This seems like an obvious principle, but I often see it as the missing link in reinforcement programs. Principle 7 is the connection between foundation and engagement.

If you compare the three principles you used for building your foundation with the three principles to create engagement you will recognize that:

1. Building the foundation starts with the perfect balance of the 3 phases (Principle 1); creating engagement starts with a balance between push and pull (Principle 4).
2. Closing the 5 gaps (Principle 2) is required to have a solid foundation; friction and direction (Principle 5) are required to let the learners’ brains work hard and drives involvement.
3. To create measurable behavior change (Principle 3) requires that you use your measurement plan and verify the performance; by following the reinforcement flow (Principle 6), you optimize the peak performance of the learners.

Reinforcement is like an Olympic program. The focus is on balance, conditions, and performance.

Design of reinforcement focuses on balance, conditions, and performance.

PROJECT WURTH

My coach started his design of my Olympic program as soon as the Olympic Games in Seoul finished in 1988. He was responsible for my achieving a good result four years later. His responsibility was to create a well-thought-out program that led to success and prevented me from dropping out early. He focused on three important elements: balance, conditions, and performance.

He created balance in the program by guiding me in my behavior change, step by step. He started by asking: “Is it your choice to become an Olympic champion?” My answer was the start of a great journey. I changed my behavior so that I slowly became more and more an Olympic athlete. My family, my friends, my studies, my social network, my life, all changed because I said yes to a dream.

This was a carefully built process guided by my coach and balanced with my personal development. He knew what was needed, but I determined the tempo. If my personal development was not quick enough, he pushed me forward or pulled me back and evaluated my progress. Everything was based on steady growth.

He also created good conditions. Over time we closed all gaps needed to perform at an Olympic level. My knowledge went up, and my coach made sure that I avoided conditions that would have been demotivating. He created many ways for me to practice new skills. When I was down or depressed or broken because of disappointing results, or when I thought my progress was too slow, he created new ways to motivate me. He made me think and created friction, but I never got lost.

And, of course, everything was measured. My staff of more than 15 people knew everything about me. I was an open book. My weight trainer, condition trainer, video analyst, doctor, coach, manager, dietitian, technical trainer, mental trainer, physiotherapist—they all knew the state of my body and mental health. They worked for four years on “Project Wurth.” Based on all this knowledge and the outcome of these measurements, these professionals decided how Project Wurth could leave his comfort zone and get into the flow to create peak performance.

What was the most important part of this Olympic program? The balance, the conditions, or the performance? Before I give you the answer, I want to emphasize that these three elements are crucial to gain results and drive participation. But the most important part was me. I was in the center of this Olympic journey. Everybody, the whole staff, and everything that was created, thought of, measured, evaluated, or changed was part of that one goal: me becoming an Olympic champion. There was no guarantee that we would achieve this goal, but we all knew that if I was not in the center, we certainly would not make it. Principle 7, “Place the Learner in the Center,” will help you place your learners centrally.

FOCUS ON THE LEARNER

Principle 7 relates to all other principles (see Figure 14.1). No matter whether you build a strong foundation to gain results or drive the engagement to increase your percentage of participation, always place the learner in the center.

To be sure you have used Principle 7 throughout your reinforcement program, review this checklist. Answer yes to each of the six statements that is true of your program. Be very critical. You can think about it easily; your learners won’t.

The learner is in the center of the reinforcement program because:

• The learners are more important than the content.
• The program continually adds value for the learners.
• The focus is on the minimum a learner need to know or to do at each moment.
• The program is not retraining but helping the learners to apply knowledge and skills.
• The foundation is so strong that the learners are changing behavior and creating impact in the organization.
• The engagement is fully based on the learners’ experiences and drives 100 percent participation.

Think and act like a top athlete; always looking for feedback. Ask your colleagues to review your program and let them focus on Principle 7. Is the learner in the center?

Would I complete my own reinforcement program?

If you apply Principle 7 and build your foundation and drive the engagement based on the other six principles, your reinforcement will succeed. But what happens if your learners are not in the center? What behavior might you perceive? What will be the result of your reinforcement program? If the learner is not in the center, it’s hard to realize lasting results and even harder to keep the learners motivated and avoid dropout.

