Behavior Management in the Workplace

I had the great opportunity to work with Board Certified Behavior Analysts and I learned so much from them. These BCBAs specialize in autism treatment. This field may seem completely irrelevant to the business world but there is a clear correlation. It’s all about behavior management.

For a child on the autism spectrum, therapists use the principles of ABA which is Applied Behavior Analysis. Essentially, it’s about breaking things down into small steps until that target has been mastered. The child learns through errorless teaching (adjusted prompt levels until the child makes the correct response) and their positive behavior is strengthened and maintained through positive reinforcement (using their motivator).

What does this have to do with typical adults in the business world?

As business leaders we need to understand what motivates our people. We recognize that everyone is unique and requires a different approach to get things done. When we understand our people’s motivations, we are able to reward them accordingly, retain top talent and onboard new talent.

Here is a list of motivators in the workplace:

Money
A sense of belonging
The work itself
Recognition
Career Development

We also know that change management can be challenging, but when we understand the barriers around change we are able are to gain consensus and achieve great results. We do this by breaking things down into small steps and slowly introducing change in a positive way.

Using the principles of ABA we are able to gain an understanding of people’s motivations and effectively manage change.

People are so fascinating. We all have subtle and clear patterns, we all have certain expectations. We all have different perspectives. ABA helps us to get to the root cause of why someone does a certain thing and reacts in a certain way.

ABA is especially effective when we are engaging in negotiations, conflict resolution and improving employee engagement.

Executive coaching is all about being open to learning new ways of thinking and doing in order to achieve goals and solve problems. Using ABA in the workplace is just one example of how we can gain insights by thinking outside the box.

Michelle Nasser, Executive Coach

Teaching you how to make the best decisions for your organization.

www.michellenasser.com