Your objectives are ready! It’s time to create your reinforcement program, build a solid foundation, and engage your learners.

The 7 Principles of Reinforcement will help you to create your reinforcement program. Your program will address all 3 phases of behavior change, emphasize the preconditions, and include all measurements needed to create actionable intelligence. You will drive the learners’ engagement through a perfect balance of sending information and collecting data, giving direction and creating friction in their brains, and challenging your learners.

LEARNING THE VALUE OF REPETITION

I cannot remember whether my coach shared in an early stage the reinforcement objectives from my Olympic program. What I do remember are the days that I went to the dojo before going to school. Every day at 5:30 a.m. my repetition started. In Judo the movements of your feet are crucial. If your feet are placed correctly, your body will follow. My coach told me to do three steps: 1–2–3. I had to repeat every step 1–2–3 in front of a mirror. I looked in the mirror and worked on perfection. “Every inch counts,” my coach repeated over and over again.

After two months, he came to me and said, “Now you are ready for it.”

I was happy because it was wintertime in Holland and cold with snow and ice. I told my coach and he looked at me.

“You are ready for the next step,” he said. He gave me the key to the dojo and said, “You don’t need me for these morning sessions. Just repeat the three steps every day and do it faster. But keep in mind, it’s not the speed—it’s the quality and the speed. Create a reflex!”

And for the next several years, my brother and I repeated those three steps thousands of times every day.

I figured out that the basis of behavior change is repetition. Repeat a thing in training until it is etched in your memory or, as our coach always said, “marked in your mind.”

SENDING THE RIGHT MESSAGE

The best coaches also strive to provide the right message at the right time. When I was 12 years old and Kees was 10, our coach did not give us the detailed advice needed to become an Olympic champion. He provided exactly what was needed for two young kids who loved to play Judo. Although my coach saw lots of elements that we needed to improve, his quality as a coach was in what he didn’t mention.

If you want to change behavior, it’s not about providing as much information as possible; it’s about what messages you send at what time. If you guide behavior change, you are aware of the different phases of change. As you know from Chapter 3, there are 3 phases to consider. Each phase needs different messages. Ebbinghaus reveals the importance of including valuable information to increase the strength of memory. If you want to help your learners change their behavior, challenge yourself by asking: “Is all of the information needed at this moment?” Keep in mind that less is more!

If you consider that a reinforcement program consists of sending a series of well-balanced push-and-pull communication moments that are strategically designed, scheduled, and delivered, you have all the possibilities to facilitate the behavior change over time.

CONSIDERING THE ENVIRONMENT

After you determine what information is needed at what phase, take a look at areas besides knowledge and skills. To change their behavior, the learners’ environment and motivation are just as important as their knowledge and skills. In the information you send, emphasize the importance of the environment. Is the learner able to practice? Does the learner have enough time, support, and possibilities to use the new knowledge and skills? What about support from the manager? Does the learner receive feedback? How is the reflection organized?

When I think back to the view out the window of that small hotel room, I remember only trees and snow as far as I could see. The hotel was in the middle of a forest close to Mátraháza, a village in northern Hungary. No luxury, no diversion, no acquaintances. Just 150 Judo players who gathered for a training camp.

Over the years, my coach figured out that this was the perfect environment for me to grow. I loved the back-to-nature feeling. No luxury gyms with clean and shiny fitness equipment. I needed tree stumps to carry through the mud, dirty and cold hands, abandon and pain. That was the environment that motivated me, one that inspired me to reflect and figure out what I needed to grow.

After a training session in the forest, the shower was a gift. After my hands and face were warm again, I was open for good conversations and reflection. It was the perfect condition to prepare myself to win the gold medal. Kees joined me one year. Although he did every training with full commitment, he hated that place. It was not his environment in which to grow.

TRACKING THE DATA

My team liked to measure everything. My coach always said, “If we do not measure, we don’t know if we are on track. I don’t want to spend a day going in the wrong direction.”

We measured simple things like my weight, fat percentage, strength, agility, speed, condition, recovery—everything. All data was captured and analyzed. For some reason, I never felt all this measuring as “testing.” I experienced it as part of my development and necessary for my growth.

All of my measurements were open and discussed. My staff explained what they analyzed, the conclusions, and how that translated into the next phase. Measurements became fun and an indispensable part of the foundation of my Olympic reinforcement program.

Tracking data has to be part of your reinforcement program. When you design your measurement plan, consider how and when to communicate the results to the learners. Avoid building a company assessment tool that only tracks data for your organization (“How many meetings did the learner attend?” “How does the learner rate the coaching of the manager?”).

When you track the data, always think about what’s in it for the learners. Remember, always add value for the learners. The learners need to answer questions that help them apply their learning and show more commitment. If you come up with good questions, you will collect valuable data for the learners and for the organization.

ENGAGING THROUGH ACTIONS AND REACTIONS

Once you build the foundation of your reinforcement program, it’s important to keep the learners engaged. What drives engagement? How did my coach motivate me to continue 10 years of hard training?

Two hundred and fifty pounds! That is Yoshida, a Japanese Judo player’s, weight. It was almost impossible to move that guy, let alone to throw him. While I lived in Japan, I saw him every day at the training facility. And every day he came to me and bowed, which means “Let’s practice.” He threw me so hard that every day was a nightmare.

