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Reinforcement and

Corrective Action

Reinforcement

Richard Jackman, a prominent lecturer and management consultant,
told a humorous story once that illustrates the power of reward systems in
influencing personal actions:

I was watching my dad farm, and I was helping him farm, in the late ‘30s
or early ‘40s, and we were not farming very well. In fact, we were about
ready to fold up farming until the government came along with a very
timely program which they announced, to pay us for not farming.
Now, right away, that captured our attention. And, the first phase of
that program was to pay us for not raising hogs. Now, we looked at that
and we said, we can handle that. And, so, we assessed our capabilities,
and we made a determination that in that first year that we could not raise
200 hogs. And, so we did this, and we did it well, so well, that at the end
of the first year the government sent us a check of $4,000.
Now, in the second year, based on this accelerated learning curve,
we decided to expand. It was time to grow. And, we made a commitment
not to raise 400 hogs. But, you know, that never did work out too well.

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