Recipe for change: Boundaries, work - and the occasional reward.
New Zealand needs boundaries. I know we're islands, so we've got natural ones. I don't mean those kinds of boundaries. I mean the sort shrinks talk about.
Imagine drawing a line, which says on this side "I feel fine and comfortable" and on the other side "I feel rubbish". As a country we don't seem to have those, at least not when it comes to defining ourselves against the rest of the world.
At the time I am writing this we are waiting to hear whether we have kept the filming of The Hobbit here. The message we sent to the film's producers was that we were prepared to do anything to keep it in this country. I would like The Hobbit to be filmed here but I worry about having no boundaries.
Or how about the fact that internet giant Google has paid $7000 tax here this year; less than a teacher would pay. Google is estimated to have generated at least $150 million in advertising revenue in this country. This is called thin capitalisation and companies which practice it suck all their profits out of the country. I am not advocating we throw Google out but again, no boundaries.
I can hear you yelling from here. We are too poor. We can't afford to stand up to big powerful entities like Warners and Google. Well, I think we can't afford not to. It sounds counterintuitive but you don't wait till you are powerful to draw boundaries, you get power by choosing to have them. No one else can do it for you.
Of course the corollary of that is that you have to do the work. No one enforces their boundaries sitting on the couch eating a family-sized bucket of KFC. But the way you get power is by not living in denial (see last week's column) but by knowing you can face up to reality and do the hard yards to make changes.
On that point, we could learn from Shamu. He is a 5500kg whale who lives at Sea World and has been trained to jump 6m in the air. Sea World uses a method called operant conditioning, which gradually shapes the whale's behaviour. Psychologist Patti Henry explains that the trainers begin by teaching the whale to touch the trainer's hand at the pool's waterline. For this the whale is rewarded. Gradually and incrementally, the trainer raises his or her hand and each time the whale is rewarded for touching it. This process continues until the trainer can't reach any higher.
At this point a target pole is introduced, which is about the length of a broomstick with a ball on the end. The whale is rewarded for touching the ball and the pole is raised gradually. The process is slow, requires patience and continuous positive reinforcement. Finally, a second longer target pole is introduced and it is raised inch by inch to its full height. Soon the whale is able to "bow" on cue, jumping completely out of the water.
Henry emphasises two things about this. Notice, the whale is given only positive reinforcement. Second, the training begins with touching the trainer's hand at the waterline. That is, in the beginning the whale is rewarded when there is no jumping. The whale is rewarded for many, many steps before any jumping is required. If anyone reading this is trying to make changes in their business, or their life, just remember you need to start with rewards at the waterline.
dhc@deborahhillcone.com
