Mastering Habits with Incentives and Rewards

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Today we are talking about changing habits.

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what research says about rewards and incentives.

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I’m Dr. Lisa Regal. I am one of the co-founders of Jakapa and I’m

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super excited that you made some time today to join us for our coffee

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chat. What we are going to be talking about today is habits and

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then how to incentivize and reward changing habits.

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first question is why are habits so hard to change?

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And part of the is because the way our brain is set up.

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So our brain is like a giant highway. It has on ramps and off

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ramps and what happens just like a highway.

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If we were going to build a highway in the middle of a field

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it would just be grass. And then if you want to build an off

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ramp you have to start paving your way through that grass and through repetition

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over and over and over again that pathway becomes more and more

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paved and even and easier to to navigate.

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So if you have If you’re on a highway and there’s an exit that

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hasn’t been built yet, it would be pretty hard to come off of it.

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So our brains are like this and through even when we’re young babies that

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initial experience with our parents,

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where we cry and our parents show up and they take care of our

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needs. And then later we learn that when we smile,

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we get lots of positive attention from the adults around us.

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Those early experiences are repeated thousands of times and they created very

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well-worn off-ramp for us.

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When I cry, I get attention. When I want attention and I smile,

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I get positive reinforcement. And so over time,

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those things become well-worn and they become habits.

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Our off-ramps are our habitual responses.

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And while that one’s positive, where you can smile and you get some positive

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feedback, we also develop some really negative off-ramps.

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So you might think about, you know, when I start to feel stressed,

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I get angry. And so, you know, that I’m on the highway,

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I feel stressed. My first exit ramp is I’m angry and maybe I yell

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at people. And then later on, I wish I hadn’t done that because that

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wasn’t the right choice for me. So our offerings that become habitual

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responses, the problem is that those offerings are paved and they’re super smooth and

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they become automatic offerings for us.

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It’s kind of like driving home where you don’t even really remember driving home,

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it’s the same kind of thing. You just automatically,

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that is the response without even thinking.

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So when we change our habits, we need a new exit ramp.

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So there’s several things that have to happen in order for us to build

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that new exit ramp. First of all, we have to have the knowledge to

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decide where to go instead. We have to realize there’s a different option than

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the one we’re using. So for example,

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say that when you get stressed you eat and eventually you decide you want

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to lose weight, you have to find and have knowledge that there are other

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options that will relieve your stress besides eating.

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Then you have to have the self-awareness to drive past that comfortable exit.

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So our first response because it has become automatic and habitual is to

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go grab the hog and dust. So we have to have the self-awareness of

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I don’t want to get off at that exit and I have to drive

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past it to go to the exit that’s more positive or comfortable or aligned

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with what I want to do for myself.

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Then we also have to have the will to be uncomfortable.

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So think about being on a highway again. If you’re driving down the highway

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and you have to use the restroom and you have the habitual response of

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as soon as I am uncomfortable and I have to go the restroom,

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I’m getting off at the next exit and I’m gonna go to the bathroom.

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Well, maybe when you do that, you end up at an exit ramp where

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it’s not safe. And so you get off to go to the restroom and

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you end up mug. Well, now you’re on the highway and you’re like,

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okay, I’m on the same stretch of highway. I have to use the bathroom

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again. I have to be willing to be uncomfortable for the next two miles

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or five miles until I can get to the exit that is a better

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choice for me. And it’s the same way with all kinds of habits.

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We have to understand there’s somewhere else to go.

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We have to know that we have to drive past that comfortable exit.

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And then we have to have the will to be uncomfortable because it’s hard

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to try new things. And the first few times we try it,

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we’re gonna clink around. We’re not gonna be experts at it.

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And so we have to have that will. We also have to have the

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energy to pave the exit ramp. And as we all know when we’re stressed

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out, we’re just tired. We just want to do what we know how to

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do. And we don’t have the mental energy to be doing all that thinking,

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to think about, oh, I want to go here instead,

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and to be strategic about getting off at the right exit,

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and to be able to pave this new exit ramp.

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We also have to have persistence, because as I mentioned before,

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this analogy of the exit ramp, you have to go over and over and

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over and over that in order to make it automatic and to make the

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exit comfortable for you to get off. Otherwise it’s going to be lumpy and

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it’s going to be difficult on you and the car and everything else.

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Finally, you have to have the tenacity to forgive yourself when you revert to

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the old exit using the weight loss example or an eating when you’re

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stressed, you have to forgive yourself because there are going to be times you

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just get off that exit without thinking and you grab the hog and dust

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and then later you feel really guilty about it and you feel like,

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why did I do that? It’s not, I’m just going to give it up.

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And what we have to do is be able to say,

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okay, we made a mistake, I’m going to forgive myself and I’m going to

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continue to push myself to pave this new exit ramp in my mind.

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And then finally, you have to have this support to develop that automaticity.

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And what that support means is that you have people around you who believe

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in you, who encourage you, who recognize when you’re trying to change your habits,

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who give you positive feedback when they see it working successfully.

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And overall, we don’t do very well with changing habits.

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In fact, New Year’s resolutions, they’ve done some research on these and they find

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that 65 percent of people fail to achieve their goals.

