One of the most frustrating things practitioners experience is when we spend the time to train a staff member or a parent to implement procedures, and the person simply doesn’t do it when we aren’t there.
“I don’t understand why they aren’t doing it! Don’t they care at all?”
Our first reaction is often to get angry, blame the staff person or the parent, and resort to name calling (e.g., they are just so lazy). Of course, as BCBAs we know this is foolish. There are a whole variety of reasons why the staff member or parent won’t implement your procedure. Maybe the person doesn’t fully understand. Maybe they don’t have the tools needed. Maybe they don’t realize they are doing it incorrectly. Lots of possibilities. Our first step should be to analyze the problem methodically. There are several ways of doing this. I like this one. But there are others that are fine too.
In my experience though, even behavior analysts that use a systematic tool to analyze this type of problem are likely to overlook one major cause of why parents or staff might ignore what you are training them to do. Could it be that your suggested procedure sucks? A procedure might be lousy because it isn’t producing effective behavior changes, or is simply impractical in a particular situation.
One of the most underrated skills in management is selecting the right behavior changes to focus on with your staff. If you are training someone to implement a behavior plan, it better be both practical and reducing the behavior problem significantly. If not, there is virtually no chance the person will continue doing it. The aversive natural consequences of dealing with the problem behavior will be impossible to ignore. Staff might even pretend that they are going to implement your plan, especially if they are afraid to tell you the truth.
There is a strong tendency to ignore the possibility that the plan stinks, and instead assume the staff or parent isn’t implementing due to laziness or inability. When someone isn’t performing to our expectations, we sometimes go down the rabbit hole of behavior modification. Did I set clear expectations? Did I give feedback on performance? Did I provide reinforcement for good behavior? Sure, use your best performance management interventions. Just realize that it is not going to work if you don’t have a good plan in the first place. Often, that is the last thing we consider. In my view, it should be the first.