Behind the Scenes of How I Run My Company

Summary

• My goal today is to break down what makes a workplace enjoyable and how we can begin instilling a positive culture immediately.
• Reflect on personal experiences with different types of bosses and how they influence your feelings about work.
• My first job at 24-Hour Fitness with my manager, Mike, taught me the value of good leadership, which includes clear communication, personal development, fairness, and making work fun.
• When Mike left and was replaced by an ineffective boss, the work environment rapidly declined, teaching me the importance of effective leadership.
• This experience influenced my desire to create a company culture that fosters a positive workplace, avoiding the negative outcomes of poor leadership.
• Positive reinforcement, such as encouragement and support from leaders, creates a work environment where people want to thrive.
• Punishment, on the other hand, leads to secrecy, stress, anxiety, resentment, and minimized effort from employees.
• Organizations use punishment because it works in the short-term, but it creates long-term dysfunction and requires constant escalation to maintain control.
• Positive reinforcement might take longer to show results, but it leads to genuine behavioral change and creates a more positive environment.
• Use immediate reinforcement for behaviors that contribute to company goals or exhibit company values.
• Recognize and reinforce positive behaviors promptly and consistently, using methods like direct messages, public acknowledgments, or physical gestures like high-fives.
• Encouragement and positive reinforcement should be practiced by everyone to develop a supportive work environment.
• Both positive reinforcement and punishment can produce results, but the former is more effective for long-term success and a healthier workplace culture.
• The timing of your response (latency) to a behavior is more critical than the intensity of the response in shaping future behavior.

Video

How To Take Action

I would suggest implementing a positive work culture that makes people happy to come to work. Here is how:

• Reflect on past jobs and bosses that made work great. Remember what they did that made you feel good.
• A good way to be a great leader is to communicate clearly, be fair, develop your team, and make work enjoyable.
• Avoid being like bad bosses who don’t talk to their team and are mean. This makes people unhappy and anxious.

To create a positive work environment, do these things:

• Use positive reinforcement like praises and support instead of punishing. This makes employees work better and feel safe.
• When you see someone do something good, tell them right away. It’s important to do this as soon as you see it.
• You can say "great job" in a private message, say something nice about them to everyone, smile at them in a meeting, give them a high-five, or mention their good work in a team meeting.
• Make this a habit for everyone, not just bosses. When coworkers support each other, everyone feels good.

Remember, positive actions that help the company should get attention right away. This builds a place where everyone wants to do their best every day.

Quotes by Leila Hormozi

"I'll never forget it was my birthday and they had this thing at the gym where anyone that knows me super well knows I get startled easily and they would always like when I was least expecting it I could be training a client I could be cleaning something I could be trying to make a sale they would come from behind and scare me and on my birthday he put together this compilation video of like every time someone scared me in the gym apparently they had recorded it and I was just like wow like what kind of Boss does that like how freaking cool"

– Leila Hormozi

"I remember he wasn't a good communicator so if like I reached out to him to ask him anything he didn't respond or it took him like a day or two days to respond to something"

– Leila Hormozi

"It's crazy to me to think that just the person that leads an organization or even leads a department can create that for everybody else on the team"

– Leila Hormozi

"I think that the reason that so many people nowadays say I don't want to work I'm like well we like to do things we like and so what that tells me is you just don't like work right"

– Leila Hormozi

"The timing of your response to a behavior matters more than the power of the response"