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8% of respondents within one month have abandoned their goals.

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22% have abandoned them within two months.

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Another 22 within three months and 13 additional fail within four

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months. So it’s difficult. What we know about resolutions,

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mental health and physical health is the number one resolution and number

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two resolution for the 23 24 year 20% of

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people say they’ll keep themselves accountable and this is kind of noteworthy this was

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from 2024 in 2023 77% of us believe

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that we could keep ourselves accountable and that has cut by two

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thirds. So that’s kind of an interesting thing too is that we’re in a

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time where maybe it’s more difficult with all the stresses around us to stay

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focused and stay on the pathway to regulate our goals and achieve them.

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80% of people believe they will achieve their goals.

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And so that’s kind of another telling story is that 80% believe they will

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achieve them, but 65% fail to achieve their goals.

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So when we think about goal attainment,

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it’s really important that we think about how we set our goals,

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what they look like and how we support ourselves as we’re trying to make

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these changes in behavior. So first of all,

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there’s three types of goals. And when you’re getting started in setting goals,

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or if you’re working with a student or your child or yourself to set

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goals, there’s a linear relationship among these types of goals.

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So, the easiest goals are process goals.

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So, process goals are specific actions or processes.

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So, when I am stressed, I am not eating ice cream.

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When I am stressed, I’m going to go for a walk or I’m going

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to breathe deeply. These are things that we have 100% control over.

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And so, thinking about, like, I’m going to study two hours after dinner every

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day. That’s something that you have complete control over.

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Then you move into performance goals. And performance goals are based on the personal

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standard. So it’s like I’m going to get a 3.5 GPA.

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I’m going to lose 20 pounds. These are mostly controllable,

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but there are things outside of our control. For a grade point average,

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you have to rely on a teacher to give you the grade.

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And so it’s not 100% within your control.

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Finally, the outcome goals, these are based on winning.

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And these are really hard to achieve because they are outside influences play a

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big role in whether or not or successful. So you might say,

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I’m going to land a job this year, I’m going to win a competition.

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You could do everything right and still lose that competition because somebody else beat

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you, or you could be the best candidate that they have,

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but there’s one other person that just has something else that they want and

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they end up selecting that person. So when we start to think about changing

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habits, the first step is to make sure that the goals that we’re setting

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are the ones that we have the most control over.

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So, how to then create a goal and achieve that goal is to say,

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okay, I want something specific. So,

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I want to be clear about what I want to accomplish.

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So, instead of just saying, I’m going to be healthier this year,

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that’s really, really not specific. So,

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you want to say something like, I’m going to go to the gym three

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times a week, or I am going to five days a week eat enough

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protein or, you know, have less than 1500 calories or 2000

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calories or whatever. Those are clear,

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and then they’re also measurable. So when we have clear goals,

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they’re measurable. We can measure whether or not we went to the gym.

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We can measure whether or not we ate what we said we were going

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to eat. The other piece is to be attainable to be realistic.

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Sometimes people set new year’s resolutions that are outlandish and they’re so far away

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from what they can actually achieve that they give up on them because the

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progress is too slow. So,

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you know, again, using the analogy of losing weight or getting healthy because pretty

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much everybody at some point in their life has considered this.

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You know, if I say, I want to lose a hundred pounds.

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A hundred pounds is a lot of weight. So maybe what I do instead

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is have a measurable goal that says, I want to lose 10 pounds a

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month. And that’s realistic within a time frame.

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We also want the goals to be relevant.

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So thinking about what you need and your long-term vision,

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rather than just setting goals to set goals or setting goals that are relevant

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to somebody else and not yourself. And finally,

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you want to make sure you put a time frame on your goals and

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chunk them so that you can celebrate. So maybe you chunk it by month

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or by week. I’m going to go to the gym three times per week.

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Versus, I’m going to go to the gym regularly this month.

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It gives you a specific timeframe with specific measurable so that when you achieve

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that in a month, you can really celebrate yourself.

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So, here are some tips for goal setting that you can use for yourself

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or, you know, people in your family or your students.

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The first is to set those smart goals, and that’s what I just went

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over, specific and measurable and attainable and realistic and timely.

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You want to set your goals in the present tense.

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You also want to set short and long term goals and that helps keep

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you motivated because as you meet the short term goals,

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you can feel good about yourself and you can celebrate and those short term

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goals stack on to a longer term goal that you have.

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You also want to align goals, you know, we can only do so many

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things. And as we mentioned in the beginning of this,

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your brain’s like a highway and it takes a lot of energy and attention

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and work and will and tenacity to achieve a goal.

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And so if you’ve got 15 different goals running or even five different goals

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running. And they’re all disconnected from each other.

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It becomes too much to manage. So if you’re thinking of a long-term goal

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and you’re saying, I want to be healthier, then you can start to break

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down and align some goals around, you know,

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what you do for exercise, what you do for eating,

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what you do for stress control or self care.

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And then now all of those goals are feeding into the same overarching goal.

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The other thing that’s important that we often don’t do is to write down

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your goals and put them somewhere you see them.

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So know, put a sticky note on your mirror so every morning you’re brushing

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your teeth and right there is that goal in front of you reminding you

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this is what I want to do. In Jakapa,

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we have an entire process for this where you can enter your goals each

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week. You can keep the same goals for multiple weeks.

