Productivity Theater

Productivity is a big concern for managers who have people working remotely. Will they actually work as hard as they would in an office? This fear has been called “productivity paranoia.” I recently…

Quelling Quiet Quitting

Quiet Quitting is trending—on TikTok, in articles and blogs. Definitions vary but tend to include things like (1) worker disengagement, (2) a refusal to go “above and beyond,” and (3) a re-set…

Who Cares? Relationships Do Matter in Business

Tonight, in MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred's press conference regarding the end of the MLB lockout, he stated that relationships are important in business and that he would do better at that in…

New Year’s Resolutions: Beware!

This is a reprint of a classic blog by Aubrey Daniels, from 2012.The origin of New Year’s Resolutions can be linked to pre-Christian times in Rome, thousands of years ago.  So every year about…

Thanksgiving Resolutions

At Thanksgiving dinner my family does what many families do—we go around the table and share what we are thankful for. Not surprisingly, on the top of our lists are people. Family and friends support…

Developing Skills Quickly with the Science of Behavior

There is an old saying that has always bothered me: If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. If it's just a proverb to point out how important community is, I get it…

Surveillance for Amazon Drivers? Keys to Monitoring Driving Safety

Five U.S. Senators wrote to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on March 3, 2021 to express their concerns about surveillance cameras with tracking software being installed in some delivery vans operated by…

Behavior Change is Risky Business

All projects and change efforts involve behavioral risk. They require people to start doing some things or to do things differently. When sustained behavior change is a requirement, those responsible…

The One Thing Managers MUST Know to be Effective

It is quite likely that even the best MBA programs in the world are missing out on preparing their candidates with the one thing that will ensure they enter the real world with proven, effective…

Increasing Meaningful Behaviors Part 2

Based on the positive response to my blog on Increasing Meaningful Behaviors, I thought it worthwhile to extend the discussion. As you now know, values can play an important role in our lives…

Adding Infection Control Behaviors into Behavioral Safety Systems: Beyond COVID-19

During this phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, have repeatedly advocated behavior change as mitigating steps to…

Increasing Meaningful Behaviors

For most of us in the US and for many throughout the world, our lives have been turned upside down by stay-at-home orders. We’ve lost access to many of our favorite places to spend our time.  …

5 Tips for Supporting Teens With Online Learning

We have all been hearing about the home-schooling struggles of parents of younger school-age kids. The fact that my kids are 17 and 19 is one of the things I feel grateful for during this time of…

The Science of Ghosting

It has probably happened to you, but you just didn’t know it by name: Ghosting. Ghosting is the act of actively ignoring or dodging attempts to be contacted through various mediums—e.g., texts, phone…

Telling People What to Do Rarely Works!

“I told you to do it this way.” “Weren’t you in the training where we learned how to do this correctly?” “Why do you keep doing this?” “I thought I was clear about how I wanted this done.” Anyone…

Bad Rules Are Getting in the Way of Your Good Leadership

Language is truly a double-edged sword.  Language allows us to cooperate, plan, coordinate, describe the future, talk about the past, and it even allows us to describe interactions between the…

Shaping That Inner Voice

A topic that often comes up while discussing behavioral consequences with leaders is that of self-consequences. In other words, can a person provide consequences to themselves for their own behavior…

Are You Developing Successful People?

We have all heard of the Peter Principle—“Observation that in an organizational hierarchy people tend to rise to "their level of incompetence." Thus, as people are promoted, they become progressively…