Behavior Analysts: Get Out of the Skinner Box and Into Your Niche

In 2003, I was the lead therapist at an alternative school in Broward. As an MSW, my focus was supposed to be on improving the mental health of the students I served; however, I always gravitated towards improving their behavior as I found it to be the best evidence of mental health improvement, or lack thereof. I also found a negative correlation between improved behavior and bad thoughts and feelings. In other words, in many cases as students performed better at school and experienced better outcomes, their reports related to anxiety, depression, or a variety of other bad thoughts and feelings decreased. 

One day, somebody came to me and said “hey, I heard if you take this class and get a certification, you can pick up some side work making $35 an hour.” Well, given that I had a house, a car, a wife, and a child on the way...and I was pretty broke...that sounded damn good! So, I registered for the course, purchased the material, and headed off to what I thought would be just like many of the other certification courses I’d participated in…where a certificate was a foregone conclusion, as long as you showed up. 

Behavior Science Makes Sense

Boy was I wrong. My first exposure to behavior analysis was an "Aha!" experience, as I quickly realized I  now had a conceptual framework that explained how I had been approaching things all my life. I quickly found the strategies, methods, and procedures I gravitated toward had names and a scientific basis. The basic principles just made intuitive sense to me, and I know there are others of you out there like me. In the 1996 article titled Translating the Covenant: The Behavior Analyst as Ambassador and Translator, Dr. Richard Foxx called people like us “natural behavior analyst” as our approach feels almost instinctual or intuitive when problem solving and decision making. Now, I’m not saying we forego data for intuition. It’s just many things just seemed to make sense and the coursework filled in the gaps. 

Since that time, I’ve been fortunate enough to use the science to help turnaround failing schools and develop championship fighters, areas of focus that are atypical to the field given that most behavior analysts work with children and adults with disabilities. And thank goodness they do, because what would these folks and their families do with out behavior analysis! But for me, I found my niche as a coach and disseminator.  I’ve always been passionate about helping people. That’s why I went into social work. And given that I was armed with the most powerful toolbox in the world for improving performance and helping people reach desired outcomes, I felt I couldn’t go wrong.    

The Greatest Toolbox

Recently, more and more behavior analysts ask me “how did you think outside of the box to find your niche. I’d like to do something different with the science too.” Well folks, the fact is, I didn’t know there was a box. Honestly! Given that I was in the mental health field, I was not surrounded by behavior analysts. And when I started working as a behavior analyst in 2006, I thought everybody was using behavior analysis everywhere, and I was just behind the times so to speak. One day when I was at a school struggling to help get their Schoolwide Positive Behavior Support Program off the ground, I said to a colleague, “I wish they had something like PBS for adults. It seems that we need to help change their behavior if we are going to change the behavior of the students.” She responded, “There is, and it’s called Organizational Behavior Management.” The rest is history as I began reading books like Bringing Out the Best in People by Aubrey Daniels and started applying some of the basic strategies that I found were already in my existing toolbox. They worked, which reinforced my behavior. I then started applying some of the basic principles and procedures in MMA. They worked, and that also reinforced my behavior and further strengthened my belief in the science.

But coming back to the original point, I thought behavior analysts were applying the science everywhere, and that I just wasn’t privy to it as I wasn’t up with the research and I hadn’t been participating in conferences at that time. So, in my mind, there was no box to think out of as I thought everybody was using it! I believed in the science. I knew it could improve behavior and performance of people across different contexts. So essentially, “got toolbox, will travel.” If you are reading this and you are a behavior analyst or perhaps working towards your certification, know that you are armed with THE MOST POWERFUL science in the world for making a positive difference ANYWHERE. You possess that toolbox. 

The Greatest Science

If you feel like you are stuck in the “Skinner Box,” you aren’t. This is not a knock on Skinner, of course. I just want you to think beyond your current setting. He'd want you to as well! I refer to Applied Behavior Analysis as the greatest science in the world because what other science has the potential to improve other sciences…by accelerating the performance of the scientists? Even scientists and professionals from other fields are beginning to understand the importance of behavior science as they recognize solutions to problems around the globe are directly linked to changes in human behavior (Ledoux, 2014). So, what does this mean for you? Opportunity, anywhere, and everywhere. 