– Leila Hormozi

Full Transcript

my goal for today was to break down very simply what this means in the workplace as well as what can we do to get started today everybody in this room so that we can instill this in the culture I wanted to put this together to like break it down and Define what it all means so that hopefully when we leave here we have a better understanding of what all this stuff means I wanted to ask you all a question which is what makes the difference between a place that people genuinely love working and a place that they cannot wait to leave I just want you to think about that right now I want you to put an idea in your head I know a lot of you have worked at places where maybe you couldn't wait to leave you were watching the clock you hated it and a lot of you have voiced that you feel differently here so I just want you to think about that I'm just going to give you like 10 seconds just hold the idea in your mind so I'll tell you guys a story my first job out of college was 24-hour fitness and so what happened was that I graduated college and my dad knows this uh packed up my Prius and then drove to Costa Mesa California and my idea was you know I'm going to just literally go figure out like all the gyms within the radius of of where I got an apartment and I'm just going to apply all of them and see where I get a job and the reason I ended up taking 24-Hour Fitness instead of like one of the nicer ones like Equinox or like a bougie gym is actually just because I really need to make money and 24-Hour Fitness was the first place I could make money very quickly uh it didn't have as much like career pathing growth opportunity all those things I just was like I need to make sure I can afford to live here right and I could start right away at 24 and so what I didn't realize was that when I got to 24-Hour Fitness I actually ended up with one of the best leaders that I could have asked for his name was Mike and he had been there for I think four or five years at the time and he was my direct manager he was the manager of all the personal training at that facility and he was I honestly went into the job thinking like there's no way I'm going to actually like working here like just because like I had ideas of what I wanted to do and it was so much greater than being a personal trainer at that gym and Mike was actually in hindsight the reason that that job was so enjoyable you know he had very clear communication he always did one-on ones and took time to see like how do I feel what's my development like like how are you uh doing in terms of sales do you need help here like what can we do to further promote your growth uh he was predictable in that he always was at certain meetings he always ran certain meetings every week uh and I didn't ever see him blow up at anybody so I never felt like he was going to like come down on me one day and I think I was waiting in the beginning and then like it never happened and so I was like wow okay this is cool like that's nice because my idea of a boss was somebody who would you know manically yell at you one day uh he was encouraging in terms of like I never remember Mike saying anything bad um I remember him always constantly telling me because I was so nervous in the beginning like I'd never sold before and I had to sell to get my own clients and all I remember is Mike constantly telling me like you can do this it's just a skill you just need to learn it it's not that you're not good at sales you just haven't learned sales and I didn't even realize at the time how useful of a belief that was is that it's not that I'm bad at sales it's that I'm inexperienced at sales right right and he helped instill that in me he was fair and he didn't sugar coat it though you know I remember there was a time when uh I was doing a prep for a competition and like my numbers were sliding and he pulled me into the office and he was so kind in the way that he brought it up because he basically said like hey I've noticed your numbers are down like how can I help rather than like you your numbers are down you piece of which is not uncommon in the fitness industry um and lastly is he made a hard job fun I I'll never forget it was my birthday and they had this thing at the gym where anyone that knows me super well knows I get startled easily and they would always like when I was least expecting it I could be training a client I could be cleaning something I could be trying to make a sale they would come from behind and scare me and on my birthday he put together this compilation video of like every time someone scared me in the gym apparently they had recorded it and I was just like wow like what kind of Boss does that like how freaking cool you know what I mean got me a cake and everything and I was like I loved it and I really think that because of Mike I ended up really loving sales and I don't think I would have otherwise because sales to me when I first heard I was like you know like I was just like I don't want to do that um but then throughout the process of working for him I actually really learned to love it and hindsight I think that I really loved working for him is actually what it was so then they actually asked Mike to go open a new location so they were opening a location we were in Costa Mesa they were opening this big beautiful one in Orange and he was like guys one day he's like I've got to go they've asked me to go open this new location so it's going to be great though you know you've got not Mike coming to take over and I was like okay and like at the time I didn't think anything of it I was like oh you know it's been great I'm sure it's going to keep being great and then notm came in and I will never forget the first meeting he sat us down we were the top producing sales team which is personal trainers that sell personal training uh in all of the region and he sat us down and I've never heard someone say so many times in my life he was like you young listen up cuz here not doing any more this okay we're going to we're going to get our numbers up and we're all like our numbers are up you know like the things he was saying made no sense he just continued to swear at us yell at us it was the