Thoughts & Rants of a Behavior Scientist

The Organizational Behavior Management of Skinner's Walden Two Community

September 17, 2022 Dr. Paul "Paulie" Gavoni Season 1 Episode 8
Thoughts & Rants of a Behavior Scientist
The Organizational Behavior Management of Skinner's Walden Two Community
Show Notes

In this episode, David Roth and Dr. Nic Weatherly chat about the principles of Skinner's  Walden Two as they relate to Organizational Behavior Management and the following four questions:

  1. Build a way of life in which people live together without quarreling, in a social climate of trust rather than suspicion, of love rather than jealousy, cooperation, rather than competition. (If we change the words "way of life" to "organization" and change the word "live" to "work," we get an important message about Skinner's message as it relates to OBM)
  2. Maintain that world with gentle but pervasive ethical sanctions rather than police or military force. (change "police or military force" to "aversive control")
  3. Reduce compulsive labor to a minimum by arranging the kinds of incentives under which people enjoy working.
  4. Regard no practice as immutable. Change and be ready to change again. Accept no eternal verity. Experiment.

A couple of articles Dr. Weatherly discussed:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01608061.2021.1890664
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01608061.2022.2029798

A couple of Skinner Links discussed by David Roth :
BF Skinner Foundation Community page
Walden Two Audiobook read by Skinner



Positional Authority Ain't Leadership: Behavioral Science for Navigating Bull$hit, Optimizing Performance, and Avoiding A$$ CLOWNery

The Behavioral Toolbox 

Be sure to subscribe to Dr. Paulie's Heart & Science YouTube channel for a variety of content related to behavior science and bringing out the best in yourself and others.