Association for Behavior Analysis International

I discovered last year that many students studying behavior analysis think that the science is only about autism or other forms of developmental disabilities. In reality BA is about behavior, no matter who is the behaver, where they live or where they work and what they do at work. My presentation will present BA applied to the workplace worldwide, some of the challenges we have encountered in the last 40 years of working with organizations around the world. Our company mission is simple: Change the way the world works. We have not done that yet but are on the trail. You can help.

Board certified behavior analysts; graduate students; psychologists.

Continuously increasing demands for ABA services, ever changing and expanding licensure and insurance requirements, and demands for quality supervision provision can be overwhelming for even the most well run organization. However, when organizations fail to anticipate, understand, and balance these variables (and the many others impacting organizational performance), the results can be devastating. This workshop will introduce ways in which organizations can regain control over their systems. The focus of the workshop will be on critical system variables that leaders should identify, measure, and manage to ensure clients receive effective treatment, employees receive effective supervision, and organizations remain financially healthy.

Board certified behavior analysts; graduate students; licensed psychologists.

Supervising providers of behavioral services effectively has both performance management and ethical implications. In a behavioral perspective, supervision is a reciprocal relationship in which each individual’s behavior influences the other. Effective supervision includes careful task analyses, constructive feedback and goalsetting. Ethical supervision includes attention to individual dignity, collaborative problem solving, and correct and current representation of the underlying science.

Pending

Board certified behavior analysts; graduate students; licensed psychologists.

Behavior analysts are often cogs in the wheels of organizations reporting to executives with a different perspective on how people should be managed using a medical or financial model of leadership. The actions of these organizations often directly contradict core empirically validated behavior analytic principles resulting in high rates of turnover, low employee engagement, and employee dissatisfaction. Scientific evidence clearly demonstrates that people should not be motivated through fear, positive reinforcement should not only be delivered at annual performance reviews, employees and coaches require frequent reciprocal feedback, and goal setting with self-monitoring is a key factor driving peak employee performance. Why is it so difficult to put these principles into practice? What can supervisors do within their scope of influence if they are not the CEO? Why are consultants that are experts in the principles of applied behavior analysis teaching it but not doing it themselves or have no history of doing it? These Organizational Behavior Management (OBM) principles will be discussed to demonstrate how one organization translates the principles into leadership actions that have resulted in a turnover rate less than 3%, scaled growth and revenue that nearly doubles every year, and employee engagement providing meaningful work for more than 300 people.

pending

Performance management involves the application of behavioral principles to manage the performance of staff. Despite serving as effective change agents for clients, behavior analysts often struggle with motivating and supporting the staff they supervise. This presentation will propose a three-term model for targeting staff behavior, describe evidence-based performance management procedures, and share experimental data and case studies supporting the effectiveness of a behavior analytic approach to staff training and professional development.

Board certified behavior analysts; graduate students; psychologists.

Almost two decades of national credentialing of behavior analysts coupled with an exponential rise in the need for treatments of persons with autism, have resulted in organizational behavior analysts standing at the doorstep of endless opportunities by which to enhance these clinical practices. However, in order to truly succeed, OBM will need to be more contemporary than simple reinforcement contingencies, feedback delivery, and even behavioral skills training. This presentation will showcase a series of interventions which done just this - scale up the effectiveness of staff within such treatment programs, empower teachers within autism (and non-autism) classrooms in public schools to greater value their jobs, and develop system-wide interventions to promote sound financial and clinical practices. Together these studies suggest that a contemporary OBM which embodies a contemporary research-to-practice approach can have great utility within a variety of human service settings where client outcomes are just as important as the monetary bottom-line.

Board certified behavior analysts; graduate students; licensed psychologists.

Organizational behavior management is celebrating decades of applied work across industries, countries, and performance challenges. From time to time, its always a good idea to gather the perspective of the consumer of our work, namely the executives who sponsor, lead and own the outcomes of OBM efforts. We are honored to provide such a perspective by bringing executives from various human service organizations together to share their thoughts as consumers, practitioners, and leaders of OBM methodologies to make a positive difference in their organizations.

Pending