Behaviour Matters March 2015

Your No1 Magazine For Developing Higher Performance
BEHAVIOUR
MATTERS
Issue 22 March 2015 £2.99 where sold
Keep
Calm
And
Eat
Cake
THE CAKE ISSUE
If you’re afraid of
butter, use cream
Julia Child
Inside This
MONTH
Bite Sized Jez On Behaviour
The Cake Theory
Of Management
The Sweet Taste Of Success
In The Neuron Lounge
www.thebehaviourexpert.com
www.insiderexpert.co.uk
Behaviour Matters March 2015.indd 1 10/03/2015 12:20

A Thought From Jez
wont lie; I’m not in a very good mood. I’m on the Isle Of Man (or Isle
I Of Mann, depending on who you speak to or where you look; half of
them spell it with one ‘n’ and half of them with two - clearly they don’t
speak to each other much). Anyway, that’s not why I’m grumpy.
2
You’d think that traveling such a short
distance, from London, would be easy but
it’s been one of the worst trips of my entire
career. I don’t want this to turn into some sort
of unremunerated therapy column so I’ll spare
you all the details but needless to say I forgot
my passport (the first time in 12 years) so
arrived at the airport with little time to spare;
was subject to the most thorough security
check I’ve ever experienced (not like that, he
just had a big hang up about the amount of
liquids I had in my toiletries bag and I had to
keep throwing things away to make room),
got travel sick (the first time in about 10
years) and the new bag I bought is awful: you
can’t fit a suit in it, nor can you fold it up like
they show you on the box. There. Rant over.
Actually, I feel a bit better now.
So I arrived at my hotel, at the exact
opposite end of the town that the shops
were in, walked to the shops to buy a few
things I needed for my presentations (my
international calling card is fast becoming a
giant black rubbish bin with a hole cut out of
the bottom of it, left at various international
hotels and conference venues) and had
a cup of tea and a slice of carrot cake in a
coffee shop. And then, as I took a sip of that
amber nectar and a mouthful of cake, the
world suddenly went from grey to colour.
My mood immediately lifted and all of the
day’s stresses and strains melted away into
the sweet, white frosting. What is it about
eating cake that seems to make things so
much better?! Well, undoubtedly the sugar
certainly perks us up but things that we
associate with good times and positive
memories help to lift our mood and we thrive
on the production of neurotransmitters,
which they prompt the release of, such as
dopamine (my personal favourite of all of
C lient of the Month
The Golden Banana Award
Debbie Woodward, Galderma UK
Congratulations to Debbie; the
winner of this month’s Golden
Banana Client of the Month award!
Debbie’s team were faced with some very
specific behaviour challenges when changes
to how they were asked to sell were not being
carried out, despite great evidence showing
a more efficacious method, with greater
potential. Having tried different approaches
and with some people muting the idea of
introducing punishment strategies if people
didn’t comply, Debbie knew she had to win
both the hearts and minds of her team in
order to see changes. Together we devised
some training and a strategy to assist with
changing the way that her team responded
to certain barriers, whilst up-skilling them.
Debbie knew they had to do something
different in order to get different results and
when we spoke, she instinctively understood
the need to not only inspire her team but to
give them greater purpose and understanding
of their roles.
As a result, the conference was a huge success
and the session Debbie was responsible for
organising helped to change how her team
approached selling and to embrace new
behaviours.
the neurotransmitters – I can’t believe I have
a favourite neurotransmitter). Your ‘cake’
might well be a run, or some fresh fruit but
for most, one thing that’s almost guaranteed
to lift the spirits and put a smile on the inside
as well as your face, is something sweet,
unexpected and reminiscent of a birthday
party or other celebration. I’ll show you
exactly how we can use this to our advantage
in my feature article this month: The Cake
Theory Of Management.
But for now, keep calm and eat cake!
www.thebehaviourexpert.com
www.insiderexpert.co.uk
Behaviour Matters March 2015.indd 2 10/03/2015 12:20

Inside Jez’s
Brain
The Cake Theory
Of Management
If you follow me on facebook (www.facebook.
com/thebehaviourexpert) you may have seen
my recent post about cake and my Cake Theory
of Management.