first meeting I was just like holy crap who's this guy it was just complete polar opposite um I remember he wasn't a good communicator so if like I reached out to him to ask him anything he didn't respond or it took him like a day or two days to respond to something uh he was very unpredictable in that sometimes he was in the office sometimes he wasn't in the office sometimes he was on meetings sometimes he wasn't we would like all show up for the sales team meeting and he would just not be there and we were like all I guess we're just not having it today um H he was very assumptive and unfair so I remember uh exact words is that when I realized that uh he was a terrible boss and I started thinking about leaving my sales number started dropping uh as did like half the team and he came up to me and he was like why are your numbers down and I was like I don't know cuz I just didn't want to talk to the guy I remember he was like if you don't get your numbers up I'm literally going to run you over with my truck and light you on fire and I was like holy like exact words this is real and uh he made the hard job really horrible uh I remember I went from like being excited to go to work every day feeling like I had accomplished you know attaining a new skill I'd learned all these new things I had this great team till like every day I sat in my car and I would cry before I went to work which is like embarrassing to say like a grown ass woman crying but I was so stressed and I was so afraid to go in because it felt like the entire environment changed it went from this place where like we all just had this amazing team energy to this place where like everyone was like trying to hide trying to leave early I knew people were taking their clients and leaving and it was just like it was awful and so it's really that instance that led me to want to build a company where that didn't exist because can you guess what happened 3 months after he came in we went from breaking records to being mediocre at best so we went from being the top in the region for almost a year to basically everybody was at the top left so there were like three private gyms and it was literally like me and six of the other top trainers all dispersed into those three gyms and then it tanked sucks and that experience is really what created I guess like everything that I do today because I remember when we started gym launch you know years later I kept thinking to myself like I know what a difference it is to have an absolutely horrible boss and leader and or no leader right and then to have one that is you know truly investing in people praising people encouraging people um because I experienced it firsthand and so I know what it's like because I think I felt like the three words that I I remember feeling is like confused you know sometimes people yell at you when you come in sometimes they don't so you're just like kind of constantly on edge uh unhappy and anxious like constantly in a state of anxiety and it's crazy to me to think that just the person that leads an organization or even leads a department can create that for everybody else on the team and experiencing it in that job really just made me realize when we start acquisition. comom when we started gym launch when we started Allen we started all of them and each time I think I've gotten more clear on what that is that we need to do the opposite and I think that the reason that a lot of people don't like work is because they don't like their boss and they don't like the people at work not because they don't like work I think that the reason that so many people nowadays say I don't want to work I'm like well we like to do things we like and so what that tells me is you just don't like work right and I think a lot of reason for that is because people don't take the time to really learn how to lead people does anyone want to take a guess at what the difference was between Mike and not Mike yes m not there you go so Mike used positive reinforcement to get people to do stuff to put it simply right not Mike used punishment to get people to do stuff that was the fundamental difference between the two of them so let me explain this and Define what each of those mean and again if you go Google these things I think the definitions are dog so I worked with Trevor and came up with our own um so positive reinforcement is the introduction of a desirable or Pleasant stimulus after a behavior okay so the desirable stimulus reinforces the behavior making it more likely the behavior will reoccur okay so think about like giving a dog a treat that's a positive reinforcement versus punishment which is the infliction or imposition of a penalty as retribution for Behavior meaning somebody does something and then you do something that makes them want to avoid doing that again which could be if the dog jumps on the couch you smack the dog so I use those examples which is you give the dog a treat and then you scold the dog it's actually really interesting because if you look at a lot of studies on uh training animals the animals that have the most uh that adhere to behavior change the most they use positive reinforcement with so it's funny because actually on a lot of my content where I talk about this dog trainers comment they're like hell yeah claive reinforcement works best for dogs too I'm like yeah we're all the same no I'm kidding um but here's the thing that's crazy and that I want everyone here to understand is that both work so punishment works and positive reinforcement Works otherwise people wouldn't be doing it so I'll give you some examples uh one company that uh you could say is successful is coinbase so uh I'll be honest there were like so many examples of shitty companies that I could use here um that have really terrible employee turn um but it was interesting because I wanted to show you the companies you know a billion dollar company 4 500 employees uh majority of the employee base lasts 15 months it's awful uh these are the kind of things I saw when I went through their reviews the top three no work life balance most intense place I've ever worked never know when it's your time meaning like it's your time to go um but here's the thing and