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You can run multiple goals at once if you want,

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but they’re in writing and you’re what am I doing every single day to

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help get to the goal that I have?

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And then you’re logging every day. Did I do what I said I was

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going to do? So it helps to hold you accountable.

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The other thing for goal setting is to share your goals.

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Peer supports really important. And so if you tell the world,

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I’m going to do this. Then again,

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with the weight loss example or the being healthier example,

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if you’ve shared this with all your friends, then they might say,

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You know, instead of saying, hey, let’s get together and go have an ice

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cream cone, they might say, hey, let’s get together and have a cup of

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coffee. They can support you in your goals.

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The other thing you want to do is develop an action plan.

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You want to really think about when am I going to do the action

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each day that’s going to help me achieve my goal?

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How am I going to make this work within the schedule I already have?

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Sometimes we set goals that, you know, it’s just not possible.

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So if you’re working three jobs and or two jobs and,

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you your days are filled from seven in the morning till seven at night.

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It may not be realistic that you’re going to then turn around and go

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to a gym and work out for,

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you know, an hour. It might just not be doable to do that every

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day. You might have to figure out what action plan’s going to work the

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best for you. And maybe even incorporate some of your movement into your daily

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work so that you’re able to kind of double dip.

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You also want to be flexible. Things happen. Life happens.

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One of the reasons people don’t achieve their new year’s goals is because something

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happens and or they fail one day They go it off the wrong exit

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ramp and they go well that’s it. I’m not you know I’m done so

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you might want to be flexible with yourself and say okay There’s some things

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outside of my control that I need to rework my action plan Really really

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important to reward yourself So when you and we’re gonna talk about rewards a

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little bit later of what’s the appropriate weight of reward yourself but you have

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to celebrate the little things and celebrate the milestones and celebrate the efforts you’re

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making and not just whether or not you achieve the actual outcome you wanted.

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And then finally reflect, you know, one of the important things when we built

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Jakapa, one of our big goals is that people become more self-aware,

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that they have data that they can use to develop some insights into patterns

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in their life, patterns in their behavior,

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so that they can develop that self-reflection in that self-awareness.

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And so take time periodically to stop and reflect.

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When am I meeting my goals, are there certain days of the week that

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I’m doing what I’m supposed to do to get to where I want to

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be or there is there a pattern in certain days of the week where

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I’m just not there. And then how can I be flexible to figure out

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how I can incorporate whatever my action steps are that I want to do

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so that I can be successful. So achieving goals starts

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with clarity and if you remember mental health and physical health for the number

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one and number two goals set in 2023,

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2024. So when you’re setting your goals and this kind of gets into that

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specificity asking yourself like what is mental health,

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what is physical health and deciding for yourself,

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what does that mean to you? Maybe mental health means that you don’t

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have any outbursts in a week or that you spend time meditating or

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that you are doing yoga to connect your mind and your body.

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Or maybe mental health is that you’re not taking on more things than you

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can possibly manage and then feeling overwhelmed and stressed all the time.

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Or maybe mental health is a part of finding a work life balance where

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you’re in a job that you enjoy and that you’re able to leave some

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of that at work so that you can go home and be fully engaged

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with your family. Thinking of physical health,

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you know, physical health can mean a lot of different things to a lot

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of different people. Maybe it’s being pain-free.

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I’ve had a few spinal fusions and had lots of problems with my back

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in the past. So for me, physical health,

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you know, the kidneys in the back, it’s in the review mirror for me.

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But it’s not about that, it’s not about how I look,

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it’s about bone density, and it’s about strength and control over my body and

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it’s about reducing pain. So it’s important that when you’re achieving goals,

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you start with clarity. And this is even behavioral goals as well.

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So you want, you know, what is academic success?

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So when you’re working with your child or if you’re working with students,

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you know, what getting straight A’s doesn’t always have to define academic

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success. What does it mean to be a successful learner?

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And spending some time to really think about that.

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and then that way, you can backward map the actions you need to do

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to get there. Incentives and rewards are not about a token economy.

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In a lot of schools today, they use something called positive behavior intervention supports,

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and it becomes a token economy where they identify the expectations for behaviors and

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classrooms or hallways or at the lunch room,

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and then they reward when they see those behaviors happening.

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What happens when you do that is you create a transactional culture where it’s

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about what do I get out of this as opposed to altruistic behavior

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or behavior that is just good behavior because it’s how you interact in a

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community. So you want to be careful with incentives and rewards because it’s not

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just about prizes. They should aim to build motivation and efficacy.

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Efficacy means that you believe that you have what it takes,

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you have the skills in the drive to be able to overcome obstacles and

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achieve. And so there’s four different ways that we actually build efficacy and

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they’re on the screen here. The first is master experience,

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so it’s just getting up that courage to just do it.

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The second is, by carrying this experience,

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it’s watching others do it. So if you are a support person who’s trying

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to help somebody achieve their goal, you doing the action steps that they’re trying

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to do can be really helpful. That’s why,

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again, going back to the work out analogy.

