I often wonder why the military has such a hard time keeping its most talented people. And I think I know at least one of the answers.
There are four methods for achiveing desired responses from human beings through the process of reinforcement. Here are those four types:
Positive Reinforcement. The examples above describe what is referred to as positive reinforcement. Think of it as adding something in order to increase a response. For example, adding a treat will increase the response of sitting; adding praise will increase the chances of your child cleaning his or her room. The most common types of positive reinforcement or praise and rewards, and most of us have experienced this as both the giver and receiver.
Negative Reinforcement. Think of negative reinforcement as taking something negative away in order to increase a response. Imagine a teenager who is nagged by his mother to take out the garbage week after week. After complaining to his friends about the nagging, he finally one day performs the task and to his amazement, the nagging stops. The elimination of this negative stimulus is reinforcing and will likely increase the chances that he will take out the garbage next week.
Punishment. Punishment refers to adding something aversive in order to decrease a behavior. The most common example of this is disciplining (e.g. spanking) a child for misbehaving. The reason we do this is because the child begins to associate being punished with the negative behavior. The punishment is not liked and therefore to avoid it, he or she will stop behaving in that manner.
Extinction. When you remove something in order to decrease a behavior, this is called extinction. You are taking something away so that a response is decreased.
Research has found positive reinforcement is the most powerful of any of these. Adding a positive to increase a response not only works better, but allows both parties to focus on the positive aspects of the situation. Punishment, when applied immediately following the negative behavior can be effective, but results in extinction when it is not applied consistently. Punishment can also invoke other negative responses such as anger and resentment.
Guess which type is most popular in the military? Punishment. I don’t disagree with punishment as a tool for achieving desired behaviors. However, over the long term, constant punishment coupled with a tendency to fail to reward a soldier when he or she performs at or above expectations will simply drive people away from a career in the military.
My command probably won’t want to hear this, but I can honestly say that the way I’ve been treated during this tour has been unprofessional and demotivating. You cannot deal with a middle aged business professional in the same way you deal with a middle schooler and expect to achieve positive results.
A perfect example of this counterproductive mentality is the way we deal with vehicle maintenance in the unit. A vehicle maintenance checklist is due once a week. Understandably, due to constant personnel shuffling, schedule changes and various unexpected things that happen in the type of environment we live in people sometimes forget to turn their checklists in. Rather than simply asking the section where the checklist is, or saying something like “have it on my desk in the next hour,” our unit just takes the vehicle away if the checklist is late. This is a punishment mentality. In the long run, it causes more harm than good.
People who have no vehicle are severely limited in their mobility, which is counterproductive. The soldiers who have had their vehicles taken away also tend to feel resentment. It takes them longer to get to work and to get home. They have to scrounge rides or take the bus system. The school marm mentality that produces this sort of “solution” to the problem of paperwork being turned in late will be remembered by each soldier down the road. They will have to ask themselves – do I like being treated like a child? Do I want to sign up for another three to six years of punishment?
When adults work together cooperatively great things can be achieved. This is no less true in the military than anywhere else. The problem is that many military leaders have the wrong mentality. Instead of looking for ways to reward hard work and achievement, they focus on petty bureaucracy and punishing banal minor deficits. The end result is that self-motivated professional soldiers are driven to other units or back into the civilian world where they have a much higher chance of finding employers who will value and appropriately reward their strengths.
Here’s a challenge for you military unit leaders – find ways to use positive reinforcement. Those of you who spend more time rewarding your troops for the good things they do than punishing them for the minor mistakes will reap the benefits of loyalty and high morale. No one wants to be kicked like a dog for every petty mistake they make. And if that’s your leadership style don’t be surprised when you get snarled at every time you come around.