Mrs Jez and I were in London just a few weeks ago, going to the
theatre, and we passed a cake shop in Piccadilly, with some really
delicious looking cakes in the window display. Mrs Jez didn’t see
them at first but my head whipped around so quickly I thought I’d get
whiplash: I saw them from the corner of my eye as we walked down
the street, lit in a soft, warm glow, which accented all of the colours
and gave a sparkle to the glaze. Just thinking about it has put a smile
on my face.
Inside the shop were a number of people eating cake and chatting
and then it struck me: everyone inside the shop was smiling. So,
theatre trip temporarily abandoned, I stopped and watched the cake
shop, waiting for new people to go inside, to see if their behaviour
would change. Mrs Jez is quite a patient person, which you’d have to
be if you lived with me. Anyway, the next couple who walked in were
clearly cold and they both seemed a little preoccupied, which is often
They chose their cakes, ordered and began
to tuck in. Within seconds of the cake
touching their tongue, their eyes lit up, their
shoulders relaxed and a smile spread across
their face.
indicated by the furrowed brow and darted looks around the room.
They chose their cakes, ordered and began to tuck in. Within seconds
of the cake touching their tongue, their eyes lit up, their shoulders
relaxed and a smile spread across their face. And even though I’ve
been applying it for many years now, it suddenly dawned on me then
just how powerful the Cake Theory of Management is.
I was first introduced to the concept by my boss when I worked in
hospital, only she called it the Doughnut Theory of Management
and at its most basic, it’s this: you buy people doughnuts and they’ll
do what you want them to do. Or at least that’s how she explained
it. However, it’s a little more complicated than that and deserves
a little bit more respect because if you just buy people things and
expect them to do what you want them to do, that’s not an especially
reliable method of behaviour change. And if you tell them first that
they’re going to get doughnuts if they do as they’re told then that’s
technically a bribe and bribes don’t work for long because they
quickly become a crutch for desirable behaviour: their behaviour
becomes contingent on you buying them doughnuts. Which I’m sure
they wouldn’t mind…
The Cake Theory of Management (but, yes, it works equally well with
doughnuts) is essentially based on the principle of reciprocity, with a
sprinkling of the principle of the vital few and a touch of behavioural
learning theory added for good measure. What does this all mean?
Well, the next time your team, people in your charge or perhaps
even your family, do something that is especially worth rewarding,
or reinforcing, or encouraging, or something that you’re proud of
that’s especially worthy of praise, go out to a bakery or supermarket
and buy them cake. Mrs Jez and I have recently finished having our
house renovated and while the builders were here, every day I went
to the bakery and bought a different selection of cakes for them. As
a result, they were more than happy to go the extra mile to help us
with a few additional bits and stayed on late without charge. Now,
I’m being candid and to the point here but don’t read this as bribery
or manipulation because it’s not: I didn’t tell them I was going to buy
cake on the condition that they worked harder, or specifically with
a view to get them to do more work. I bought them cake to build a
relationship; as a gesture of appreciation and reinforcement for the
great work they were doing and because I know that cake makes
people happy.
Everyone at the hospital knew and valued my old boss: after all,
who else bought them cake?! It’s a gesture that is unexpected;
largely appreciated; seen as an act of kindness and perhaps most
importantly of all, builds relationships. Don’t tell them you’re going
to do it; don’t make the cake contingent on an outcome and do it
unexpectedly and at times randomly. I promise it’ll pay dividends. The
trick is to ask yourself: how would this make me feel?
Don’t Forget...
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facebook page. You can find it at
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3
Behaviour Matters March 2015.indd 3 10/03/2015 12:20

4
The Neuron
The Sweet Taste Of Success
There’s nothing quite like being right, is
there? Especially when it comes to a family
debate. Or that sense of great pride when
you win a competition. I love that overpowering
flush of fulfilment when you tick off
the last of your things on your to-do list. And
when that feel-good feeling puts you in a positive
mood for the rest of the day, it can really
set you up to have a good day - and the longer
that feeling lingers, the better!
That positive feeling is caused by the release of my favourite
neurotransmitter, dopamine, also known as “the happy hormone” and
it’s a sure-fire way to lift your spirits, lighten your mood and quite often
put a smile across your boat race, too. Dopamine is the neurotransmitter
that associates with happiness and reward and it’s released when
something nice happens to us, or someone else is nice to us or shows us
generosity, making us feel good as a result. The reason I’m such a fan of
dopamine is because it’s release is prompted by so many things that we
can engineer, from exercise to donating to charity and from indulging
in a nice puffy chocolate éclair to completing a task on your to-do list.