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If you go to the gym and you don’t know what you’re doing,

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you’ve done it, you’ve gone to the gym, but you might leave sort of

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deflated or like I don’t know what I’m doing and it can actually serve

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to decrease your sense of efficacy that you can actually achieve your goal.

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But if you do it with a friend who’s been to the gym before

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and they can show you around and you can watch what they’re doing,

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you start to gain some confidence in your own ability.

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The third area is emotional arousal. Have you ever had one of those moments

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where something really great happened and you just a call somebody and

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yet nobody’s around to talk to you about it and slowly your energy and

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your excitement about something just sort of fades away.

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I have a funny story about emotional arousal.

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I when I got my very first job as a teacher I was so

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excited and these were in the days before cell phones and so I didn’t

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have anybody to call on my cell phones so I stopped at a rest

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area because I had driven to Columbus,

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Ohio and I actually lived up in Africa, Ohio. So I had like a

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two-hour drive home and I was all excited and I didn’t know where to

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put my energy. So I got to this rest area and I,

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you know, called my mom and she wasn’t home and I called my boyfriend

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at the time and he wasn’t home and I called my roommate and she

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wasn’t home and I was just bursting with I needed to tell somebody.

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So there was actually a police officer there and he looked at me,

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he’s like, are you okay? And I’m like, I just have to seven minute

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and he said on a park bench with me and let me tell him

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all about my experience, all about what I did,

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where I was proud about my interview and it was the funniest thing and

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I just still remember like he has to have gone home and then like

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I met a lunatic today who was all excited about this new job that

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she got, but he played a really important role for me because as you

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do something new and you experience something new and you achieve your goals,

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you’re super excited about it and you want to share it with somebody.

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So as we think about celebrating, If there are people in your home or

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in your classroom who are trying to to achieve to change to build those

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new exit ramps in their brain, giving them time to tooth their own horn

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to celebrate to process is really important.

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And then the final piece is peer persuasion.

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This is the idea of, this is how we do it.

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This is what we do. So setting those norms in your home,

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setting those norms in your classroom, putting in routines in place,

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where it just becomes the culture of how we do it.

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When I work with schools, I talk a lot about developing a culture of

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wellness. We oftentimes think of behavior management as we need to control

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behavior. We need to tell people what to do and then give them rewards

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when they do what we tell them. But that’s really about compliance and it’s

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about control. So when you think about actually building efficacy,

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that gives people the sense of I can achieve my goals and gives this

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internal a locust of commitment,

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it’s about what’s the community that we have in this classroom and

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how do we behave in this community? And it changes the whole focus.

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It becomes just this is how we do it. And the peer,

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you know, peer persuasions a nice way of saying peer pressure.

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So as you’re thinking about your goals,

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the first step is to set a reasonable goal and really think about it

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and clarify what your measures of success are.

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And then the second is to think about how do I build motivation and

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efficacy to achieve those goals?

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And motivation is actually a math equation.

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So there’s research talks about motivation through what’s called the expectancy value equation.

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And you can see here expectancy multiplied by value equals motivation.

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And just like in a multiplication problem,

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if either of those are negative,

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then the outcome is negative. So if you have low expectancy and you don’t

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believe you can do it, even if you value what you’re talking about,

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you’re not going to be motivated to do it. Conversely,

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if you know you can do it, you have high expectancy,

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but you don’t value what you’re being asked to do,

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you’re not going to be motivated to do it. And I have two pictures

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on here, because gardening is something that from a value perspective,

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I love, I love a good garden, I love going to a garden show

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and doing the home tours. I think flowers are beautiful,

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but my lived experience, my expectancy is that I basically kill everything that

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plant and I kill everything that’s a house plant.

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So I do not believe I will be successful.

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So instead of figuring out how to raise that expectancy,

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I bring down the value. And I basically say,

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eh, perennial gardens fine and I’ll get some artificial plants if I want some

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greens in my house. So I’m not motivated.

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Conversely, the running example, can I run?

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Sure, I can put one foot in front of the other,

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but do I value running? I don’t value it because it hurts.

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And because there’s other things that I can do and with the the back

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issues that I’ve had running is just not my friend.

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And so I’m not motivated to do it even though I can do it.

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So when you think about this in regard to students,

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you know, what are they motivated to do?

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Well, they’re motivated to play video games. They’re motivated to play sports.

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They’re motivated to do their interest because they have value in them.

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And I like the video game example, gaming theory is based

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motivation theory. So if you’re playing a video game,

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do you expect to do well? Well, of course you do,

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because a game designer isn’t going to design a game where you get stuck

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on a level and you can’t ever move up to the next level.

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So for example, if you have to build a castle in a level,

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it’s not going to let you get to that level until you have all

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the tools and the materials and supplies from the level’s prior that you need.

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And if you get stuck, you’ll have a hint pop up or you’ll have

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a magical creature jump out of the woods and tell you,

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you know, some ideas I’m where to go. So it doesn’t leave you hanging.

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Because of a video game had us playing and there was no way to

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win and we got stuck. What would we do?

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We would stop playing. On the flip side,

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video games also have all kinds of things to help build value.

