In a previous life I spent an inordinate amount of time training retrievers for field trial work.  I love training dogs.  It is both a rewarding and relaxing experience for me.  Having worked with dogs for 30 years, I know that to teach them anything you have to “shape” their behavior.  What do I mean by that?  It means you reward what you like (what you want to have happen) and you ignore (or sometimes even punish) behavior that is not what you’re looking for.

The fastest way to do that is to watch for the dog to do something that is sort of what you’re looking for and reward him.  He goes, “Wow!  That’s cool.  I do this, I get rewarded.”  And so he does it again.  Only this time, he has to be just a little closer to what you want to get the reward.  The dog says, “Oh, I see.  You want this, not that.”  And so it goes until the dog is doing exactly what you want, at which time you can begin to phase out the reward for that thing and start working on something else.

So what does that have to do with business?  We’re not training dogs here, but we are training people.  Every day we have to get customers, employees, vendors, etc. to do what we’d like them to do.  We do that in business by making it easy to do what we want, and more difficult to do what we don’t want.

Let me give you en example.  I ordered a DVD from a company about two weeks ago.  They sent me a confirmation that they’d gotten my order.  When I noticed they hadn’t yet hit my credit card, I went to find out why.  On the website, they have a place to send an email, or a phone number if you want to call.  Being one who hates phone trees, I decided it would be just as fast to email.  I sent the question and waited for a reply.  That was three days ago, and still no reply.

Now what would you predict I’m going to do now?  That’s right.  I’m going to call.  There’s no question it’s more efficient for the company to respond via email than to do so via phone.  It is cheaper, more efficient and in their best interest in every way to have me email.  But what do you think I’ll do next time?  Of course.  They’ve shaped my behavior.  I know the most efficient way for me is to call.  I don’t care that it costs them more.  I just want to be helped and they’ve taught me that calling will get me what I need the fastest with this company.

I guess it’s like bringing my wife flowers.  She’s shaped my behavior well on that one.  The first time I showed up with flowers she made a big deal out of it and gave me a big hug and told me I was the best, etc.  I liked that.  It wasn’t long before I brought flowers again to get the same treatment.  I know my wife will tell me I’m the best whenever I bring flowers, so I do it all the time.  That behavior is well ingrained in me now.  And why not?  We both get what we want and we’re both happier for her having shaped my behavior.  I know what she wants and when I do that for her, she gives me what I want.  Win / win.  Everyone gets what they want.

In effect, we’re all shaping behavior (for better or worse) in every thing we do.  We’re doing it with our spouse and children, with our employer, with our customers, with our vendors, with our friends — everything, everyone, everywhere.  We tend to think our actions occur in a vacuum.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  Every action, every decision, everything we do has far reaching consequences if we stop and think about it.

Think about how what you do shapes the behavior (in some small way) of those around you.  Are you getting what you want?  If not, chances are you’re rewarding the wrong behavior and ignoring the right behavior.  Take some time today to think about shaping behavior and you’ll see there are opportunities you never knew existed.