this is why a lot of people ask they say well why would organizations use this and many of you have been in organizations that use punishment and the reason that they can use punishment is because they have high enough demand that they can outpace the turn of the staff so let's take a place like um another one that has uh not the best reviews and ratings and I know multiple people have worked there is Goldman Sachs so very prestigious place but it's essentially the golden handcuffs so what do the golden handcuffs mean it's that basically what they have to do is that they use punishment to get people to do things there right but in order to continue to get people to do things they have to keep raising the bar of what is acceptable meaning you have to do more and more not to get punished and the reason that they can do that is because they've got a line out the door of people who want to work there so what happens when someone leaves after 2 years is they've got you know honestly tens of thousands of other people waiting to take that person's job they don't give a and so for them because of the things I'm about to explain it makes more sense for them to use punishment because they don't understand the long-term repercussions of it whereas there's a company like Neutrogena there's a $4 billion company 750 employees so interesting is that they have a 10.2 year average tenure of employees there really fantastic top three things if you look at when uh under their ratings and reviews feel appreciated for my work flexibility and work like integration I feel like I matter they value praise good benefits Fair pay right so just all around if you read anything about Neutrogena and their culture it's like wow that sounds like a great place to work it sounds awesome and so the point I'm making here is that both both of these companies are large and known they both use different ways to get people to do things so if that's true the question is just like why would you use punishment at all like why are these places doing that if you can use positive reinforcement and get the same outcome it's because of the short-term cost okay so positive reinforcement is like a J curve in terms of it is slower to start but then it creates lasting change for Behavior so what that means is that most workplaces don't use it because you don't see the results immediately punishment if I came in and I truly yelled at somebody in here you'd probably immediately stop doing what you were doing right but if I ask you do you think that's the best use of your time how are you feeling about that you know do you think that we should be doing that here and I ask somebody to reflect they might reflect then then they might look back on on a week and then they might start to think about it and it might take one or two more times of me asking that person that question for them to change the behavior so that is why people don't use this in the beginning because people say oh it doesn't work well it works if you keep doing it kind of like losing weight it's like okay well I ate an apple every day for a week and I didn't lose weight it's like no you've got to do it for like two years right so punishment on the other hand is actually faster to start off but then creates long-term dysfunction and behavior adherence only when the threat is present who here has worked somewhere where when the boss is gone everybody acts differently that point proven um what it means is that think about this anyone here have a dog okay so easiest example that I like to use is when you train a dog and you're like every time it goes on the couch you get off the couch and you like scold it and then every time you come home this dog's on the couch right or you come home and you're like there's fur everywhere on the couch this dog's clearly B on the couch the dog knows that you're going to punish it if it sees you on the couch so when the threat AKA you are present it won't jump on the couch but the moment you are gone it absolutely will jump on the couch it's like homies out I'm getting on this couch right and so that's the fascinating part is that when you use punishment you create a workplace where people will avoid punishment rather than uh take on or adhere to the actual Behavior you want so they won't do the behavior that you don't want them to do when you are there but that doesn't mean they're going to do the behavior you even want them to do does that make sense avoidance versus you know seeking to actually change and so the tldr punishment means that the person is likely to adhere when the threat is present and rebound when it's not and that's why you see this in the workplace where it's like people feel like people are doing things behind their back it's like well that's probably because that person is very punishing and so they're trying to avoid that person they're trying to do things behind their back simply because of fear it's not because you know I I think I see it in younger leaders uh especially in our portfolio companies when they say like these M you know they didn't do this blah blah and they're like complaining about something I'm like because you're terrifying of course they're doing things behind your back like I wouldn't be loyal to you either you yell at them all day you tell them that they're stupid of course like what I would do it too right so both of these work but the question is because we understand both of them work one works better in the short term one works better in the long term it really comes down to uh especially in a workplace where it's okay if it only works on the short term because you have so much demand right then what's the cost besides the short-term and long-term repercussions so punishment if you were to think about all the costs that a an organization takes on if they use punishment rather than positive reinforcement one it creates an environment of secrecy because people are afraid to reveal mistakes because it's like what happens if you up they probably tell you that you suck they're upset they visibly make a face whatever it is right uh the second and this is one that I think is the worst is that it causes significant anxiety and stress issues in the teammates so