainees

If you were to look at how your organization provides training, at what point are participants considered “competent” in the material? Or, better yet, do you even have a means for capturing this type…

Why GE’s Talent-Review System’s Secret Ingredient is Still a Secret

Raghu Krishnamoorthy, a vice president at GE, recently wrote an HBR-Online article about GE’s secret ingredient to its purported Talent-Review System.  One can assume by reading the comments on…

The (Pigeon) Key to Behavior: Measurement Counts!

In a recent piece, I introduced readers to the pigeon as the subject extraordinaire for laboratory research on basic learning processes. Pigeons are used because of their long lives and their…

Science is Everywhere: Including Mixed Martial Arts

Behavior is behavior is behavior…regardless of the job, hobby or any learning endeavor we spend our time and energy on there is a lot we can learn from those that master their own areas of interest.…

The Behavioral Interface

At a recent luncheon I found myself in conversation with two interesting entrepreneurs who had, over the past 16 months, created what seemed to be a quite excellent behavior recording/management…

Vive le Pigeon

I spent a sabbatical year in Lille, France, a city surrounded by what Colonel John McCrae immortalized as “Flanders Fields.” Some of the most horrific fighting that has ever taken place on…

Getting to the Bottom of a Nasty Rumor

A listener recently told Ira Glass, host of the NPR show This American Life, that he was told that pigs’ rectums were being sold by packing plants to be used as artificial calamari. The…

Do You Really Want People to Fail?

Is that how you teach persistence, resilience and grit?  This is another story that just drives me crazy! I have read several articles and blogs about the value in failing. Are they kidding?…

Leveraging the 4:1 Ratio—In Sports and in Business

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…

Self-Awareness

Self-awareness is a topic of great interest in psychology. It’s important in everything from personal health care to problem solving, but one of its most important implications is in terms of how we…

Whodunit?

I was in Ellicott City, Maryland a while back, visiting my daughter and her family on the night when 21 cars of an 80-car train hauling coal from near my home in West Virginia to Baltimore derailed.…

A Review of "Quiet" by Susan Cain

I am not sure how to introduce the book “Quiet” by Susan Cain. I don’t want to say it is about “introverts” because, as a professional behavior analyst and psychologist, I know the dangers to self…

Guts and Glory: Intuition and the Science of Behavior

The 19th century author Rudyard Kipling spoke of meeting triumph and disaster and treating both those imposters just the same. Indeed Kipling’s twin imposters both can result from going with one’s…