Shaping behaviors - talk for Agile-Carolinas, June 10, 2010 by Catherine Louis

1. Shaping behaviors
prepared for Agile-Carolinas, June 10 2010
Prepared by Catherine Louis
cll@cll-group.com
catherinelouis - twitter
http://www.linkedin/in/catherinelouis - linkedin
(919) 244-1888
Attributions: Pavlov, B.F. Skinner, C. Lloyd Morgan
Wednesday, June 9, 2010

2. Agenda
• Introductions
• Why studying behavior matters: a short story
• Traits you want to see in leaders
– Exercise
• Morgan’s Cannon
• Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning
– Exercise
• Skinner’s Operant Conditioning
– Exercise: GREAT leader!
– Exercise: TERRIBLE leader!
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3. Catherine Louis
• Specialty: Agile transitions in the scope of large, multi-nodal solutions, high-reliability
systems, with large teams of several hundred to several thousand R&D employees.
• Client companies include large power and telecommunication firms, spanning both
hardware and software development.
• Product Owner of the Agile Transition at Nortel: enabling the transition of over 2,200
developers from a waterfall methodology to Agile/Scrum.
• Over 20 years of software development experience in complex product development
• Focus on Agile methods; Agile R&D; Strategic Planning
• Agile Transitions communications: enabling change to build speed, flexibility in business
• Extensive operations and business development experience in technical marketplaces
• Volunteer: 8 years as SAR II and K9 handler with Wake Canine Search and Rescue
– find me on linkedin at http://www.linkedin/in/catherinelouis
– find me on twitter at catherinelouis
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4. Wednesday, June 9, 2010

5. What I want in a leader -
lets improve on this:
• career counseling, mentoring
• trade-off decisions (when a decision one way
affects the product or business in another)
• architectural decisions
• resolving impediments
• business vision
• Information to ignore, to heed
*If this is hard, pretend you have just started in a new company. 5
Wednesday, June 9, 2010

6. Morgan’s Canon:
“In no case is an animal activity to be interpreted
in terms of higher psychological processes, if it
can be fairly interpreted in terms of processes
which stand lower in the scale of psychological
evolution and development.”
- C. Lloyd Morgan, British psychologist -1890
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7. Examples
“My dog walks around the kitchen at 6:15pm each day to
tell me it is dinner time!”
“My dog pushes his bowl around the kitchen when wants
more food!” (caution...fat dog...)
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8. Classical Conditioning: Ivan Pavlov
• Classical conditioning forms an association between two
stimuli:
• Pavlov noticed that, rather than simply salivating in the
presence of meat powder (an innate response to food
that he called the unconditioned response), the dogs
began to salivate in the presence of the lab technician
who normally fed them.
• Pavlov called these “psychic secretions.”
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9. Examples of neutral stimuli
“My dog always knows when I am going for a drive!”
In reality your K9 is being triggered by a neutral stimuli:
• Grab your keys
• Look for your shoes
• Fill up your water
• Run to the restroom
• Tie your shoes
• Take a deep breath (changing gears)
• Holler at someone your intent “Hey do we need anything at the
store?”
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10. 5 minute Exercise!
• At your tables:
– Discuss and list examples of Morgan’s Canon in your
workplace. (Any leadership examples?)
– Discuss and list examples of Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning
in your workplace. (Any leadership examples?)
Note: these examples can be from the past, present, or
perhaps something that you’re wondering about and want to
discuss.
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11. Operant Conditioning*:
• Forms an association between behavior and
consequence.
• Model assumes four possible consequences of
behavior:
– Something Good can start or be presented;
– Something Good can end or be taken away;
– Something Bad can start or be presented;
– Something Bad can end or be taken away.
* B. F. Skinner (1904-1990)
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12. Technical terms:
• "an event started" or "an item presented" is positive, as
it's something that's added
• "an event ended" or "an item taken away" is negative, as
it's something that's subtracted.
• Anything that increases a behavior - makes it more likely
to occur - is termed a reinforcer.
• Anything that decreases a behavior - makes it less likely
to occur - is termed a punisher.
• Caution: positive in this context does not mean “good”.
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13. Applying terms to the Consequence
• Something Good can start or be presented, so behavior
increases = Positive Reinforcement (R+)
• Something Good can end or be taken away, so behavior
decreases = Negative Punishment (P-)
• Something Bad can start or be presented, so behavior
decreases = Positive Punishment (P+)
• Something Bad can end or be taken away, so behavior
increases = Negative Reinforcement (R-)
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14. Examples:
Reinforced (behavior Punished (behavior
increases) decreases)
Positive (you’ve added “positive reinforcement” “positive punishment”
something)
Lever in Skinner box Arms akimbo, staring at
manipulated to receive a k9.
food
Negative (you’ve “negative reinforcement” “negative punishment”
removed something)
Lever in Skinner box to Remove the cell phone
remove loud noise after the $400 bill was
received..
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15. 10 minute Exercise!
• At your tables, jot down behaviors of GREAT LEADERS on
sticky notes.
• Plot in the 4 quadrants, debrief
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16. If time permits...
• At your tables, jot down behaviors of TERRIBLE LEADERS
on sticky notes.
• Plot in the 4 quadrants, debrief
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17. THANK YOU!!!
Catherine Louis - cll@cll-group.com
catherinelouis - twitter
http://www.linkedin/in/catherinelouis - linkedin
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