I again use dogs um but if you look at the studies of dogs where they were used uh where they used punishment to train them rather than positive reinforcement those dogs had all sorts of behavioral mental health issues and so what it actually was is they were under Perpetual Stress and Anxiety because they were in fear at all points in time really interesting the third is that over time it creates resentment so what happens when you feel like someone is constantly imposing upon you and you have no free will is you feel resentful of them uh it removes all feelings of autonomy from workers and creates a feeling of imprisonment many people say I feel like I'm in prison yeah stuck exactly and they're not stuck but it absolutely feels like you're stuck they basically do the minimum amount of work not to get fired so it's the people that are like oh I'm out at 5:00 p.m. like I'm not checking jack they pay me for this blah blah blah that's exactly where that comes from right punishment is being used therefore you get no discretionary effort from anybody and that brings to point six which is you miss out on discretionary effort loyalty tenure and Innovation so what happens when somebody's in uh essentially like a state of stress at all points in times is that you're not able to access discretionary effort of those people who here has felt like they have more creativity since working at acquisition. comom that's discretionary effort and when you're under constant stress because you're being punished you can't access that I mean it's the same for me I mean if I'm punishing myself it's we can do it to ourselves too right then I don't have discretionary effort to give to AC i.com and so uh that's one thing that places like that miss out on and so they do turn out people more and more also because they keep saying this person they're just not giving it at all they're not taking initiative they're not it's like well have you created an environment in which it is conducive for people to take initiative right because if you create the environment where it makes sense that people would because they have discretionary effort then it makes it much easier and lastly is that people will just work as hard as the bar is high and so you have to continue raising the bar because the other piece about punishment is people become desensitized to it over time they get used to it and so that means that the boss has to punish more and raise the bar higher in order to get more out of people until it becomes a place where everyone is consistently walking on eggshells has anyone ever been anywhere like that it just gets worse and worse over time right it's like first they like say something a little rude then it's like they fall yell at you and then it's like now there's consequences threatening to fire you I remember at uh 24-Hour Fitness uh watching the manager tell a guy after he yelled at him on like a Tuesday told him you got to sell more like I don't know what you're doing bro like you suck at this blah blah blah and I watched the guy just like slump out of there like clearly defeated and then he came back in it was Thursday and I remember he held up his Employment contract to him and he said if you don't close four more deals by tonight this is what I'm going to do and just rips it up in front of his face it's like you've got to get more creative with your punishment because he's desensitized since you yell at him all the time but that's the reality is a lot of places work like that and to be clear as well there are forms of punishment that are also unintentional so there are times where we can work somewhere where the person is not intending to punish us in fact this is probably the most dangerous kind but it's you know you come to your boss you tell them something the face they make right and then they might say something different but that was your initial reaction there's a lot of places where that could be the case or there's simply no recognition at all all so you do something you don't get positive or negative therefore you make assumptions on the other side we have positive reinforcement okay so what does this do what are the costs of positive reinforcement um one it creates an environment of security because people are encouraged to discuss mistakes people feel like it's okay to make mistakes here and that's how we learn and we grow and it's seen as not not a terrible thing the second is that people feel a sense of security and excitement when coming to work so people typically say I just want to work all the time I love working I really want to work and it's because they're probably rewarded for their work they're encouraged for their work they're not punished for it uh fourth is that it empowers teammates so often times it feels like it's a culture of empowerment where it's not just that the boss is encouraging people but people are encouraging each other and so it's a compounding effect uh five is that most people in these environments do more work than anyone expects of them why because we do more of the things we like to do and if we have an environment that has created it and made it easy for us to like work then we want to work more uh six is that it motivates team teammates to utilize that discretionary effort at work so you can unlock more creativity more Innovation there's a lot more that can um you can get from everybody so it's like a lot of people feel like they're the only one with ideas on a team and what that tells me when somebody says that is that they just don't know how to get ideas out of people because they haven't created an environment where it's easy to do so and lastly is that people work hard because they enjoy the consequences of their hard work again I think this goes back to like I I hate hearing when people say I hate work I hate having a job I hate working and I'm like you know I think sometimes great things come about that right they start an amazing business they innovate something do all this stuff but also it's just very um sad to hear that that's like the state of so many places of work is that it's so punishing that people actually don't like it and therefore they use that as a generalization for all work it's that oh no