Performance Management: Changing Behavior That Drives Organizational Effectiveness (part 28)

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Chaining

by

Charles Lamson

Chaining in behavioral psychology is the key to helping people master complex performance. Most of the complex performances we are concerned about in business involve many behaviors that occur in a series of sequence. Two or more behaviors in sequence that lead to reinforcement are called behavior chains. In a chain, each behavior is an antecedent for the next. Even though the final behavior in the chain is the one that gets reinforced, once reinforcement of the last behavior in the chain is predictable, each behavior in the chain is reinforced by the opportunity to engage in the next behavior in the chain.

For example, in assembling a motor, a person may place Part A in Slot A, put Nut A on Bolt A, and tighten. Then he turns the assembly over and repeats the procedure on the other side. Once that is done, he may proceed to place a cover on the assembly and secure it with four screws.

When the performer can perform the separate steps fluently (that is, without hesitation), you are ready to begin chaining them together into a single task. This task can be viewed as three short chains or one long chain. Initially, you might reinforce when the person gets the A chain correct. After this success, you would probably increase the requirement for reinforcement to completing both sides. Finally, you would reinforce only for completing the whole assembly correctly. You probably realize by now that the delineation of the steps in the chain provides an obvious series of sub-goals.

Chains can be developed in two ways: forward chaining and backward chaining. In forward chaining, you build the chain by reinforcing the first behavior in the chain and then requiring the first and second behaviors to be performed before reinforcement is delivered. Next, you reinforce only when the first three behaviors in the chain are properly executed. This continues until the chain is completed. This process is often used in teaching children to tie their shoelaces. First, you reinforce pulling the strings tight; then you show them how to cross the laces. The next step might be to have the child pull the laces tight and then cross the laces before you reinforce.

In backward chaining you begin with the last behavior in the chain and gradually move to the first. Simek and O'Brien (1981) describe this method in their book on golf. In teaching golf, they start the students by having them putt two feet from the goal. As they master that skill, the students move farther back from the hole. Once they have met the standards for the longest putts, they move off the green and practice the chip shot to criterion before working on the pitching wedge. The driver is the last shot practiced. This is, of course, in contrast to the way most people are taught golf, but it has been demonstrated to be more effective and reinforcing than traditional methods. In a study by O'Brien and Simek (1978), the chaining mastery group averaged 17.33 strokes lower than the traditionally trained group when playing their first round of golf.

The overall superiority of backward chaining is that it puts the performer in contact with the reinforcer earlier. In the golfing example, putting from two feet is likely to be successful sooner than hitting a straight drive from the tee. For this reason, if a performance can be chained backward, that is probably the most desirable method to use when skill building.

 In the motor assembly example, backward chaining requires that the instructor complete all the assembly except putting the cover on. Then it would be given to the student for completion. When the student did that to some criterion, the instructor would complete all but the last two steps, and so on until completion.

Backward chaining is especially effective when teaching people complex skills such as the use of computers, making fancy crafts, or any other tasks involving long chains. Although people can learn very long chains, these long chains present a greater opportunity for errors and extinction to occur. This is particularly problematic in the safety and quality areas.

If a step in the chain can be omitted and the person still gets reinforced, a new chain is reinforced and the original one weakened. For example, if a mechanic fails to inspect a piece of safety equipment for wear and tear before putting it on, it may still function safely even though it was not checked. If it does, the probability that he will check the equipment the next time he puts it on has been reduced, even if only slightly. If someone is supposed to check a product for a certain aspect of quality before assembling it, but doesn't and the product works anyway, the chain has been weakened. To prevent a gradual deterioration of such behavior chains, they must be observed periodically. If they are intact, they should be reinforced. If they are not, they should be corrected.

On occasion, businesses need novel, non-standard solutions. Such practices are called innovative when they vary from standard practice and produce a better outcome than the standard way of doing things. Those innovations almost always begin as subtle changes in a chain. When the outcomes are seen as an improvement, such subtle behavior change should be reinforced and adopted as a better practice. If you do not encourage variance when needed, you will not produce innovative, breakthrough, or creative solutions.

*SOURCE: PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT: CHANGING BEHAVIOR THAT DRIVES ORGANIZATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS, 4TH ED., 2004, PGS. 247-248*

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