1 Introduction
This book is about achieving behavioral change in organizations. We jokingly call this āthe best kept management secretā. This book provides a specific, practically applicable answer to the āhowā question of behavioral change, based on scientifically validated principles. This distinguishes this book from many other management books.
Organizational Behavior Management, or OBM for short, is the field that deals with behavioral change in organizations. Some prefer to speak of ātargeted behavioral influenceā.
OBM is not about changing people, nor is it about manipulating people. It is about changing the environment in which people behave. The goal is to create working conditions that inspire and motivate people to deliver peak performance. Leaders play an important facilitating role in creating and maintaining such working conditions. Paul Gavoni1 refers to behavioral science as: āthe science of helping othersā. Applying OBM principles properly makes people happy to perform well every day. Thatās fun for everyone; it creates an absolute āwin-win situationā.
Observable behavior is said to be ā emittedā
People exhibit, or display observable behavior all day long. Observable behavior is said to be āemittedā. We intentionally use the word āemitā in this book, simply because it is the correct term, and the term can be used in combination with both verbal and non-verbal observable behavior.
Sometimes people emit outright unwanted behavior. Others just donāt do what we agreed upon, or donāt do what they learned in training. Many organizations suffer from clumsy, unwanted, or even dysfunctional behavior in the workplace. For example in the form of āpocket veto2ā and āsaying yes, meaning noā, victim behavior, avoidance behavior or escape behavior.
At management levels, we see, for example, āgarbage-can decision-making3ā and spreadsheet management with a strong focus on meeting the targets. Not infrequently, this is combined with an extremely directive management style. The sad thing is that such a way of managing in the workplace leads to rapidly decreasing motivation, increased stress, all kinds of deprivation, reduced involvement, decreased engagement and increased turnover and absenteeism.
We can analyze observable4 behavior. For this, we use the ABC model, about which more later. In the ABC model, the A stands for Antecedents. An antecedent is everything that precedes and prompts behavior. B stands for Behavior. C stands for Consequences, everything that follows behavior.
The function of an antecedent is to prompt people to act. In other words: it sets the occasion, or the stage for behavior. Scientific research clearly shows that antecedents can trigger behavior, but are seldom strong enough to maintain desired behavior over time. Our brain makes future behavior mainly dependent on the consequences of our current behavior! We think these consequences are more important than, for example, what others say to us. B.F. Skinner put it this way: ābehavior is a function of its consequencesā.
Analyzing observable behavior, for example, answers the following questions:
ā¾ āWhy are we now specifically emitting this behavior and not other behavior?ā
ā¾ āHow do you get people to want to behave differently?ā
This book gives answers to these questions and provides executives and other influencers with a solid and evidence-based approach for dealing with behavioral, performance and motivational issues.
1.1 The role of working conditions in performance issues
Working conditions can motivate and inspire people, but can also seriously demotivate them. Some of your colleagues go to work every day with a feeling in the pit in their stomach. Not because their work is tedious or boring, but because their working conditions consume all their energy. Going to work is a challenge that these people dread taking on every day. Working for long periods under energy-draining working conditions is no fun for anyone. In fact, it makes us ill.
People who are reluctant to work will perform at minimum levels. Managers and other influencers notice this and, from their role or function, use their power and authority to try to boost performance. Frequently their efforts produce a lot of hassle and have little success as a result.
Restoring motivation and job satisfaction and thus improving job performance is a journey full of pitfalls and seemingly unexpected twists. If, after a number of management interventions, it appears that the performance level of an employee is still below par, it is not uncommon to start a process in which both parties eventually part ways. A ālose-lose situationā for everyone involved.
Research by the real estate organization CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) and the University of Twente5 clearly demonstrates that a healthy office contributes to happier and more productive employees. People are usually perfectly capable of adapting to changes in the physical environment. Consider, for example, relocating within a building, or to another building, or switching to another employer. Sometimes it takes a while to get used to different sounds, different acoustics and colors and a different room layout. People who are unexpectedly confronted with such changes in their familiar environment may be emotionally affected. The process of getting used to and adapting to a new or changed environment is called āadaptation6ā. Adaptation, generally speaking, is temporarily at the expense of performance.
The social conditions in which people perform are very important. The interaction with colleagues and leaders at work directly influences well-being and, therefore, directly and indirectly affects peopleās performance levels and motivation. Social circumstances are about matters such as:
ā¾ How do we interact?
ā¾ How do we communicate with each other?
ā¾ Do we really recognize and accept each other sufficiently?
In this context we often speak of āsocial and psychological safetyā. Lack of psychological safety undermines confidence, respect and trust. Without confidence, respect and trust it is difficult to become a good team7. Without confidence, respect and trust, it is difficult to perform well as an individual, team or organization.
How do you build respect and trust? We want to answer that question too. It is common knowledge that leaders play a vital role in the process of cultivating and maintaining respect, trust and psychological safety. Their leadership style, feedback (or lack thereof!), in short, their leadership behavior, is the key to improved performance, and to more inspired and motivated employees. Often performance improvement of an individual or a team starts with a different style of leadership!
1.2 Organizations are constantly changing, and with varying degrees of success
Organizations are constantly changing. We distinguish between āorganic changesā and āplanned changesā. The organic changes occur naturally and spontaneously: new people come in, people change places, roles and positions, people leave the organization. Other examples of such organic changes are adjustments and improvements in working methods that we implement almost unnoticed. Simply because it is possible and because the new way works better, simpler, or easier.
Planned changes are the focus of organizational change management. Much has been published about organizational change management. There are very thorough training courses and it is an attractive field for many people to work in. There is a great need for the successful implementation of planned organizational changes. C...