I explained my frustrations to my coach. He just looked at me and said, “Use the principles of Judo, the perfect push and pull. Every action will give a reaction. So, if you push the guy, he will push back, or if you pull his body, he will react.”

Using this Judo principle consistently was hard. I finally succeeded in feeling the effect of the perfect push and pull, but I still did not beat Yoshida.

“Use his reactions” was the answer my coach gave when I asked him why I did not beat Yoshida. “Don’t focus only on your own actions. It’s the combinations of your actions, his reactions and your follow-up actions.”

Every time Yoshida made a bow, my coach whispered “250 pounds or not, use the perfect push and pull.” Slowly my days become more fun. And after many weeks of practice, I succeeded. I start throwing Yoshida.

It’s not the action that drives the impact; it’s the combination of action and reaction.

If you compare this with your reinforcement training, the same principles apply. If you only send information to your learners, you don’t know their reactions. Balance the information you send, ask questions to find out learners’ knowledge level, create survey questions to understand their level of confidence, send additional content, and ask for reflection. The combination of sending and receiving makes a significant difference. So, create a series of messages that are well balanced, and use the push-and-pull principle.

THINKING THROUGH THE REASONS

If you think that I never argued with my coach, you are wrong. As I became older and more experienced, I knew what my body could do—how to train, how to avoid injuries, and what I needed to do to improve. My coach needed to give me less direction now compared with my early career.

Sometimes we argued about directions and what I needed to do and what was best for me. Sometimes I hated my coach and did not speak to him for days. I would ignore all of his advice and follow my own path.

My coach did not continue to argue about the direction. He avoided the “correct-incorrect” discussion. He started to change the training workouts. Instead of spending lots of time on the Judo mat, we went to the forest near where I lived. One day he parked his car and opened the trunk. I saw a brand-new big ax. “That’s your new sparring partner,” he said.

I picked up the ax, and we walked into the forest. We arrived at a place full of big tree trunks.

“Chop these tree trunks through the middle,” he said.

“I am an Olympic Judo player, not a forester,” I said.

“Chop!”

Completely confused, I started to chop. After three hours, I was finished. Without saying anything, my coach walked me back to his car, put the big ax back in his trunk, and drove back to the dojo. “Next week, same time,” he said when I left his car.

The next few weeks were exactly the same. Without saying anything, we went to the forest and I chopped wood. I was irritated because my coach would not tell me why we were doing this training.

As time progressed, I found my own answer. Instead of being irritated, I tried to figure out why chopping wood had become part of my training. By analyzing the movement of chopping a tree trunk, I recognized that I was moving my body and arms in the exact same movements as I did during my favorite Judo technique. While chopping the tree trunks, I was programming my body and reinforcing my Judo techniques.

I was excited when I figured out the purpose of this forest training. I went to my coach and said, “I know why we use the big ax.”

“I know,” he said.

“But why didn’t you explain this to me at the beginning?” I asked.

“Thinking about why you do something is sometimes more valuable than thinking of what you do,” he said.

After he said these wise words about the why and the what, I began to recognize this approach more often. He gave me direction and created friction. No predictable workouts. The workouts I did were always engaging, and I enjoyed figuring out how certain training elements fit into my Olympic reinforcement program. My coach called this the principle of creating friction and direction. I cover this concept in more detail in Chapter 11.

TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE OPPONENT’S POWER

After my success with Yoshida and chopping tree trunks, I started to learn more about principles. Within Japanese Judo, lots of principles are used. One of the principles is well known and explained by using an old oak as an example. Mister Jigoro Kano, who created the Judo sport in 1882, explained the principle “use the power of your opponent” as follows:

In a forest, there was an old oak with big heavy trunks. Around that old oak grew some little oak trees, nothing more than twigs. During one winter, it started to snow. The snow lasted for weeks, and the forest, including the oak trees, was covered by a thick layer of snow. The big trees held the heavy snow for weeks, but at a certain moment the big trunks broke because of the weight of all the snow.

The little twigs were also covered with snow. They were flexible and bowed into almost a half-circle until their tops reached the ground. When the snow fell off, the twigs stood straight again. This continued throughout the winter. The snow did not get a grip on the small trees.

Kano used this principle to explain his idea about Judo. Use the power of your opponent. Don’t be an old oak and try to be the strongest. Everybody in the Judo sport knows this principle and practices it during training.

THE POWER OF PRINCIPLES

A principle is a concept or value that guides your behavior or evaluation. It’s a rule that must be or is almost always followed. In other words, a principle is an inevitable consequence of something, such as the laws observed in nature or the way a system is constructed. The principles of the Judo system are seen by all its users as the essential characteristics of Judo. They reflect the purpose of Kano’s system; if any one of the principles were to be ignored, it would be impossible to effectively use the system.

A reinforcement system has principles as well. In fact, there are seven of them that you cannot ignore. The reinforcement principles are like lighthouses or natural laws that cannot be broken. These principles are not mysterious or specific to any sport. They are self-evident and can easily be validated by any individual.

These 7 Principles are proven to have enduring, permanent value. They’re fundamental in building a successful reinforcement program. Although people may argue about how to define and use the principles, there seems to be an innate consciousness and awareness that they exist.