However, dopamine is used up very quickly, so the good feeling goes
away and that leaves us wanting more. The affect of dopamine is so
strong though that it motivates us to seek out more ways to get our
fix. Now we don’t consciously seek out dopamine specifically of course,
instead we go out of our way intensely looking for things that will make
The reason I’m such a fan of dopamine is because
it’s release is prompted by so many things
that we can engineer, from exercise to donating to
charity and from indulging in a nice puffy chocolate
éeclair to completing a task
us feel good, to trigger its release. We might buy another pair of shoes,
another slice of banana cake or another book, for example. So if we can
pair the great feeling we get when we reward ourselves with success,
with an especially productive behaviour, such as completing our to-do
list, the dopamine release can be used to our advantage in an especially
clever way. If one of your fingers fell off every time you procrastinated
www.thebehaviourexpert.com
www.insiderexpert.co.uk
Behaviour Matters March 2015.indd 4 10/03/2015 12:20

or put something off that you actually needed to do, or your car burst
into flames every time you consciously put in only half the effort, you
wouldn’t do those things again would you?! You wouldn’t do them
because they had negative consequences for you. With the exception
of forced behaviours, the only reason we repeat behaviours is because
we enjoy them or they make us feel good: they are positively reinforced.
Now, “success” is subjective and interestingly, when I ask people what
success means to them, I can get a real variety of answers, from “making
lots of money” to “hitting all of my targets” and from “feeling a sense
of accomplishment and achievement” to “getting all of my jobs done”.
Whatever success means to you, the affect that being successful has
on us is the same; it makes us feel good but very often that little squirt
of dopamine isn’t enough when you’re under pressure, have a load
more tasks to do, or don’t give yourself sufficient credit for what you’ve
achieved. How often have you completed a task, hit a target or otherwise
succeeded, only for you to plough on with other things? You deserve to
take just a few moments, or the time it takes to make a fresh cup of
tea, to reflect and wallow in that good feeling because only when you
do that will you start to pair achievement and success with the positive,
feel-good effects. That’s why it’s so important to enjoy that moment
this has at some point experienced at least one of those scenarios –
and probably fairly recently, too! We’ll assume you’ve broken down
the tasks into manageable chunks, but if you haven’t, take a look at
this month’s Success Strategies feature as there are some tips on how
to better manage your time and, perhaps unsurprisingly, strategies
for success, too. What we do to encourage or inhibit, intentionally or
otherwise, our success is important because before we even get to the
point of that sweet taste of success, we’ve potentially set ourselves up
to fail, or at least make it much harder for ourselves. If we don’t enjoy
the journey to success, we get measurably less enjoyment out of the
end point; the destination; the result, making the whole thing all the
more unbearable and difficult. Conversely, if we make the journey more
frequently rewarding, by allowing ourselves to bask in our dopamineenriched
glory, we’ll not only achieve more but are likely to do so much
more efficiently, too.
So how can you do it? What can you do to make all of your tasks feel all
the more successful? How can you get a bigger taste of the bigger slice
of the success strudel? Largely by being more conscious of the fact that
we need to literally feel the success we create; by engineering ways to
“top up” that feeling of success with something that you know you enjoy,
Lounge
5
of success and reinforce it with something that also makes you feel
good, such as cake: you ride on the back of the natural reinforcement
(dopamine) with an engineered one (cake, or a run or a chapter of
your favourite book) to greater enhance the feeling of success. This in
turn helps you to get things done that will make you more successful,
whatever that means to you.
or that you know will make you feel good and by making your journey to
success as simple and regularly reinforced as you can.
Imagine this: you’ve got a lot of things on your task list to get done but
you’re just not feeling on top of it all. Perhaps you’re a little overwhelmed,
or you’re distracted by the sheer amount of work and struggling to get
your head down and get on with it. Maybe you’re under a bit of pressure
with timescales, or you’re not entirely sure what to do in order to
progress. Sound familiar? You’re not alone! I imagine everyone reading
The chains of habit are generally
too small to be felt until they are too
strong to be broken
Samuel Johnson
Behaviour Matters March 2015.indd 5 10/03/2015 12:20

Extracts Fr om
6
It’s not me, it’s you. It never
fails to amuse me when
people blame others for not
carrying out what they were
told when the only information
they had to go on was
what they were given. It almost
always isn’t the other
persons fault – it’s yours.
