Contingent Reinforcement, Where?

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…

Zero Tolerance Policies Should be Called “Don’t Blame Me” Policies

While I understand the appeal of zero tolerance policies in that they allow difficult decisions about behavior to be dispatched easily and quickly, the decision to expel a child from school or to…

President Obama, You Say You Want Ideas—Here’s One!

President Obama says he wants ideas.  How about this one?  The government will designate a fixed dollar amount to be deducted from each taxpayer each year.  This fund will be…

A Better Way for HP to Boost Performance

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…

Looking Without Seeing

So, after his death, it was ‘discovered’ that a superstar of the BBC was a not-so-closeted pedophile for most of his long career. It’s not as if there were not a thousand clues in everything he did…

Explaining Why We Do What We Do: Reductionism as Passing the Buck

“Why is the sky blue, Daddy?” How many of us asked our Moms or Dads that one? “Why did she do THAT?” How many times have we asked that question as children AND as adults? Explanation is the Holy…

Round and Round

A pigeon landed on the balcony of our 15th floor apartment tonight. In my response to my wife’s musing as to why it keeps coming back to our specific balcony, I casually replied “habit.” In so saying…

Average Joes and Josephines

Ever read an article in the local paper that gives fairly categorical advice about how to exercise, eat, sleep, relax, or whatever?   I read them all the time, in everything from the most…

Mechanics and Behavior

We’re a combination of levers; that’s how we move.  Paul Vanderburgh, U. of Dayton Physiologist; Quoted in NY Times, November 5, 2012 (“Why Women Can’t Do Pull Ups”)   Is man a machine?…

Breaking Bad: A Lesson in Creativity For the Workplace

On the heels of the series finale of Breaking Bad, I heard a radio interview on NPR’s show “Fresh Air.”  The host was interviewing Peter Gould and Thomas Schnauz, part of the writing team for…

Remaining Conscious of Behavior

“What we need to do is to start work upon psychology, making behavior, not consciousness, the objective point of our attack.” –  John B. Watson, Psychology 1913 In this the 100th anniversary…

Be Careful What You Read

Be Careful What You Read : Can it be that only some people like positive reinforcement? The older I get, the more half-truths and unsupported declarations bug me.  Nowhere is this more evident…

Shades of Pink

A friend recently sent me an article from the NY Times by Bruce Feiler (Train a Parent, Spare a Child).  The title is quite fitting since it is the parents who create the environment…

Justin Bieber, Senior Leaders and “Yes-Men”

Recently I heard Charles Barkley on ESPN radio, but he wasn't talking basketball. He was talking about Justin Bieber and how Bieber’s life is gradually unraveling. It’s been a slow shaping process…

Building Reinforcement Into Your Work

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…

Getting New Employees Game Ready

The start of the school year is my favorite time of the year because it marks the start of the college football season. While college freshmen have plenty of adjustments to make, freshmen football…

Rank and Yank and Other Business Nonsense

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…

5 Tips for Improving Your Effectiveness as a Coach

There is always a lot of buzz surrounding leaders– what makes an effective one, are they born or made, and why do some transform into bad bosses.  Yet the most common trending topic today seems…