If you have ever had a leader make a request to change the way you do something, let’s say they ask, “I want one-paragraph progress reports every Friday by noon.” You spend an hour doing what they requested, the rest of the team doesn’t, and nothing is said to you about the report, and nothing is said to the people who didn’t do it.
Then the next week you do it again, same result. Are you likely to keep doing it? No, because it feels like a waste of time. And if no one seems to care, it is a waste of time.
Thinking that you can tell people to make a change at work (or home) and expect it to happen immediately and permanently is like buying a treadmill and thinking you’re magically going to get fit. You can buy it, bring it home, but if you just leave it in the corner and never get on it, nothing is going to change.
Asking people to make a change is buying the treadmill; what we do after is what actually changes and embeds the behavior.
While people often write recognition off as a soft skill, the leaders who get it understand that it is the single most important behavior change tool we have. Because what gets recognized, gets reinforced, and what gets reinforced gets repeated!
According to research by Achievers, 92% of employees said they are more likely to repeat an action when they are recognized for it. This is not an awkward “Great job, gold star, gift card, you did it!” That feels condescending and leaves people feeling like they are five years old.
It is the 30 seconds you spend acknowledging the action and its impact. Why? Because it creates what I call a Positive Reinforcement Loop.
Let’s take the scenario above. You send your update, but this time an hour later, your boss emails and says, “This is exactly what I needed, thank you. I didn’t know you and your team were working on that. Can I share “X” in the senior leadership meeting?”
On the receiving end, our brain immediately gets a little dopamine hit in the reward center that says, “Wow, that was actually worth it. Maybe I should do this again in the future.” And are you more likely to? Yes.
Positive Reinforcement Loop Created.
Now imagine a few days later, in your team meeting, the boss says, “Hey folks, I know the weekly updates may seem like a lot of extra work. I only got Kristine’s last week, but because I did, I could talk about her team’s work in the senior management meeting and connect her with someone in another department who might make her life easier. That’s why this is important.”
(This is exactly the kind of skill I teach in The Art of Recognition Training, helping leaders learn how to see, name, and reinforce the behaviors that matter most.)
Positive Reinforcement Loop Strengthened.
And if, each week, the boss references these updates, uses them to help people better understand one another, are people likely to adopt that behavior? Yes. Because what we recognize and reinforce shows people what is important.
Will the change last forever? Do you stay fit if you stop exercising and start eating Cheetos every day? Of course not!
But if we recognize the small behavioral changes at the start, and others take notice, you will find that other people start reinforcing the loop on their own.“Did you all read Kevin’s update? What they are developing is really cool.”
And the one change becomes a team or cultural norm.
Negative Reinforcement Loops
When we don’t understand the importance of Reinforcement Loops, we create them for behaviors we don’t want.
Remember the leaders who requested the updates and didn’t follow up?
Negative Reinforcement Loop Created:
“Don’t do extra work, it won’t make a difference.”
“The boss’s requests don’t really matter.”
Probably not the behaviors you want to be reinforcing, but when you don’t recognize what you want, use the work, that is what you reinforce.
As a leader and, honestly, as parents too, if we want to embed behavior change, we need to remember that telling people what we want changed is only the first step in the process.
It is what we see, recognize, and amplify after that creates the reinforcement loops that make change possible, improve performance, growth, and nurture the cultures and support people to show up at their best.
Quick Reflection:
Do you create more Positive Reinforcement Loops or more unintentional Negative Reinforcement Loops?
Think back to a recent change, request, or behavior you asked for from your team.
Did you do anything afterward to reinforce, recognize, or follow up on that behavior to help embed the change?
Or did it quietly disappear and become “just another idea” that faded away?
(I catch myself doing this weekly, by the way.)
This week, make an effort to focus on
Seeing,
Recognizing, and
Amplifying
and start creating reinforcement loops, for behaviors that matter most.
And if you want to help your leaders build these habits and get better at creating Positive Reinforcement Loops every day, The Art of Recognition Training is a great place to start.
If you’re reading this and realizing your team might be stuck in a few Negative Reinforcement Loops (don’t worry, we all have them), I’d love to help. Reach out here and let’s figure out what would make the biggest difference for your people.
