Tools for Reinforcing Effort and Performance

Now let's focus on strategies to reinforce efforts to fulfill expectations. Reinforcement means holding people accountable. When people meet or exceed expectations, they must be recognized and/or rewarded. When they fail to fulfill expectations, they must be given feedback so that they have the opportunity to learn. There are four principal methods for providing reinforcement, or reinforcers positive reinforcement, punishment , negative reinforcement, and extinction and many ways to activate each category.

Positive Reinforcement

This reinforcer involves providing members with something desirable after they demonstrate a team-oriented behavior. This should include plain old recognition (e.g., a thank-you, an announcement at a meeting, a handshake of gratitude, feedback on what helped and why, etc.), some kind of symbolic reward (e.g., a jacket, a hat, a title, food, etc.), or some reward of greater monetary value (e.g., bonus money, a pay raise, a promotion, greater access to new equipment, the opportunity to attend a training event out of town, etc.). Beware of providing a "Most Valuable Player" award as a means of positive reinforcement. While the recipient of the award may feel particularly good, teammates may feel jealous and resentful. MVP awards can create a sense of competition, and as was noted in the previous chapter, competition is a main source of conflict.

Punishment

This reinforcer involves providing something undesirable after the person fails to fulfill expectations (e.g., being confronted at a team meeting for failing to follow through on a job assignment, having to pay money into a pool for showing up late for a team meeting or otherwise violating team rules, etc.). It might feel unpleasant to apply punishments, but motivation also requires negative consequences to hold people accountable if they fail. It has been my experience that people on teams do the right thing at least 80 percent of the time. Thus, I would expect that team leaders are providing four times as many positive reinforcers as they are punishments. While the ratio should be much higher, the absence of any application of punishment may send the message that anything goes. The key reinforcement principle is to provide a consistent system that helps people learn from their mistakes and feel good about doing what is desired.

Negative Reinforcement and Extinction

These two reinforcers are a little trickier to apply. Negative reinforcement involves providing the opportunity to avoid receiving something undesirable (e.g., an opportunity to avoid being embarrassed for failing to follow through or to avoid being yelled at or scorned by team members, etc.). This is more commonly referred to as peer pressure. It can help keep team members in line, but it can also add stress to their lives.

Extinction involves completely ignoring the behavior you want to see go away (e.g., no one laughing at excessive clowning during team meetings, not proceeding with the agenda until everyone gives their full attention to the current item of discussion, etc.). Sometimes this can be used subtly, but more typically someone needs to point out that the response is purposeful and aimed at the elimination of an undesirable behavior. At this point you are actually making it clear that you are using silence as a form of punishment.