Why should managers and executives use Organizational Behavior Management?

Comments from some of the leaders in performance improvement:

Bill Hopkins - Auburn University
William B. Abernathy - Abernathy & Associates
Terry McSween & Jerry Pounds - Quality Safety Edge
CLG
Aubrey Daniels International (ADI)

o The success of your organization depends on the effectiveness of your processes.
o The effectiveness of your processes depends on the behaviors of your people.
o The behaviors of your people depend on the skill of your managers.
o Most of your managers aren’t skillful at developing and sustaining the behaviors you need.
o Some managers are learning how to do it.
o You’d better not be left behind.

Dr. Bill Hopkins
Emeritus Professor
Auburn University

Increasing competition has adversely affected profit margins, customer loyalty, and ultimately shareholder return. An often overlooked resource that can successfully counter these adverse trends is the organization’s employee group. The conventional employee performance system relies on direct supervision, the wage and salary compensation system, and annual performance reviews, merit pay increases and promotions as rewards for exceptional performance. These practices became widespread in the early 1900’s and have remained so till today.

Research and applications in organizational behavior management find these conventional practices flawed. Studies find that the conventional performance system consistently constrains employee performance to only two-thirds its potential. Put another way, an organization with a one hundred million dollar payroll is losing thirty million in suboptimal employee performance.

The conventional system can be reengineered to capitalize on this potential. This reengineering includes:

William B. Abernathy, Ph.D.
President, Abernathy & Associates
www.abernathyassociates.com

In our view, behavior analysis provides managers with tools they need to be more effective, beginning with teaching them to develop more effective personal relationships.
Managers and supervisors who understand and apply the primary behavioral concepts of reinforcement will be well-liked by their employees and have high performing teams. The concepts of behavior analysis are deceptively simple, but their application does not come easily. Further, simply knowing and understanding the concepts is not sufficient. The key is in their application.

Effective managers are those who create an environment in which employees want to perform well. Mediocre managers, on the other hand, create a workplace where employees either feel they “have to” perform well or else they care only about meeting the minimal work requirements to keep their jobs. To achieve the far more positive work environment, behavior analysis teaches managers how to effectively:

• Operationally define behavior
• Monitor work process performance
• Change consequences to support exemplary performance
• Remove behavioral barriers

Read more of this article, "What Behavior Analysis Offers Managers"...

Terry McSween & Jerry Pounds
Quality Safety Edge
Behavioral Safety at Quality Safety Edge

Everything we do in society—in business, industry, healthcare, education, recreation, etc.—involves behavior. Furthermore, improving any important outcome such as your organization’s bottom line involves changing behavior . . . and change does not happen until people behave in new or different ways.

Leaders realize that competitive advantage belongs to those who align performers’ behaviors with business strategies, processes, and technology to achieve results. Motivating behavior change by providing clear direction and aligned consequences is essential to realizing the promises made by efforts such as service excellence, Six Sigma, Lean Manufacturing, and the like, which provide the technology and process solutions needed to jump start a change. Unfortunately, many of these approaches don’t help leaders answer questions fundamental to creating change: what is the effort's impact on people and why should they change their behavior (e.g., what’s in it for me?).

Organizational Behavior Management (OBM) provides managers and leaders with a scientifically-validated framework and tools to answer those questions and create sustainable behavior change. Practitioners of OBM are teachers, coaches, and expert advisors. We counsel leaders at all levels in all functions about how to improve organizational results by effecting behavior change. We bring together the science of human behavior and the realities of today’s business environment to help leaders solve important challenges facing them such as cost reduction, quality management, safety improvement, sales cultures, and so on. We often help them create change they didn’t think was possible.

CLG
www.clg.com

CLG is the world’s leading provider of OBM-based strategy execution and performance improvement consulting services. We work with our clients to help them turn strategy into solid results. We’ve driven successful organization transformations for various Fortune 100 companies, each of which has used our scientific approach to achieve real, measurable results. CLG can show you the power of behavior and lead the way in your efforts to improve your company’s performance. For more information, visit our website at www.clg.com or contact Brian Caudill at 412-269-7240 x 1126.

What can you expect to find in an organization that uses OBM?
People across your operations focused on what truly drives business success.
Employees taking initiative. Reaching higher. Caring deeply.
Your organization performing at levels you now think impossible.

In today’s business environment, almost any technology, process, or innovation can be replicated, leaving most organizations without a decisive competitive advantage. However, leaders who embrace Organization Behavior Management (OBM) are gaining a competitive advantage that is nearly impossible to emulate. Why? Behavior is difficult to replicate—more so than any other aspect of business. Unless you have a strong understanding of human behavior and the scientific laws that support it, then it’s next to impossible.

Successfully motivating an individual to perform in a way that yields positive results is one thing, but moving a department or even an organization towards positive, results-driven accomplishments is even more challenging. When OBM is successfully applied, you see organizations performing at levels beyond expectations.

OBM arms leaders with proven, science-based tools and methodologies to capitalize on what is being left on the table—employees who contribute only have-to performance. Leaders focus the work and earn more discretionary effort from the men and women in their organization—the people who truly drive business success.

OBM is a necessary and strategic component for any business.

Aubrey Daniels International (ADI)
www.aubreydaniels.com

For more than 25 years, ADI has been preparing leaders to use Applied Behavior Analysis to promote profitable habits™—persistent behaviors beneficial to your business and to the people doing the work. We help organizations build leaders who cultivate profitable habits and in turn move organizations towards sustainable business success.