I don't I don't like bosses I don't like having a job right and you can see it when people come in here some of you I've talked to about it in terms of even if you've had a boss before that has been punishing to you you might come in and you might have your first talk with me and I can tell you're nervous and it's like I've nothing like I'm not a punishing person like I'm if anything I'm like the opposite and it's like but I can feel the fear and it takes like how many times does it take of me not yelling at somebody for them to realize I'm not going to yell at them right it's like I have to outdo whatever their last boss did because their last boss might have met with them five times nothing nothing nothing yell and scream right and so it's like until I nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing past the yelling and the screaming they're not going to believe it and so that's the cost of each of these methods you could say which is we do more of the stuff we like and we do less of the stuff that we don't like work included right I said this in a talk when I was talking to uh I think it was jimc con and they were like why why can't I get people to work more I'm like GE because they don't like working for you because the environment sucks if people liked working for you they would do more of it and it's always one of those like you got to be respected not liked and I think like that is really misunderstood I think that you want to be respected and liked not respected instead of liked um because people can respect somebody but not like them and therefore avoid discretionary effort they will still feel all the same in different ways so this is what most people do right it's like you go away from the things you don't want and towards the things you do want and work included and so I say this all because I want everyone here to understand this is how I think through uh how we get things done here at acquisition. comom and if you feel like you ever go through a time which you freaking will because nobody's perfect where you're like I don't like what I'm doing I don't want to work today use these Frameworks to figure it out talk to me talk to a leader on the team that's what's so beautiful about this is that it's if we can break it down to okay what have I been punished for recently did I was I accidentally punished was I not encouraged to do something or did I do something and not get recognition for it and now I realize I don't feel like doing it you can think through these things on your own and it's funny because a lot of people I understand why they have to quit jobs because the bosses are not on the same page about all these things they use negative reinforcement but that's not what we do here and so if you ever feel that way it's a discussion it's like all right let's figure out what it was did you bring up something on a meeting and then everyone kind of just like sat there but it's like maybe they were nervous to speak up right like there's all sorts of things that can occur but I think the beauty of this is that we can engineer our own environments to make it easy for us to like our work especially if we use our voice and speak up and raise issues before they get too big if we realize that hey maybe the work itself is kind of punishing maybe I don't see the impact of it quick enough right because there's also that which is some of you have very rewarding work in terms of you don't even need as much outside recognition because there's some sort of recognition you can get immediately an easy one would be to say posting content if you post content on maybe it's Tik Tok or Instagram it's like such a quick feedback cycle you can see so quickly if it works or doesn't work work and so you get reinforcement from that you don't even need it from a person you get it from that versus some who's even just working on a YouTube video that might take you a month to do or five weeks to do and some people might not like doing the YouTube because not because they don't like making YouTube videos but because it takes so long to see the feedback cycle and so you're getting no reinforcement in the interim right and so it might feel like for uh for example like when somebody is a salesperson and then they want to move up to being a sales manager I'm like oh the feedback cycle is going to be really long and that's why most sales guys don't make it into sales manager I don't think it's because they don't have the skill you can teach these skills these are not like you're not born a manager or a leader you're just taught but you've been so reinforced so quickly on a daily basis if you made a sale or didn't make a sale that then you have to go and see did I hit quota for the quarter and it's like all of a sudden all this reinforcement you were getting all the time is just gone and so most people don't make it because they're not aware of that and so they don't realize oh I'm going to need a substitution for my reinforcement right each time we seek out a new kind of work where maybe we have to delay the reward which is delayed gratification the way that we can get ourselves to stick with it would be substituting it with different reinforcement instead so it's like if Alex or I know that we have like a really big goal we've got to tackle it's a personal goal and we're not going to recognize it for a while for me might maybe it was like recently I wanted to lose weight for him it's like he wants to get back in the gym okay you're not going to see the result of that immediately right but what if we encourage each other for it and we say like amazing good job every time one of us goes to the gym or eats less food which we do and guess what it makes it so much easier to do because it's it's uh more frequent reinforcement to get us to adhere to the behavior really if we're forced to do the stuff that we like uh Force to do the stuff we don't like then we're going to do the minimum to get by or the minimum to avoid punishment that's just what it comes down to so the question is how do we do any of this right like what is the the one thing that we could do as an organization to actually instill this and help each other with it help instill the culture so that