HOW CAN WE MOTIVATE OURSELVES MORE EFFECTIVELY THROUGH

REINFORCEMENT?

We all crave a little more effectiveness in reaching our goals, and that can be
achieved by rewarding ourselves for the little steps that we take which brings
us closer to those goals. take for instance, you want to own your very own car,
you get to start saving up for this purpose right? well your goal in this scenery
is the car and the reinforcements will be the savings. or a better illustration,
you know when you want a your child to eat their veggies and they don't
actually feel like, then you decide that if they finish their veggies they can
watch the TV or not? well the TV is the reinforcement, hope you get the memo
now.
The very same way you get to motivate others intrinsically (like words of
praise, affirmation an so on) or extrinsically (physically like gifts), we can apply
same to ourselves. B F Skinner showed that if you want someone to change,
you’re better off using the carrot than the stick. Punishing people for
performing bad undesirable behaviour, according to Skinner, is less likely to
lead them to change than is giving them encouragement for doing what you
want. In fact, punishment might even have the opposite effect than what you
intend by making them angry, scared, or a little of both. First things first, you
need to find something you really like to do or something you’d like to have
that can, realistically, serve as a reward. You should try and make a list of at
least 4 or 5 rewards that you know you will work hard to get, this will give you
a motivational boost toward that goal. Rewards can either be positive or
negative. positively, you can allow yourself to have a bit of that thing you really
like that is acting as your reinforcement when you find out that you are gaining
a level of progress toward your goal no matter how small it may look,
Negatively you can deprive yourself of that reinforcement. Negative
reinforcement always strengthens a response, negative reinforcement must
also increase a behaviour’s strength. It’s just that it operates by what it takes
away, not what it adds. For example, if you’d like to cut back on your
television watching and instead read more often, reward yourself by allowing
yourself to watch television only when you have read for 20 minutes, then 30,
then maybe 2 hours.
We’d all like to be more effective in reaching our goals, and according to
behaviourists, the way to improve our effectiveness is by rewarding ourselves
for the little steps that take us closer and closer to those desirable outcomes.
First, find something you really like to do or something you’d like to have that
can, realistically, serve as a reward. Then, take the goal that you are hoping to
achieve that, realistically, you could achieve but just haven’t succeeded at yet.
Next, work backward from that goal to your present state. Arrange to give
yourself those desired rewards as you inch closer from where you are now to
the desired end point. As you start to make progress, only give yourself a
reward when you’ve moved forward from where you are now. For example, if
you’d like to cut back on your television watching and instead read more often,
reward yourself by allowing yourself to watch television only when you’ve read
for 20 minutes, then 30, then maybe 2 hours. By the time you’ve gotten to the
2 hour mark, who knows, you may enjoy reading so much that you won’t even
care about watching television anymore. Whether you deal with young
children at home or in the classroom, or you want to be a better manager of
adults in the workplace, educational psychologists have studied ways to
influence people to get the results you want. One effective way to motivate
learners and co-workers is through positive reinforcement: encouraging a
certain behaviour through a system of praise and rewards. One important type
of learning is called operant conditioning, and it relies on a system of rewards
and punishments to influence behaviour. The most basic example of operant
conditioning is training a dog, whether to do tricks or to stop an unwanted
behaviour like chewing on furniture. Reinforcement of the behaviour means
that the goal is to get your subject — whether pet or person — to do more of a
desired behaviour.
Positive reinforcement means giving something to the subject when they
perform the desired action so they associate the action with the reward and do
it more often. The reward is a reinforcing stimulus. Positive reinforcement
works because the brain connects the action to the reward, and the subject
will repeat the target action in hopes of being rewarded in the future. Positive
reinforcement is especially effective at establishing new behaviours, but it may
not work as well in the long term if the subject becomes bored with the reward
over time. Teachers and other school personnel often use positive
reinforcement in the classroom. It's a way to get students to learn the rules
and maintain motivation at school. Here are some examples of positive
reinforcement in action:
Students get to move their peg up the chart whenever assignments are
completed on time. Students who volunteer to clean up the playground on a
winter afternoon get hot cocoa and cookies afterward. Students who stay quiet
in the library get praise from the librarian. The class is rewarded with extra
recess when all students pass a test.
