Behavior
Looking for something specific? The following topics address a wide range of business needs and challenges.
Schools and Our Children: Administrations and the U.S. Education System Get a Failing Grade
School bells may be ringing across the country but I am convinced now more than ever that we are not prepared to provide the best education possible for our kids. I was disheartened to learn of the…
Parenting and Behavior: We Want to Hear From You!
Most of my blog posts are dedicated to how behavior shows up in the workplace. But many of you who come to understand and learn about the science of behavior know how effective the science can be in…
Can You Speak Up? I Can’t Hear You
Maureen Dowd recently wrote an Op Ed piece in the New York Times entitled Giving Doctors Orders, in which she discusses the importance of speaking up and asking your doctor to wash his or her hands…
Are Googlers Really That Different From the Rest of Us?
This is not the first blog I have written about mistakes I think Google is making in how they are managing the company. It will probably not be the last. This blog was prompted by an…
Cutting the Federal Budget: Can it Really be Done Without Everybody’s Help?
Talk of cutting the Federal budget has been going on for months and will no doubt continue for the foreseeable future. It is interesting to me that the talk has centered, as it usually does, on…
San Francisco Board of Governors and McDonald’s in a Food Fight
The San Francisco Board of Governors recently voted to prohibit McDonald's from selling Happy Meals with a toy unless the contents of the Happy Meal meet certain criteria: it contains less than 600…
TSA Brings Problems on Itself
As the Thanksgiving travel begins to increase, so too do the TSA screening stories! If you have been watching TV in the last week, you are probably sick of the "should they – shouldn’t they" conduct…
Things that Drive Me Crazy: Behavioral Economists
What started with Dan Pink’s “Drive” has now compelled me to discuss Things That Drive me Crazy. In this first installment, I challenge “Behavioral Economists” and their lack of expertise in…
Don’t Forget the Boss…Or should you?
It’s that time of year again, where someone out there, has declared October 16th as National Boss's Day. Now I’m not saying Bosses shouldn’t be recognized for their efforts (assuming they…
Breaking News: Texting While Driving is Dangerous. Duh!
Anyone who understands anything about behavior knows that the latest suggestion by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood for dealing with the problem of texting while driving will not work. He…
OOPS #10: The Budget Process
Managers learn the budget game quickly or they don't survive. Ask for more than you need in the hope that you will get just what you need. Learn why this wastes time and money and what to…
Do Behavioral Economists Really Understand the Behavior Part?
Someone just sent me a YouTube video of Steven Levitt, co-author of Freakonomics, speaking to 1200 business leaders in London in 2007. The YouTube video is titled, “Why Incentives Don’t Work."…
Two Weeks is Here: ADI Launches New Web Site
Guess what? After many months of hard work by many people, we have given birth to a brand new website. The website was done in cooperation with What’s Up Interactive. They were great to work with and…
A Checklist Never Saved a Life
When I read The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande three things occurred to me. The first was a joke someone sent me in e-mail last week. “ A man is recovering…
TARP: A Classic Study in Poor Contingency Management by the Government
Last week Neil Borofsky, Special Inspector General of the Troubled Relief Asset Program, said that a number of the bail-out’s key goals “have simply not been met.”
The question I have is…
The “Underwear Bomber” Incident – My Two Cents
Almost everyone has written or talked ad nauseum about Abdul, etc. so I might as well weigh in. I am reminded of one of our customers in the carpet hauling business where they would put carpet…
Hope Springs Eternal
I have quoted the poet, Alexander Pope, a lot lately, but he wrote so many good things. He wrote, “Hope springs eternal in the human breast; …”
As I think back about all the problems in our…
Great Example of Natural Reinforcement In Action
The Fun Theory is a clever marketing campaign from Volkswagen that has caught the attention of behavior analysts because it shows how to change behavior (in this example increase exercise) by…