Send in the Reinforcements

Yesterday we talked about the folly of rewarding one behavior while wanting another behavior to occur.

When we talk about dysfunctions of any kind, most people understand that the behavior or processes are not effective in some manner. The question then becomes, if it’s broke, why don’t we fix it?

The simple answer is because it is reinforcing in some way. Someone is getting something out of the dysfunction, and so it becomes sustained. (By the way, this is the same reason why your cousin Stella keeps going out with that jerk Stanley…)

People tend to think of reinforcement as just rewarding positive behavior. When we talk about reinforcing behaviors in organizations, it is almost always framed in doing what we can to sustain, increase, or promote positive work behaviors. What we miss in this discussion is

1. Managers aren’t the only one’s reinforcing behaviors
2. Situations and processes can do the reinforcing, not just people
3. Undesired behaviors are also being reinforced
4. Some reinforcements are more powerful than others

To really understand why someone continues to act in an undesired manner or a weak process remains in place, we need to better understand what is rewarding those involved. An effective tool for this is a process called ABC Analysis, where the A = Antecedents, B = Behaviors, and C = Consequence. (Click here for deeper definitions of each)

The analysis looks at specific behaviors (or processes) and then evaluates the consequences of that behavior. Consequences fall into three continuums:

• Positive or Negative (is the consequence perceived as being a positive thing by the person engaged in the behavior or process or not)
• Immediate or Delayed (does the consequence happen right away or some time in the future)
• Certain or Uncertain (is the consequence guaranteed to happen, or seem to happen more by chance)

Those behaviors that have Positive, Immediate, and Certain (P.I.C. for short) outcomes are more reinforcing than those with Negative, Delayed, or Uncertain outcomes (although Negative, Immediate, and Certain outcomes – which is better known as effective punishment – can also have quite an impact).

The trick of the analysis is to gain enough insight into what kind of consequences both the desired and undesired behaviors have. In many cases, the analysis reveals that the dysfunctional behavior or process will have more P.I.C. consequences than the desired functional behavior. Thus it is more reinforcing to engage in