Similarly, In a management context, reinforces include salary increases,
bonuses, promotions, variable incomes, flexible work hours, and paid
sabbaticals. One particularly common positive-reinforcement technique is the
incentive program, a formal scheme used to promote or encourage specific
actions, behaviours, or results from employees over a defined period of time.
Incentive programs can reduce turnover, boost morale and loyalty, improve
wellness, increase retention, and drive daily performance among employees.
Motivating staff will in turn help business outcomes and increase efficiency.
Managers are responsible for identifying what behaviours should be promoted
and what should be discouraged and must carefully consider organizational
objectives in this process. Implementing rewards and punishments that parallel
the organization ‘s goals help to create a work culture and work environment
that embody those goals and objectives. Let’s take an IT sales team as an
example. The team’s overarching goal is to sell their new software to
businesses. The manager may want to emphasize sales to partners of a certain
size (i.e., big contracts). To this end, the manager may reward team members
who gain clients of 5,000 or more employees with a commission of 5% of the
overall sales volume for each such partner. This reward of a 5% commission
reinforces the behaviour of closing big contracts, strongly motivating team
members to work toward that goal and thus likely increasing the number of big
contracts closed. To facilitate the creation of a profitable program, every
feature of the incentive program must be tailored to the participants’ interests.
A successful incentive program requires clearly defined rules, suitable rewards,
efficient communication strategies, and measurable success metrics. By
adapting each element of the program to fit the target audience, companies
are better able to engage program participants and enhance overall program
efficacy.
Positive reinforcement is the practice of rewarding desirable employee
behaviour in order to strengthen that behaviour. For example, when you
praise an employee for doing a good job, you increase the likelihood of
him/her doing that job very well again. Positive reinforcement both shapes
behaviour and enhances an employee’s self-image. Recognizing and rewarding
desirable employee behaviour is the essential key to motivating employees to
work more productively. This method will reap many benefits:
 It clearly defines and communicates expected behaviours and
strengthens the connection between high performance and rewards.
 It reinforces an employee’s behaviour immediately after learning a new
technique and promotes quick, thorough learning.
 It motivates effective workers to continue to do good work. Lack of
reinforcement leads to job dissatisfaction.
 It increases productivity by rewarding workers who conserve time and
materials.
Employees who are rewarded after they successfully perform feel self-
confident and become eager to learn new techniques, take advanced training,
and accept more responsibility. Rewarding employees who suggest improved
work procedures will produce more innovation – if you create a relaxed work
environment, reward new ideas and tolerate innovative failures. Employees
who receive recognition for their achievements are more enthusiastic about
their work, more cooperative, and more open to change.
When you show appreciation and reward employees for good work, you
increase their job commitment and organizational loyalty. To reinforce
successfully, you need to define exactly what it is that constitutes desirable
behaviour. You should then set specific, measurable work goals with each
employee or with the entire team, and then decide together, which behaviours
are most important for achieving the results.
These guidelines will help make your reinforcements most effective:
 Be specific.
 Give the employee concrete, specific information about what he/she did
right.
 Reinforce immediately.
 Reward the employee as soon as possible after his/her good behaviour.
 Be sincere.
 Show genuine appreciation for the employee’s achievement.
 Reinforce often but unpredictably.
 Regular reinforcement comes to be expected and fails to motivate.
Frequent, but random, reinforcement is more effective.
 Reward small increments of improvement.
  Most performance improvement is gradual. Rewarding good effort and
small improvements will lead to bigger improvements.
 Give realistic reinforcement.
 Rewards should be proportionate to the importance of the behaviour.
 Personalize the reinforcement.
Through skillful use of positive reinforcement, you will increase your
employees’ self-esteem and call forth from them greater contributions and
increased dedication to the job.