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Not only do, you know, kids just value video games,

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but they also have like a shop and you can earn points and badges,

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you can go into the shop and buy fake clothes for your avatar and

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you can level up, you can get new avatar,

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so there’s all kinds of things built into the system so that you value

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it. So think about things in your home or your classroom that you want

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to motivate your children or your students to do.

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Do they believe they can do it or do they come from a lived

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experience of not succeeding,

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so know in a classroom setting or in an academic lens,

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you know, do they have the knowledge they need to learn what you’re trying

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to teach them? You know, you can’t learn addition if you don’t understand quantities

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and which group of set of things is bigger than the other.

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So expectancy really gets into kind of that differentiation of meeting people where they

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are and understanding what they’re capable of doing and what they need support to

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do. The second is that value piece value can come through

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extrinsic rewards and prizes,

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but it can also come through positive reinforcement and positive feedback.

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So I’m not proposing that we do everything like a video game.

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This example is essentially to show you people love video games and our our

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kids today and adult spend to tremendous amount of time playing them.

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The reason they’re so motivating and adapting is because they leverage this equation

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of motivation. So if we think of taking this equation and figuring out how

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to apply it in other areas of our life,

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we have a much better chance of achieving our goals.

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So we’re motivated to do a goal and we attend to,

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can I do it and do I want to do it and why?

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And if we get both of those in the positive,

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then we’re going to have motivation to stick to it.

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So feedback builds motivation when you think about expectancy,

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a couple tips for feedback is to make sure that you’re praising the effort

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over the innate qualities. If we say to somebody,

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you know, oh, you’re such a good math student.

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Look at that. You know how to do math. You’re so good.

439
00:25:56,280 –> 00:26:00,240
They don’t know that they can do math. And so that feedback is actually

440
00:26:00,241 –> 00:26:03,900
demotivating because it sets doubt in their expectancy.

441
00:26:04,320 –> 00:26:06,080
Like they’re like, gosh, I did it this time, but I don’t know what

442
00:26:06,081 –> 00:26:10,180
I did. So if you focus on the effort or the process over the

443
00:26:10,181 –> 00:26:12,400
product, then you’re going to build expectancy.

444
00:26:13,180 –> 00:26:17,140
So a couple of examples, like this time better than last time because you

445
00:26:17,141 –> 00:26:21,160
practiced your math facts every day. Or this time was better than last time

446
00:26:21,161 –> 00:26:25,880
because you stopped yourself from eating the ice cream and instead

447
00:26:25,881 –> 00:26:29,240
did 10 push-ups while you thought about whether or not you really wanted the

448
00:26:29,241 –> 00:26:31,380
ice cream and that stopped you from eating it.

449
00:26:31,620 –> 00:26:34,540
So you’re giving people learning about how they learn.

450
00:26:34,580 –> 00:26:39,200
You’re giving them feedback about how they stay successful versus just

451
00:26:39,201 –> 00:26:42,900
saying you’re great at it. The other piece is the value.

452
00:26:42,901 –> 00:26:46,660
So, you know, asking people, what happened when you,

453
00:26:46,661 –> 00:26:50,940
you know, waited your turn? What happened when you finished all your homework for

454
00:26:50,941 –> 00:26:53,020
the week? How did you feel when you,

455
00:26:53,021 –> 00:26:55,440
when you got the A on that assignment? So,

456
00:26:55,460 –> 00:26:58,960
connecting behaviors to feelings and being able to establish,

457
00:26:59,400 –> 00:27:03,440
you know, here’s the impact of all these efforts that you’re making will build

458
00:27:03,441 –> 00:27:07,780
that value. And I’ll give you an example of where feedback can really demotivate

459
00:27:07,781 –> 00:27:10,680
somebody. You know, if you’re a classroom teacher,

460
00:27:11,200 –> 00:27:15,300
imagine I come into your classroom and I watch you teach and at the

461
00:27:15,301 –> 00:27:18,200
end of the lesson, I come up to you and I’m like,

462
00:27:18,340 –> 00:27:23,120
that was amazing. You were the most amazing teacher ever and I’m bringing the

463
00:27:23,121 –> 00:27:25,500
Department of Education here tomorrow to watch you.

464
00:27:25,940 –> 00:27:29,320
You would be terrified because you don’t know what you did that was great.

465
00:27:29,480 –> 00:27:31,160
So you would be like, I don’t know what I did. I’m just going

466
00:27:31,161 –> 00:27:34,300
to repeat the whole lesson again. As opposed to me saying,

467
00:27:34,620 –> 00:27:37,440
hey, I loved your classroom. Thank you for letting me come.

468
00:27:37,441 –> 00:27:41,960
I loved watching how the students transitioned when you transition students

469
00:27:41,961 –> 00:27:45,820
from group work to whole group work. They were all on task right away.

470
00:27:45,880 –> 00:27:49,180
You’re giving them specificity in what you’re looking at.