If learners are not in the center, each principle has its own indicators of this, as listed in Table 14.1.

THE LEARNERS’ INTENTION

The behavior change you want to achieve with your reinforcement program must align with the learners’ intention to perform certain behaviors. Generally, the stronger the intention, the more likely the behavior will be performed. Principle 7 is meant to drive learners’ intention. According to the Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, 1988), three determinants explain behavioral intention:

1. The attitude (the learners’ opinion about the new behavior).
2. The subjective norm (opinions of others about the behavior learners need to perform).
3. The perceived behavioral control (the learners’ perception of the extent to which performance of the behavior is easy or difficult).

If you focus on the attitude, subjective norm, and the perceived behavioral control, you influence the intention. And the intention is the learners’ motivation to perform certain behavior. Principle 7, “Place the Learner in the Center,” guides you to focus on the learners’ intention.

Once your reinforcement program is being used by your learners, you can observe their intentions and their motivation. If the learners are in the center, you will observe that learners are:

1. Consciously engaged in asking for and applying feedback.
2. Looking for additional knowledge.
3. Curious about results and progress.
4. Not falling behind with applying your reinforcement messages and following your program structure.
5. Attentive in discussions about the reinforcement topic and proactively looking for “social friction.”
6. Exceeding your expectations and looking for challenges outside their comfort zones.
7. Taking time to apply, appreciate, and measure results.

Although I was super-motivated as an athlete and my intention was to become an Olympic champion, my coach always observed my actions. Did I use lots of excuses? Did I avoid taking risks? Or was I grumpy? He looked at the way I walked, how I talked with others, how I came to the dojo, what questions I had. Everything was important to him. He knew his training program and staff were perfectly built around Project Wurth, but even then, he observed me all the time. He always knew when something was wrong.

I remember a specific example. It was a Wednesday afternoon, three days before a fight. I had just finished my eight-mile run to sweat and lose weight before this fight. This time I had started to lose weight way too late. I needed to sweat and limit my drinking. Every glass of water counts. This was, of course, not good and very unprofessional. After I came back from my run, I checked my weight, still eight pounds to go. I was so angry and frustrated that I threw my running shoes against my living room wall.

I went to the dojo for Judo training that evening and did not say anything. The training was a nightmare. Nothing worked. My timing was off, I was frustrated, I hurt my hand as I grabbed my training partners, and I blamed them for not being careful and being rude.

My coach came to me and asked, “Anthonie, are you OK?” I start to cry and collapsed from shame. He did not ask for more details. He just said, “No more training until the fight.” He changed his schedule and sent me home.

After that weekend, he came to my home and we evaluated my performance. He told me that he had known two weeks earlier that this was going to happen—just by observing. We talked about changes in the program and why this had happened.

Apply the lessons from my story to your learners and your reinforcement program:

• Look at your learners. What do you observe?
• What changes can you make in your reinforcement program?

AN ADAPTIVE APPROACH

An efficient way of using Principle 7 is in an adaptive reinforcement program. It’s hard to build one reinforcement program for each individual learner, for each department, for each culture, for each. . . . With an adaptive approach, you can manage your reinforcement programs and use Principle 7.

My coach created the ideal path from the moment in that locker room in 1987 when he asked me whether I chose to become an Olympic champion until Thursday, July 30, 1992, in Barcelona. His path included a solid foundation to achieve results, and then he made sure to drive my engagement and keep me motivated until the end.

Did we succeed in following that path exactly as he planned? No. Based on what happened during those six years, my coach had to adapt my Olympic program. I suffered a serious back injury in 1990 that changed his ideal path considerably. But my development also influenced the program. At different times, I needed more weight training or speed training. At one point, my mental training was more successful than expected. Everything influenced the program. We started with an ideal path, but the adaptive approach created the result.

Adaptive reinforcement creates the results.

Adaptive reinforcement allows you to personalize your program, especially when you give learners partial ownership. They will be encouraged to make responsible choices to complete the program. It drives their engagement because it’s their choice.

Basically, there are two types of adaptive reinforcement, on demand and automated. Table 14.2 shows some examples of each. If you want to create an adaptive reinforcement program, combine both approaches in a balanced way.