Nobody should be allowed to have a baby until they have first been required to train a chicken.
–Karen Pryor, author of Reaching the Animal Mind and Don’t Shoot the Dog
Positive Reinforcement training starts with a simple principle: reward movement towards the behavior you want and ignore the rest.
Achieving that straightforward aim, however, takes great precision, patience and purpose. Get your approach wrong and you’ve got a hesitant and confused learner at best, a fearful and hostile one at worst. Get it right and you’ve got a resilient, joyous learner and a long-lasting connection between trainer and trainee.
Inquiries for leaders:
- What behaviors do I most want to reinforce and what component steps link to create that behavior?
- How can I reduce training and safety costs?
- How can I keep my people engaged and invested?
Inquiries for educators:
- How can I time and deliver feedback for maximum effect?
- When should I push my students through challenge and when should we return to it later?
- How can I get my students thirsty for more learning?
Inquiries for individuals:
- What behaviors in myself and others do I feed unintentionally?
- How can I get more skillful in making change?
- How can I translate painful feedback into fuel for growth?
Show me sample Positive Reinforcement programs.
Positive Reinforcement TED WORDS Blog Posts:
A Positive-Minded Primer on Punishment and Reinforcement with a Buddhist Twist (Part 1 of 2)
Punishment and 
Reinforcement with a Buddhist Twist (Part 2 of 2)
Don’t Treat My Daughter Like a Dog
Dolphin Training (Part 1 of 2)
Chicken Sexers, Plane Spotters, and the Elegance of TAG Teaching
