Behaviour Matters March 2015

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