we can also distill it down to our portfolio companies and if there's one concept that you guys all walk away with today um then I would let it be this one which is that latency matters more than intensity okay I'm going to Define these and give you some definitions uh examples so latency is the time between events okay so low latency means there's less time between events whereas High latency means there's more time between events intensity is just the power of an event so the timing this is what this means the timing of your response to a behavior matters more than the power of the response so something that I probably never said but like I think like for for the most part having uh recognition that only comes on a yearly or every fewe basis it's very ineffective because there's only a few it takes somebody who's been already had the practice of delaying reward for years at a time to recognize that that is even possible so for the most part what it means is that uh for example if the the YouTube videos right so the timing of your response to behavior matters more than the power then if the whole time that Nadia is making a YouTube video every time she makes an edit or cut she gets like amazing this is so awesome good job like this is great throughout the whole process that is more powerful than when the video goes off people are like amazing I'm going to shout you out on the meeting those 10 little encouragements along the way are actually more effective in your behavior and how you would adhere to making a video than the one at the very end really interesting so what does that mean is that we do things we have learned to do right and we learn by experiencing things that happen I follow me it sounds so simple okay therefore the things that happen closest with low latency to the behavior or event matter the most the things that happen closest to an event or behavior of the past determine how we behave now the way that you all behave when you come into acquisition. comom is dependent on what you did in your last company not dependent on acquisition. comom culture you can like it you can want to adhere to it you can want to live by this but you have been trained otherwise as have I I was trained to run gym launch not acquisition. com it's a behavior change and so I want to give you guys some examples of how this affects us in the workplace and how we can take behaviors from past jobs right and past experiences and bring them in now and this is how I see when I see a behavior in our company that isn't aligned with our values because guess what we're not perfect we're not always going to adhere to the values 110% right because we've been trained otherwise and so we have to it takes time to untrain and get enough reinforcement on the new Behavior to extinguish the old one so an example somebody's afraid to tell a boss they messed up it would not surprise me if somebody comes in here and they're new and they mess up and they're afraid to tell me why because in the past their boss probably yelled at them when they messed up I didn't yell at them but their last boss did they messed up and the next thing that happened was a boss yelled at them right maybe the boss even apologized after doesn't matter they yelled at them immediately the second this one's very common people are afraid to speak up on meetings what does that tell me in the past they've been punished for speaking up what does punish mean does that mean that like i' yell at them and say like you for talking like no what it means is that they probably spoke up and people told them why they were wrong so I can see on a meeting when somebody speaks up and they say something it sounds like they're adding feedback and it might not be what others want to hear and then when other people go in and basically tell them why they're wrong I'm like you don't know what you're doing and it's not just me that has to do this it's everyone every one of us has to recognize this is that if we don't accept people's ideas and say thank you for voicing them then what does that mean that person is going to do I've seen this on meetings before they will not tell you when they know something that could potentially be a threat to the business because they've been taught that people will just come at them has anyone here ever experienced that it's like you raise an issue you think it's important and then people because they want to think optimistically tell you why you're wrong and then that person never wants to speak up again makes sense to me people that are nervous to voice their opinion the reason is because similar to that they're opinions been shot down in the past many times people are told their opinion doesn't matter or it's like people won't even thank them for their opinion they'll just say like they pretty much ignore it right and that happens in a lot of organizations I think even getting people to fill out surveys you know I feel like I have to really emphasize here and you guys are great with it but I'm like no really like it really matters what you say like I actually read them all they're very useful right because I'm aware that most people fill out these surveys and jack ever happens they never hear anything and nobody ever references that they've ever read them afraid to take time off you know something that always happens is that people come in here and it's like it's always like a and then I just want to tell you that I'm taking a week in December and um here you go and I'm like why are you afraid to tell me that you're taking time off and I'm like gosh because they've been punished in the past their past boss probably complained immediately when they told them or was like seriously you're really going to take that much time off said some kind of side comment right it's not like someone doesn't have to blatantly yell in your face they can just make a passing comment and it's like I'm not doing that again right so these are all things that we experience in the workplace and these are just a couple ones that I've seen and I feel like are common that I Believe come from whatever reinforcement was the response to a behavior in the past and so that is why the timing of our responses here makes such