Don’t tolerate bad behaviour: Dave Fellman

This article was first published in the July 2020 issue of AP. The digital version of the magazine is available here.

I am a great admirer of B.F. Skinner, the behavioural psychologist. He is perhaps most famous for his Principle of Reinforcement, which states that any behaviour which is rewarded will tend to be repeated. That principle represents the absolute foundation of motivational psychology.

It turns out, though, that there is an ugly “flip side” to the Principle of Reinforcement, which goes something like this: Any behaviour which is tolerated will also tend to be repeated.

From what I see, far too many printers tolerate far too much bad behaviour – from employees, customers and even suppliers. I think one of the secrets to success – and happiness – in business today is to take action whenever you are not seeing the behaviour you want. The “worst-case scenario” tends to happen when someone lets something slide just too far.

Training vs. discipline

In my high school years – which was both long ago and far away! – we had a principal and two vice-principals. The principal was the general manager, with overall responsibility for both the business side of the operation and the academic/extra-curricular side. One of the vice-principals was the director of academics, the other was the director of discipline (those were not their official titles, but they pretty well describe their responsibilities).

The director of academics was a small woman in her 50s, about as non-confrontational a person as you would ever hope to find. Her job was to educate us and teach us good behaviour, i.e. how to become good citizens.

The director of discipline was a very large man in his 40s who could – and would – get in your face. His job was to enforce good behaviour. They made a pretty good team, I think, largely because they both understood that it had to be a team effort.

Since I seem to be in a scientific/academic mood today, let me quote the equation that defines Fellman’s First Law of Good Behaviour In The Printing Industry: GB = T > (D), or Good Behaviour comes from Training reinforced by Discipline whenever necessary.

Take a good look at that equation. The most important thing to understand is that training must come before discipline. Here is an age-old question: Does Johnny foul up at his job because (a) he is a jerk, (b) because he does not know how to do his job in the first place, or (c) because he does not know how you want him to do the job?

The answer to the question is that Johnny can only be a jerk if he does know the job – both how to operate whatever machines he may be operating, and specifically how you want things done in your printshop – and then he still does not do it.

If that is the case, Johnny needs discipline. If it is not the case, what Johnny needs is training!

Better behaviour

How about customers who exhibit bad behaviour? For some reason, we only use the word “training” when it applies to employees. When we talk about changing customer behaviour, we tend to use the word “education”.

That is perfectly okay, as long as you realise that we are talking about exactly the same thing. “Training” or “education,” the first step toward success at changing bad behaviour is to define better behaviour.

Here is how you go about doing that:

  • Start with a clean sheet of paper, and draw a vertical line right down the middle. Pick an employee to start with, and on the left side of the line, write down the things you like about this person and the way he/she does the job. On the right side, write down the things you do not like.
  • Once you know what you like and what you do not like, the next step is to define what you want. Flip the paper over, and start making a list of your behaviour objectives for this person. What does he/she need to learn or do in order to become a more valuable contributor to your business?

Remember, the “learn” part has to come first. If your bad-behavers do not already know how to behave properly, you have to teach it before you can rightfully and reasonably expect it.

Remember, too, that Rome was not built in a day. But even if it takes both time and effort, I think solving some of your behaviour problems would lead to a happier and healthier printing company? Do you agree?

 

Dave Fellman is the president of David Fellman & Associates, Raleigh, NC, US, a sales and marketing consulting firm serving numerous segments of the graphic arts industry. Contact Dave at dmf@davefellman.com. Visit his website at www.davefellman.com.

 

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