In Episode 12, ADI's Brian Molina explains the latest pearl, "Consequences are defined by their impact, not their intention."
Transcript: When doing culture assessments we always ask frontline employees how much positive reinforcement they receive from their leaders and typically the answer is not a lot. Then we ask leaders how much positive reinforcement they give and typically that answer is a lot. So why this disconnect? Well the answer is in one of Aubrey's Pearls of Wisdom. Consequences are defined by their impact not their intention. Many leaders do things that they believe will be reinforcing but they fail to check back and determine whether their actions had the desired impact. The fact is reinforcement is defined by its effect on behavior so if behavior doesn't increase whatever you thought was reinforcing just unfortunately well that wasn't the case. As you can imagine this misunderstanding can lead to frustration and result in lower performance levels if workers don't experience reinforcement for those important behaviors. So when you attempt to reinforce a behavior be sure to circle back and look for the impact. Don't be fooled by peoples' immediate responses like saying thank you or I appreciate it. It could be genuine but it could also just be them trying to be polite. So remember, make sure to look for the impact on behavior.
