Types of reinforcement and personnel retention
Saturday, 26 August 2006 | 559 readers so far
I often wonder why the military has such a hard time keeping its most talented people. And I think I know at least one of the answers.
There are four methods for achiveing desired responses from human beings through the process of reinforcement. Here are those four types:
Positive Reinforcement. The examples above describe what is referred to as positive reinforcement. Think of it as adding something in order to increase a response. For example, adding a treat will increase the response of sitting; adding praise will increase the chances of your child cleaning his or her room. The most common types of positive reinforcement or praise and rewards, and most of us have experienced this as both the giver and receiver.
Negative Reinforcement. Think of negative reinforcement as taking something negative away in order to increase a response. Imagine a teenager who is nagged by his mother to take out the garbage week after week. After complaining to his friends about the nagging, he finally one day performs the task and to his amazement, the nagging stops. The elimination of this negative stimulus is reinforcing and will likely increase the chances that he will take out the garbage next week.
Punishment. Punishment refers to adding something aversive in order to decrease a behavior. The most common example of this is disciplining (e.g. spanking) a child for misbehaving. The reason we do this is because the child begins to associate being punished with the negative behavior. The punishment is not liked and therefore to avoid it, he or she will stop behaving in that manner.
Extinction. When you remove something in order to decrease a behavior, this is called extinction. You are taking something away so that a response is decreased.
Research has found positive reinforcement is the most powerful of any of these. Adding a positive to increase a response not only works better, but allows both parties to focus on the positive aspects of the situation. Punishment, when applied immediately following the negative behavior can be effective, but results in extinction when it is not applied consistently. Punishment can also invoke other negative responses such as anger and resentment.
Guess which type is most popular in the military? Punishment. I don’t disagree with punishment as a tool for achieving desired behaviors. However, over the long term, constant punishment coupled with a tendency to fail to reward a soldier when he or she performs at or above expectations will simply drive people away from a career in the military.
My command probably won’t want to hear this, but I can honestly say that the way I’ve been treated during this tour has been unprofessional and demotivating. You cannot deal with a middle aged business professional in the same way you deal with a middle schooler and expect to achieve positive results.
A perfect example of this counterproductive mentality is the way we deal with vehicle maintenance in the unit. A vehicle maintenance checklist is due once a week. Understandably, due to constant personnel shuffling, schedule changes and various unexpected things that happen in the type of environment we live in people sometimes forget to turn their checklists in. Rather than simply asking the section where the checklist is, or saying something like “have it on my desk in the next hour,” our unit just takes the vehicle away if the checklist is late. This is a punishment mentality. In the long run, it causes more harm than good.
People who have no vehicle are severely limited in their mobility, which is counterproductive. The soldiers who have had their vehicles taken away also tend to feel resentment. It takes them longer to get to work and to get home. They have to scrounge rides or take the bus system. The school marm mentality that produces this sort of “solution” to the problem of paperwork being turned in late will be remembered by each soldier down the road. They will have to ask themselves - do I like being treated like a child? Do I want to sign up for another three to six years of punishment?
When adults work together cooperatively great things can be achieved. This is no less true in the military than anywhere else. The problem is that many military leaders have the wrong mentality. Instead of looking for ways to reward hard work and achievement, they focus on petty bureaucracy and punishing banal minor deficits. The end result is that self-motivated professional soldiers are driven to other units or back into the civilian world where they have a much higher chance of finding employers who will value and appropriately reward their strengths.
Here’s a challenge for you military unit leaders - find ways to use positive reinforcement. Those of you who spend more time rewarding your troops for the good things they do than punishing them for the minor mistakes will reap the benefits of loyalty and high morale. No one wants to be kicked like a dog for every petty mistake they make. And if that’s your leadership style don’t be surprised when you get snarled at every time you come around.
1 August 27th, 2006 at 2:13 pm
Jim Orosco says:
RE: Vehicle availability
I spent 20 years with the Navy Seabees as a Maintenance Supervisor and Transportation Supervisor. So I think I have a have little insight on this. Too many service members look at GOV’s as a rental car. They check it out and leave it in the transportation yard when they are done. No worries right? Wrong. The Maintenance folks need to know of any problems with the vehicle, filling out a form is little stuff. We have a system just like every one in the military has. Quit bitching and we will all benefit.
2 August 27th, 2006 at 2:51 pm
Trevor says:
Jim,
1) I wasn’t bitching about maintenance forms. I was bitching about leaders who tend to look for minor infractions to punish because they think if no one is being punished their leadership skills are somehow in doubt. Re-read the post. 2) This is my blog. I own the entire thing and I’ll bitch all I want. If you don’t like it, don’t visit. This is my bitching place among other things.
3 August 27th, 2006 at 6:00 pm
SK says:
And a perfectly fine bitch it is! I’ve heard this from others too. From what I’ve pieced together, the problem is that no one set of rules or technique will work for everybody. It’s unfortunate, but the ways that work for many of the really young, quit being effective once you’re around long enough to know your stuff. Then you just resent it! Answers? I have none.
