PeopleSkillsBehavior analysis for safer and better workplaces
PeopleSkillsOrganizational Behavior Management, OBM, is applied behavior analysis in organizations.
The premise is that organizations change when people's behaviors change. It is therefore not always enough to formulate new goals, processes or strategies. It also needs to be clear what people actually need to do differently in their everyday lives.
PeopleSkills helps organizations identify important behaviors, understand what influences them, and change the conditions so that desired behaviors become more common and persist over time.
OBM uses behavior analysis principles to understand and influence behavior in organizations. The focus is on observable behaviors and the connection between what happens before a behavior, the behavior itself, and what happens afterward.
It makes it possible to move from rather abstract goals like “better collaboration”, “stronger safety culture” or “increased accountability” to concrete questions: What do people need to do? What are they doing today? What influences that behavior? And how do we know if change is actually happening?
OBM can be used in areas such as leadership, safety, productivity, quality, collaboration and organizational change.
The basis is the ABC model: what happens before a behavior triggers it, what happens after determines whether it is repeated. Signs, instructions and training are activators. They are needed, but they are not enough. It is the consequences in everyday life that control, and these are what OBM works with.
OBM has been used in industry and service companies since the 1970s and has its own scientific journal, the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management. Our approach is based on applied behavioral analysis. We have been working with it in Swedish organizations since 2008.
The work begins with defining what the organization wants to achieve and translating that into concrete behaviors. What do managers and employees actually need to do to make the result different?
We then examine the current situation and what influences the behaviors. This may involve goals, instructions, resources, work processes, feedback, social consequences, or how the work is managed and organized.
Once relevant behaviors are defined, they can be tracked over time, making it possible to see what is actually changing and adjust efforts based on data rather than assumptions.
1. The result
What will be different? Fewer accidents, shorter lead times, better service, a change that is actually implemented. We start with the results the organization wants, in measurable terms.
2. The behaviors
What behaviors of managers and employees determine the outcome? We choose a few behaviors, so concretely described that two people judge them the same. This is where ”taking more responsibility” becomes something you can see.
3. Current situation
How often are the behaviors performed today, and what drives them? We look at the enablers and consequences in the real work environment: goals, instructions, resources, feedback, social consequences and how the work is managed. Often with a preliminary study of surveys and interviews.
4. Change the conditions
We make the desired behavior easier to perform and more rewarding for the person doing it. Obstacles are removed, feedback is built into everyday life, and managers' own behaviors become part of the work. What is reinforced is repeated.
5. Follow and adjust
Behaviors are tracked over time and the results are shown to those involved. What works is kept, what doesn't work is changed, based on data instead of assumptions. When one behavior is established, we move on to the next.
Many change projects get stuck in phrases like “take more responsibility,” “collaborate better,” “increase quality,” or “strengthen safety culture.” The problem is that such goals don’t say what people should actually do differently.
In OBM, we therefore break down goals into concrete and observable behaviors. This makes it possible to work with what actually happens in everyday life and to monitor whether change is occurring.
When behaviors become clear, it also becomes easier for managers to provide feedback, remove obstacles, and create the conditions for people to succeed.
OBM is suitable when an organization knows what result it wants to achieve but needs help implementing the change in practice.
For example, it can be about work safety, productivity, quality, leadership, collaboration, customer service or the introduction of new working methods.
PeopleSkills works both with limited efforts and with longer change projects where we follow the operations from analysis and planning to implementation, measurement and follow-up.
Guest recycler
Behavioral work in two areas. Firstly, support for the Närsorterat project, where households will sort into more fractions already at home, in their own containers at the house or in the property's waste room. Secondly, work at the recycling centers to reduce the proportion of waste that goes to energy recovery, increase employee safety and visitor satisfaction. The key behaviors in the service are also used today by hired staff and summer temporary workers.
What is the difference between OBM and BBS?
Same basis, different application. OBM is applied behavioral analysis in organizations at large: leadership, productivity, quality, customer service, change management. Behavior-based security, BBS, is OBM applied to occupational safety. Anyone who knows one understands the other.
Is OBM manipulation?
No. Manipulation is when someone is influenced without knowing it and against their own interests. In OBM, the behaviors, measurement and feedback are open to everyone, and those who are going to change something are involved and decide what. The goal is to make it easy to do the right thing, for the employee as much as for the organization.
Is OBM suitable for work environment work?
Yes. Systematic work environment work provides rules, risk assessments and routines. OBM is about what people actually do when the rule meets everyday life, and about what managers do to support it. OBM does not replace systematic work, it makes it work in practice.
Do managers need to be trained?
Yes, and first. The behaviors of managers are among the strongest consequences in an organization. If the manager asks for numbers but never for behaviors, everyone learns what counts. That's why we start with management and managers before moving on to employees.
How long does it take?
A lecture or workshop is one day. A change process where behaviors are to be sustained over time takes a few months per area, with work between meetings. We would rather say what is required than promise something quickly.
Ulf Dennholt has long worked with applied behavioral analysis, TBA, in organizations and uses OBM in work with leadership, safety, team, change and business development.
The work ranges from lectures and training to longer assignments where Ulf works closely with the business as an advisor, supervisor or project manager.
He is also a course leader in behavioral safety and works with behavioral change in projects within, among other things, industry, the work environment and recycling.
Do you have a result you want to achieve but find it difficult to implement the change in your everyday life?
Get in touch and we'll start with what you want to achieve, what behaviors are important and what seems to be standing in the way today.