As Aubrey Daniels so eloquently frames the matching law, “Behavior goes where reinforcement flows.” Given this is true, it’s not surprising that the greatest number of people working in the field of behavior analysis serve clients where there is the greatest amount of generalized reinforcement…money. In this case, there is substantial funding related to persons with disabilities. And thank goodness for this. The field has helped many needy and deserving children, adults, and families. And many people love exactly what they are doing. However, some do not love it as much and would like to spread their behavior analytic wings elsewhere. Thankfully, behavior analysts are needed elsewhere, even though folks do not know it...yet.

Now while you can’t just drop your existing job, you can begin cracking the door open in the area you desire to make an impact in. This will require additional effort on your part. But the beautiful thing is, when you are pursuing your passion, it doesn’t feel effortful. It’s exciting! The pursuit of money at best will mitigate frustrations in your career. But “if you do what you love”…as they old saying goes, “you will never work a day in your life.” Besides, if you find a job you love you will be good at it, and often times matching aptitude with passion in a career can be associated with financial reward.  

The great thing about Behavior Analysis is that you're never too far down the path to change direction as the science can be applied anywhere there are people behaving…anywhere. I know I’m being redundant on the “anywhere,” but I want you to start thinking out of the box and imagine yourself applying a few basic principles of the science in another field (e.g. sports, engineering, public speaking, etc.) to help people perform better and achieve meaningful outcomes. I hope it will get you going in the right direction. 

Incidentally, I love this video by Brett DiNovi on finding your purpose. He has an aptitude and passion for helping people find their niche as well as establishing systems that support their performance. Determining your aptitude and passion is a critical step to finding your niche. Be on the lookout for my forthcoming video on the topic on finding your own niche within the field, and applying it the science outside of it. 

Reference

Foxx R. M. (1996). Translating the covenant: The behavior analyst as ambassador and translator. The Behavior analyst, 19(2), 147–161.

BIO

An expert in coaching, and organizational leadership, Dr. Paul "Paulie" Gavoni has worked in education and human services for 20 years where he served in a variety of positions including COO, Director of School Improvement, Leadership Director, Professor, Assistant Principal, School Turnaround Manager, Clinical Coordinator, Therapist, and Behavior Analyst. Beyond his direct work with students in poverty and those suffering from behavioral and mental health issues, Dr. Gavoni specializes in providing administrative teams, teachers, and staff with training, coaching, and consultation in analyzing and developing behavior and performance management systems to positively impact key performance indicators. As a behavior scientist, Dr. Gavoni is passionate about applying organizational behavior management (OBM) strategies to establish positive environments that engage and bring out the best in professionals, so they can bring out the best in the children and adults they serve. 

Dr. Gavoni is co-author of Quick Wins! Accelerating School Transformation through Science, Engagement, and Leadership  and the best seller Deliberate Coaching: A Toolbox for Accelerating Teacher Performance. In addition, he is published in academic journals on topics related to school improvement and sports, and has published three online courses dedicated to school leadership preparation, an area he remains deeply passionate about. Click here to listen to hear more about Dr. Gavoni’s work in schools.

Beyond his work in education and human services, Dr. Gavoni is also a highly sought out and respected coach in combat sports. In 1992, he began boxing in South Florida and went on to win a Florida Golden Gloves Heavyweight Title in 1998. Since then, Coach “Paulie Gloves,” as he is known in the Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) community, has trained many champions and UFC vets using technologies rooted in the behavioral sciences. Coach Paulie has been a featured coach in the books Beast: Blood, Struggle, and Dreams a the Heart of Mixed Martial Arts, A Fighter’s Way, and the article Ring to Cage: How four former boxers help mold MMA’s finest. 

He is also an author who has written for a variety of online magazines such as Scifighting, Last Word on Sports, and Bloody Elbow where his Fight Science series continues to bring behavior science to MMA. Co-founder of MMA Science, his current project involves the development of the first International MMA Belt Ranking System, a ground breaking process bringing tradition, organization, and behavior science to mixed martial arts.