471
00:27:49,560 –> 00:27:52,740
The other thing when you think about praising the effort,

472
00:27:52,860 –> 00:27:55,840
you want that to be concrete, what you actually observed,

473
00:27:56,400 –> 00:27:58,720
not generalize. So for example,

474
00:27:58,860 –> 00:28:02,780
as a parent, imagine if something goes well with your child and I come

475
00:28:02,781 –> 00:28:05,460
up and say, I knew you could be a great parent if you just

476
00:28:05,461 –> 00:28:07,860
tried. You would be so insulted,

477
00:28:08,420 –> 00:28:11,980
as opposed to me saying, oh my gosh, that was such a great parenting

478
00:28:11,981 –> 00:28:16,600
practice that you just used because I watched you give direction to your child

479
00:28:16,601 –> 00:28:18,780
and I watched your child try it a couple times,

480
00:28:19,220 –> 00:28:21,280
get some feedback from you and then succeed.

481
00:28:21,800 –> 00:28:25,180
Now you know what I’m praising. So as you’re thinking about feedback,

482
00:28:25,480 –> 00:28:28,120
not all feedback is actually designed equally.

483
00:28:28,520 –> 00:28:32,340
You really want to think about how you’re focusing on people’s efforts in a

484
00:28:32,341 –> 00:28:36,980
specific way, rather than just who they are as people because that’s something they

485
00:28:36,981 –> 00:28:41,760
can’t control. And you also want to establish what’s the impact of positive choices

486
00:28:41,761 –> 00:28:45,440
that they’re making so that they can build that value of like,

487
00:28:45,460 –> 00:28:48,640
this is actually worth my time. If I don’t know how to do it,

488
00:28:48,641 –> 00:28:50,720
it’s worth my time to learn how to do it.

489
00:28:50,860 –> 00:28:54,960
And if I have been doing it well, it’s worth my time because my

490
00:28:54,961 –> 00:28:58,540
value has increased and it made a difference for me.

491
00:28:59,480 –> 00:29:01,640
A note on rewards and incentives. In fact,

492
00:29:01,960 –> 00:29:04,280
the the Nobel Peace Prize I don’t know, at this point,

493
00:29:04,300 –> 00:29:09,160
probably eight, nine years ago was one by an economist who studied rewards

494
00:29:09,161 –> 00:29:11,260
and incentives across society,

495
00:29:11,420 –> 00:29:16,260
not just with kids, but with everybody. And the overarching finding from his

496
00:29:16,261 –> 00:29:20,320
research was a new behavior that’s an effort to do,

497
00:29:20,740 –> 00:29:25,420
an extrinsic reward, like a prize or a reward or

498
00:29:25,421 –> 00:29:29,660
something you give yourself, can have a big impact on our ability to stick

499
00:29:29,661 –> 00:29:33,000
to it. So, you know, going back to the goal of I’m going to

500
00:29:33,001 –> 00:29:35,340
go to the gym more often, you know, saying,

501
00:29:35,540 –> 00:29:37,760
okay, if I go to the gym three times this week,

502
00:29:37,920 –> 00:29:40,120
I’m going to buy myself a new pair of shoes.

503
00:29:40,560 –> 00:29:44,780
That can work really, really well when you are trying to learn a new

504
00:29:44,781 –> 00:29:49,720
behavior. If it’s a behavior, you already value and that you’re already doing

505
00:29:49,721 –> 00:29:52,880
or trying to do. It’s an intrinsic motivation,

506
00:29:53,780 –> 00:29:55,860
then you shouldn’t reward those behaviors.

507
00:29:55,861 –> 00:29:59,160
And what we see a lot of times in schools is they set up

508
00:29:59,161 –> 00:30:03,800
these positive behavior intervention support plans with these token economies and

509
00:30:03,801 –> 00:30:05,940
they might say, everybody here is going to,

510
00:30:05,941 –> 00:30:08,960
you know, our expectation as we show respect to each other.

511
00:30:09,380 –> 00:30:12,600
Well, maybe a lot of those children that come to you already intrinsically are

512
00:30:12,601 –> 00:30:16,840
respectful people because they’ve been taught that and it’s been reinforced in their home

513
00:30:16,841 –> 00:30:19,300
and early on, they were already rewarded for it.

514
00:30:19,540 –> 00:30:21,960
If you start to reward them for that behavior,

515
00:30:22,340 –> 00:30:26,880
they will actually stop doing that behavior unless they get the reward.

516
00:30:28,360 –> 00:30:30,680
So when we’re learning a new behavior,

517
00:30:31,060 –> 00:30:33,340
those external rewards are really important.

518
00:30:33,820 –> 00:30:36,560
And we must explicitly teach those expectations.

519
00:30:37,300 –> 00:30:40,600
So for example, I have the dog that cute little dog on this screen,

520
00:30:40,780 –> 00:30:43,800
when we get a puppy and we want to teach the puppy how to

521
00:30:43,801 –> 00:30:47,580
sit. We say sit and the puppy stares at us like we’re a Martian.