a difference because think about it like this okay so if the last time that you had a job and you went to go take time off somebody like made a passing comment whatever then the next time that you tell me that you want to take time off I should say I'm so glad that you're taking time off and taking time for yourself that sounds so fun where are you going and then they're like oh and then I need to do that every time they do for like three or four times so then they don't think about that Pastime or all the times they had with their boss before and what could happen is that a lot of people will think uh even when they're trying to change Behavior it's like okay well I'm going to like give them a big shout out on the team meeting which by the way is amazing and such a good thing the what I think we do a great job of is we're always very specific on our meetings which is important because the further away the reinforcement is from the event the more specific we need to be about what we are reinforcing because it's obvious like if a kid takes its first step and we clap and we smile it's because it took its first step but if the kid takes its first step it gets nothing and then a week later you're like you did such a great job it's like wait for what and you have to tell them exactly what it is taking those Concepts what can we do here to help build that culture of positive reinforcement that's really what I wanted everyone to be able to walk away with and the reason I wanted to relay this information is because it's not something one person can do alone like it's not like me understanding this and Alex understanding this and like some of us talking about it is going to be what makes acquisition. comom what it is we all have to understand it and practice it and help each other practice it and be aware of our behavor haviors and how they're affecting everybody else and so what I would ask is that when you spot a behavior that is helpful conducive to someone's goals conducive to the company goals right where there's a lot of those uh it could be a teammate speaking up on a meeting even though they're terrified which many of you have voiced that you happen right it could be a teammate that's owning a mistake because guess what we can't fix things if we don't know about them it could be a leader who speaks up for their team sometimes people forget to recognize leaders it could be someone who just helps another teammate who has no incentive to do so or it could be a display of values any of these things right and any other thing along the way just someone doing their job and doing it well being on time I mean think about the things that there are there's so many things that we can praise people for immediately reinforce the behavior that is what is going to build this culture like the the number one thing we can do is like the moment that you see something uh and that's why I I think that companies uh use like uh what does it called like spotted uh that was like a a program that I've seen before and I think that's a great word for it which like you spot the behavior and you immediately recognize it right what does it look like the easiest thing is to slack them a direct message and tell them great job for doing whatever the thing was right being on time great job for speaking up even though you were nervous great job for owning that mistake even though it's hard to do so great job for exhibiting competitive greatness uh when you having a hard week whatever it may be you can give them Kudos in the full team slack so some people uh it's actually is kind of funny but uh some people really love getting public public recognition I would argue that people that don't love getting public recognition have been negatively reinforced in the past for getting it so you could also just rewrite a new story if you don't like it uh and when I say that you're like How could somebody also because this is one that people have ask me about why would they be negatively reinforced because they might say like you're an ass kisser or something like that like we're not going to do that here that's for sure uh third smile on a zoom call so when I see one of you that is speaking up when I know you're really nervous on a call I don't know if you knows but I'll be smiling because I want you to know that when you look for me on the zoom I'm smiling meaning I like it but I think a lot of you what you might not notice is that if you look on a call disinterested or even right now oh oh right now I could perceive you even if you're not trying if you're not smiling right now I don't know what the you're thinking I and I'm probably going to guess because of things in the past like maybe you don't like what I'm saying right there you go the nod that's why the nod's important it's like yes we can let's all nod yeah it's great on a zoom call it's like yeah we get you good work you could give them a high five there's been a ton of studies on actually even just giving someone a high five after they do something great is more powerful than any recognition alone because they get to interpret it they know it's good and it's powerful but they get to interpret it however they want and so they usually make it mean something really great to them and then lastly is you know shouting them on the weekly meeting again I think this is fantastic that we do this I just would love to do these things as well so what did we cover there's postive reinforcement and Punishment and both compel people to do things at work there's a cost to each punishment works better in the short term and positive reinforcement looks works better in the long term and timing matters the most for reinforcing Behavior what do you do immediately after you do one thing and also I think this is cool because we can ask ourselves what do we do immediately after we do something when nobody's watching because we are either reinforcing positively or punishing ourselves it's kind of like uh when people develop behavioral issues like uh eats a piece of cake and then like makes herself run for 3 hours like what are you teaching yourself you're punishing yourself for eating cake right anyways interesting did that make sense for everybody cool