You failed to communicate in a way
that they understood, or didn’t provide an
environment whereby they felt confident
enough to question your instructions, or you failed to check their
understanding or failed to monitor their output. The sooner we start taking
100% responsibility for our decisions and choices and the consequences
of those choices, the better we’ll all be and the quicker we’ll start
getting extraordinary results. It’s sometimes very difficult for people to
comprehend that their own conscious understanding of something, cannot
be grasped by someone else. It’s like looking at an orange and the other
person calling it a banana. But that’s how it is for some people. Personally,
I wish I met more people than saw bananas, where I saw oranges. That
reminds me of an illegal rave I worked at once (I was there in a professional
capacity!), where drugs and alcohol use was in abundance. One man wasn’t
overly enjoying his LCD-induced high because he’d begun hallucinating,
seeing the other ravers as fruit. Where I saw a sweaty, wide-eyed, pale man
gurning the life out of his jaw, he saw an apple. Where I saw a girl covered in
beer, jumping around, swinging her hair to the incessant beat of the noise
- sorry, music, he saw a pear. And this man took it upon himself to sort the
other ravers (read pieces of fruit), into fruit bowls, grouping them into nice
selections of oranges, bananas, pears, apples etc. I imagine when he’s not
off his face on acid, he’s a very tidy man; very organised. Only, no-one else
shared his hallucination and simply saw him as a man dragging them away
from the friends they were with, to join a group of other bewildered people,
equally high and undoubtedly experiencing their own hallucinations. As the
fruit bowl task became more and more of a disaster, with bananas, apples
and plums wandering off from their respective bowls and mixing with
other fruits, the man became more and more distressed. It was one of the
strangest things I’ve ever experienced.
The behaviour you want to see more of must be reinforced. Be
patient though and reinforce any and all behaviours that are even a
Bite Sized Jez
tiny bit in the direction towards the
final behaviour you’re looking for.
Don’t wait out to get the complete,
perfect, finished product because
often we need encouragement and
recognition of our journey towards
the end goal. If you taught basket
weaving or pottery or even baking
and waited before reinforcing
anyone until they produced a perfect
basket, a finished pot or a tasty pie,
you’d be there, probably alone, for a
long time.
The reinforcer must be
reinforcing! Remember that what
one person finds reinforcing, another won’t. Discover what it is that the
individual finds reinforcing; a verbal “excellent!”, a hand written note,
time out to call them, a bar of chocolate, recognition in front of their
team?
Before they carry out the task, discover if there are any existing, or
anticipated, barriers that may prevent the task, or their understanding
of the task. When you’ve discovered them, work to remove them. It’s
not all about the money. Remember that people want purpose, so
empower them to achieve something more; be a part of something in
which they can be proud and share their achievement with others. In
turn, this becomes reinforcing and is a very powerful strategy. One of
the simplest ways to achieve this is to offer responsibility for a part of
the task or overall project, for example.
By Jez Rose, published by Dr. Zeus Publishing
ISBN: 978-0-9930136-1-4 (Hardback), 978-0-9930136-2-1 (Paperback)
Released March 2015.
Available for just £9.99
if you pre-order in hardback
before 23rd March
(release price £14.99)
www.beapurplebanana.com
On Behaviour
Start with just one thing that you want to change, or adapt. C learly define it. Now really work at
it regularly (say, three times a day) to create a new habit of it. Once we’ve established just one or two new habits
or routines, others that support those new ones often fall into place on their own but frequently people try to
change too much at once. Don’t neglect that often the smaller things can make the biggest differences, too.
www.thebehaviourexpert.com
www.insiderexpert.co.uk
Behaviour Matters March 2015.indd 6 10/03/2015 12:20

Unlocking Success
In 6
Seconds
The Tick Tock of Time Management
All the time you’re reading this, the clock is
ticking. That’s four and a bit seconds of your
life gone already. You’ve probably heard me talk
about how finite our time is; a reminder I think
we all need from time to time, and how important
I believe it is to do the right thing while
we’re here by respecting the time we do have
and consciously using it to be better people.
That might well mean doing the things you don’t currently have
time for: spending more time with your children, your spouse or
your pets; going on holiday more often for a well-deserved break,
or simply getting home at a decent time.