522
00:30:48,640 –> 00:30:50,840
We don’t kick the puppy, we don’t insult the puppy,

523
00:30:50,920 –> 00:30:55,060
we don’t punish the puppy. Instead, we wait until we see the puppy doing

524
00:30:55,061 –> 00:30:59,460
that behavior and then we reward it and we name it and the naming

525
00:30:59,461 –> 00:31:03,280
of it is super important because again when we’re thinking about achieving a goal

526
00:31:03,281 –> 00:31:07,760
so maybe your goal is I want to be more respectful but the reality

527
00:31:07,761 –> 00:31:11,820
is what is respectful so it goes back to that slide like what is

528
00:31:11,821 –> 00:31:16,360
physical health what is academic achievement what is you know defining that

529
00:31:16,361 –> 00:31:20,980
for yourself so when the dog sits down you say sit and

530
00:31:20,981 –> 00:31:23,820
you give them the reward and that teaches their brain,

531
00:31:24,180 –> 00:31:27,100
that highway in their brain, when I sit down,

532
00:31:27,380 –> 00:31:29,940
it is called sit, and then good things happen.

533
00:31:30,320 –> 00:31:33,300
And it starts to build that pathway.

534
00:31:33,600 –> 00:31:35,620
And when you think about a dog, you know,

535
00:31:35,780 –> 00:31:39,040
when they’re first learning a trick, you give them treats all the time,

536
00:31:39,060 –> 00:31:41,920
because you want positive positive positive reinforcement.

537
00:31:42,480 –> 00:31:44,760
Eventually, when you have a dog and you say sit down,

538
00:31:44,761 –> 00:31:48,300
you don’t treat them anymore, because they already know to sit down,

539
00:31:48,301 –> 00:31:50,920
and they get, they’ve had enough positive reinforcement.

540
00:31:51,260 –> 00:31:53,900
It’s just intrinsic. They know they’re going to sit down and please their owner

541
00:31:53,901 –> 00:31:58,500
when they follow commands. So we can take a lesson from this behaviorism

542
00:31:58,501 –> 00:32:02,260
because we are all animals and we all behave in the same kind of

543
00:32:02,261 –> 00:32:04,560
ways. We look for rewards,

544
00:32:04,800 –> 00:32:08,120
we name our behaviors and then we reinforce them.

545
00:32:08,860 –> 00:32:11,000
When we give incorrect rewards,

546
00:32:11,300 –> 00:32:14,100
part of the problem is it actually decreases our motivation.

547
00:32:14,820 –> 00:32:19,640
So rewarding behaviors we already do and already value destroys that

548
00:32:19,641 –> 00:32:23,840
motivation. And I’ll give you an example. About 10 years ago,

549
00:32:24,220 –> 00:32:28,960
the National Government funded a project in Ohio called the Teacher and Senate

550
00:32:28,961 –> 00:32:33,940
Fund. This project was designed to challenge the current way that we pay teachers.

551
00:32:34,460 –> 00:32:38,300
So right now you get paid based on years of experience and education level.

552
00:32:38,320 –> 00:32:42,860
And they wanted to create new strategic compensation models that would reward

553
00:32:42,861 –> 00:32:47,440
teachers differently so that your superstar teachers could potentially get a

554
00:32:47,441 –> 00:32:50,460
raise or a bonus that we would reward them for their outcomes.

555
00:32:51,240 –> 00:32:55,260
So I was on this project and we went through this research on incentives

556
00:32:55,261 –> 00:32:57,820
and rewards and we challenged the schools.

557
00:32:57,960 –> 00:33:02,320
We said, please don’t reward people for what they already do because it’s good

558
00:33:02,321 –> 00:33:06,260
for kids. And some schools listened to us and some schools didn’t.

559
00:33:06,300 –> 00:33:09,820
The schools that didn’t when the grant dried up which we knew it was

560
00:33:09,821 –> 00:33:14,260
going to and then they started asking teachers to do things that they had

561
00:33:14,261 –> 00:33:17,860
been doing for years. Like, you know, maybe a teacher ran a club with

562
00:33:17,861 –> 00:33:21,200
some kids because, you know, I like to knit so I’m going to do

563
00:33:21,201 –> 00:33:23,720
a knitting club and let the kids come in and learn how to knit.

564
00:33:23,860 –> 00:33:26,040
They just did it because it was good for kids and it was fun

565
00:33:26,041 –> 00:33:29,940
and it was something they already valued. What happened then was when they had

566
00:33:29,941 –> 00:33:34,080
been rewarded for that behavior. After the money dried up and they said,

567
00:33:34,260 –> 00:33:37,520
well, you need to do your knitting club. They not only would not do

568
00:33:37,521 –> 00:33:40,800
it but they were furious that they were being asked to do these things

569
00:33:40,801 –> 00:33:45,560
without compensation. And so we had given an extrinsic reward for

570
00:33:45,561 –> 00:33:48,120
an intrinsic behavior. So,

571
00:33:48,280 –> 00:33:52,380
as you’re trying to change behaviors, be very careful about how you are structuring

572
00:33:52,381 –> 00:33:55,760
your rewards and incentives. correct rewards,

573
00:33:55,980 –> 00:34:00,640
we’ll destroy altruistic behavior. We end up in a transactional culture where it’s,

574
00:34:00,720 –> 00:34:03,580
well, I’m doing this for me, what do I get if I do it?

575
00:34:03,581 –> 00:34:07,560
And it creates a me-centered culture. And most of the schools that,

576
00:34:07,561 –> 00:34:11,400
you know, I work with have what’s called portrait of graduates and they are

577
00:34:11,401 –> 00:34:15,940
really looking at, you know, these characteristics of students that they want to develop

578
00:34:15,941 –> 00:34:19,040
beyond academic and technical certifications.