4 August 27th, 2006 at 7:15 pm
Green says:
During my first year of Acitve Duty I had the chance to work for some really outstanding leaders. Reward and forgivness were mainstays and being a lowly Private I responded well to their style. After being PCS’d from that particular unit I had the displeasure of working for some of the people that you describe. I called my old Platoon Sgt and had a conversation with him where I explained that I couldn’t see myself staying in for 20 yrs if this was the norm. He provided a great insight that I have carried with my the rest of my career. He told me that we all gather our leadership styles from 1) our personalities and 2) the examples that are set for us. He asked me what would happen if everyone like him had walked away from the military after a one or two stints? I replyed that everyone would be like the Jackasses I was working for at the time. That’s when he told me what I pass on to everyone else that has similar complaints…”Right, so you know how not to lead…question is, what are you going to do about it?” I took it as a personal challenge to never be like those people and since then have prided myself on taking the misfits that other leaders have given up on and giving them a chance using a style I’ve pieced together from a variety of sources. Without trying to blow my own horn, most the people that I’ve done that with have gone on to win numerous awards, turned into some of the best Soldiers (and in a few cases Sailors), and in some cases have surpassed me in rank. I’ve had my share of crappy leaders and some really great ones too…But I take something away from each one and remind myself that in the end I can only control so much but that if I were to just throw up my hands and walk away I’d be clearing the way for more Jackasses. Trevor, knowing you personally, I’d have to ask that you stick around because as is becoming painfully obvious to you, Jackasses are a dime a dozen but truly intelligent and responsible leaders are becoming more of an anomaly. I understand that not being active duty leaves little room for the kind of mobility that I get but it also gives you the chance to really affect the lives of your peers and subordinates in a way I can not. In the long run everyone must do what is best for them and there is no shame in being selfish. At the same time you need to remember that the military isn’t forever and the abilty to affect someones life for the better is much harder if your not on the field playing the game. Your time in Iraq is almost done. Stay focused and hit me up if you wind up in the DC area. We’ll grab an adult beverage and chat about how you have affected me and the lessons of leadership I learned from you.
5 August 28th, 2006 at 7:47 pm
GunnNutt says:
I’ll second that D.C. offer!!!
6 August 30th, 2006 at 6:21 am
Kitanis says:
I have been in for over 21 in the Active Duty USAF….
I know your pain Trevor about the Form 1800s at the end of the month… I did not know that you guys are required to turn in checklists weekly.. sounds like US Army reduancy to me.. but thats just me. In my own office, our Vehicle Control Officer (an E-5, SSgt) sometimes gets his paperwork into the main VCO on time, sometimes he dose not.. and considers the duty a joke, until the vehicle is impounded or turned in for service.
When I was a young airman.. I was fortunately assigned to a unit that basically treated me the way Trevor stated.. Positive reenforcement for minor descrapancies.. but when needed.. the negative military reenforcement was always there. But then again.. I knew the rules.. I tried to obey those rules to the best of my ability. It was common sense and was very easy to do.. I took a oath and I tried to follow that oath to obey the orders and regulations stated to me.
Advance forward almost 19 years later. I have discovered that the young people who are comming into the military are smart.. bright, and professional. But one thing I have noticed is.. some try to stretch the rules to the limit.
I was amazed when a young troop that I had got extremely mad at me for writitng him a Letter of Reprimand because he was late to work for over a week and half, even after two verbal reprimands, and two letters of counseling that my flight commander insited I give him first. The boy would show up to work up to twenty minutes late and expected to not receive any trouble for it. When I gave him his letter.. he threatened to hit me. After then going through the process of punishement for Article 92 of the USMJ.. He threatened to hit the Flight Commander. In the end it ended up as a summary court martial with the wing commander, and the kid insisted that showing up to work and threatening to hit someone was a non-crime and thats the way his parents and his school taught him (He was from San Francisco). He was discharged with under than honorable conditions because our present wing commander dose not play….
Trevor is right, the military tends to come down hard on minor things.. but sometimes that is the way it has to be. But the situation should evaluated to each punishment.. Not downslap everyone for minor things.
7 September 11th, 2006 at 8:42 am
The Batch says:
I completely agree with the issues you raised up on leadership styles in the military. When I first joined the Corps of Non Commissioned Officers two years ago I made a vow to me and my soldiers that I would never “PT” them, because I do think this is a form of negative reinforcement. To this day I have upheld my word. I often come under scrutiny from my command on my lax leadership style but I always believe that a heart to heart not an article 15 will solve a problem more effectively and gain you more respect. I see my fellow NCO’s screaming at soldiers and “smoking” them for forgetting to sweep at the end of the day. We as a military claim we are trying to recruit an Army of professionals yet we continue to treat men like boys. And I am a firm believer that a soldier’s attitude is a direct result of his work envirement. Great post.