Everyone has the same amount of time; the same 24 hours and
never has the maximum of taking 100% responsibility for our
behaviour and the consequences of our actions been more relevant
than when it comes to managing our time. As you can’t get any
more time, and never will, it’s all about how we better manage our
time, to maximise the time we do have and use it so well that it
actually frees up more available time.
Here are my top tips for effective time management:
1: Break tasks down into smaller, more easily achievable tasks, to
offer you more opportunities to experience stages of success. This
will help you to fit things into smaller time gaps, stop more frequently
and most importantly, experience a greater sense of reward.
2: Find out when you’re at your most productive. Some people are
morning people, like me, and others come alive in the afternoon. I
once met a very successful sales person at a conference who did all
of his lead generation calls in the evening, at home with a glass of
wine in his hand.
3: Do the right things rather than trying to do everything right: it
doesn’t matter how well you polish the underside of the bannister.
What things are time critical and have a looming time deadline?
Do those things first. What else is important and urgent? Urgency
always trumps in the order of importance yet we often get distracted
by other things.
4: Turn off your email and telephone tones. Research shows that
each time you are distracted, it takes an average of 4 minutes to
return to the level of concentration, focus and performance you
were at. Think about how often you’re interrupted at work and how
much ruined time that creates.
5: Use “dead time” effectively” make calls in the car, while running
or cycling, or outsource tasks to fiverr.com, peopleperhour.com or
dictate notes to be typed up by a secretary or typist while you’re
asleep or on a flight for example.
6: Be realistic! You need to sleep for a minimum of 8 hours a day and
you need to eat. There are only 24 hours in a day, so don’t cram your
days with unrealistic targets.
The ship that you’re
waiting for to come in may
very well be the ship that
you need to build
Unknown
7
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Behaviour Matters March 2015.indd 7 10/03/2015 12:20

News in Brief
WHO’S YOUR P IN UP?
You’ll be able to read a special feature article
about me in the May issue of Start Your
Business magazine and enjoy a huge picture
of my face, as they’re featuring me as their
cover story. Move aside those posters of
Ronan Keating and Beyonce and leave a little
bit of space for yours truly.
will naturally send you a slice of cake, so you
don’t miss out!
WHOSE LINE IS I T ANYWAY?
I was presenting a conference in Southampton
recently and one of the delegates came out
with this cracker of a line, in response to
suggesting a statement that summed up what
being a changemaker was: “I used to wonder
why somebody didn’t do something about
that; then I realised I am that somebody.”
8
GET YOUR DOP AMINE
F IX HERE
The Contented Dementia Trust, my adopted
charitable partner, are fundraising for
£25,000 to create an online e-learning
platform to teach the basic stages of
understanding and implementing the SPECAL
method for managing dementia. You can
make a donation to help them raise their
target here: http://bit.ly/1E9FUsW
DING DONG!
Listen out for the wedding bells because Mrs
Jez and I are getting married on 14th March,
after which I’ll be a fully-fledged married
man! We’re very excited (Mrs Jez just keeps
crying, which I think is with excitement) and
MAY YOU ALWAY S
REMEMBER THIS
Look out for what will be the biggest, most
exciting project I’ve worked on to date,
launching in May. We’re busy bringing all of
my training services and products under one
new brand, with a brand new culture change
programme launching with it. If you’re
interested in developing higher performance
in yourself, your team, or in specific areas like
leadership or service, you’re going to FREAK
when you see what we’ve created!
CHEER UP!
Did you know that there is a gene that can
cause you to be negative most of the time?
So maybe that miserable one you have to
work with is simply suffering from a genetic
disorder - still makes you want to throw a
custard pie in their face though, doesn’t it?
JAW S
A shark weighs 600 kilos plus 1/3 of its
weight. What does it weigh?
Grab a coffee and a pencil to scratch your head with…
YOUR LET T ER
What letter should replace the question
mark?
B D F H J N P ?
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the post to thank you for helping us to widen distribution of Behaviour Matters.
Contact The Behaviour Expert
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LOST
A person visiting a strange country with
no map comes to a crossroads where a
signpost has been knocked down. How can
they find their way without asking anyone
for directions?
Join in the fun here!
@JezRose
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Behaviour Matters March 2015.indd 8 10/03/2015 12:20