579
00:34:19,480 –> 00:34:24,260
Home school parents are about developing their children into functioning adults

580
00:34:24,261 –> 00:34:28,160
that are, you know, community-minded and family-minded.

581
00:34:28,620 –> 00:34:33,120
And if we start to create a reward system where we’re rewarding them for

582
00:34:33,121 –> 00:34:36,060
behaviors that are just part of our peer persuasion,

583
00:34:36,061 –> 00:34:39,200
part of how we do business and our family or in our classroom,

584
00:34:40,000 –> 00:34:43,880
we end up with a me-centered culture. And I’ve actually talked to a lot

585
00:34:43,881 –> 00:34:47,040
of teachers who have had been using these token economies,

586
00:34:47,460 –> 00:34:49,880
and they’re like, I can’t get these kids to do anything. If I want

587
00:34:49,881 –> 00:34:52,180
them to push their chairs in, they look at me like,

588
00:34:52,181 –> 00:34:54,720
what are you giving me? Or I don’t want them to run in the

589
00:34:54,721 –> 00:34:58,440
hall. And so they lose the fact that these are just things that I

590
00:34:58,441 –> 00:35:01,440
should be doing, and instead everything becomes,

591
00:35:01,580 –> 00:35:04,300
what do I get for it? So,

592
00:35:04,301 –> 00:35:08,860
some conclusions and takeaways from today is that behavior change is hard.

593
00:35:09,140 –> 00:35:13,560
It is hard. An automaticity of behavior takes repetition and time.

594
00:35:13,640 –> 00:35:17,560
It takes paving those exit ramps over and over and over again,

595
00:35:17,960 –> 00:35:22,500
and finding that clarity and tenacity and support to help you build new

596
00:35:22,501 –> 00:35:25,720
pathways. And all goals are not created equally.

597
00:35:26,040 –> 00:35:28,420
We want to make sure that we’re creating smart goals,

598
00:35:28,720 –> 00:35:33,300
that we’re creating goals that specific and measurable and attainable and realistic

599
00:35:33,301 –> 00:35:37,160
for us. We want to leverage that motivation equation,

600
00:35:37,660 –> 00:35:40,560
which basically says, can I do it and do I want to do it?

601
00:35:40,900 –> 00:35:43,800
So if we’ve set a goal, we probably want to do it,

602
00:35:44,040 –> 00:35:46,100
but then maybe we don’t know how to do it.

603
00:35:46,200 –> 00:35:49,160
So then our expectancy goes down and we lose motivation.

604
00:35:50,100 –> 00:35:52,120
So sometimes we set goals that,

605
00:35:52,121 –> 00:35:54,900
you know, other people set for us that we’re not really all that bought

606
00:35:54,901 –> 00:35:58,060
into. And so at that point, we can do those behaviors,

607
00:35:58,061 –> 00:36:00,140
but we don’t want to. And so then again,

608
00:36:00,240 –> 00:36:04,840
we don’t attain our goals. We also want to support goal attainment by

609
00:36:04,841 –> 00:36:06,920
building that efficacy. So,

610
00:36:06,921 –> 00:36:09,840
you know, just do it, force ourselves to do it,

611
00:36:10,080 –> 00:36:13,360
have a peer partner or somebody that you can watch who does it so

612
00:36:13,361 –> 00:36:15,840
that you understand what it means,

613
00:36:16,000 –> 00:36:20,360
that you understand what actual actions will lead you to your goal.

614
00:36:20,620 –> 00:36:22,800
We want to give some support,

615
00:36:22,880 –> 00:36:27,100
some peer support in regard to celebrating so that when we have that emotional

616
00:36:27,101 –> 00:36:31,640
and we’re really proud of ourselves that we’re giving space for our friends and

617
00:36:31,641 –> 00:36:35,300
family or our students to do their horn and say,

618
00:36:35,600 –> 00:36:38,300
hey, I did this and I’m really proud of myself and maybe it wasn’t

619
00:36:38,301 –> 00:36:43,060
perfect but it was the first step. We also want to reward new behaviors

620
00:36:43,061 –> 00:36:47,960
externally and reward existing behaviors with feedback that’s

621
00:36:47,961 –> 00:36:50,840
positive and not with external rewards.

622
00:36:51,540 –> 00:36:55,760
We want to frame feedback about the effort and not a person’s attribute.

623
00:36:56,280 –> 00:37:00,480
And finally, just want some patience and some clarity and some stickiness.

624
00:37:01,000 –> 00:37:03,360
So those are the conclusions and takeaways today.

625
00:37:03,920 –> 00:37:06,800
If you have questions, you can put them in the chat box.

626
00:37:06,980 –> 00:37:10,340
You can always reach out to me at lisa@jakapa.com.

627
00:37:10,440 –> 00:37:14,100
If you have any questions or you want to run through what you’re trying

628
00:37:14,101 –> 00:37:16,820
to do for your family, for yourself,

629
00:37:17,520 –> 00:37:21,120
for the students that you work with, and I’m always happy to help.

630
00:37:21,121 –> 00:37:24,380
So have a great day and enjoy your long weekend.