Maybe you're troubled that this sounds like sheer manipulation. Yup, it is. But let's face it: We're all trying to be manipulative anyway; we're just not very good at it. We huff and puff and complain to our friends, as if the act of complaining will correct the problem. But Shamu never jumped through a hoop because a trainer was bitching about her. Furthermore, trainer-style manipulation is pretty friendly -- ignore some behaviors and reward others. We're not calling for Taser training here.
Be careful, though. What's good for managing up is good for managing down. And that's okay. Ultimately, it just means that we'll all be praised and rewarded more often. So be happy if, sometime in the near future, you show up to work on time and your boss flips you a chunk of mango.
Read more Made to Stick columns
Dan Heath and Chip Heath are the best-selling authors of Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die.
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Recent Comments | 6 Total
May 2, 2008 at 10:38am by Wayne McPhee
Great concept but animal trainers work with animals that have been raised in captivity and are trained first as babies. Unfortunately many bosses have been raised in the wild and it is much more difficult to train a feral animal to do tricks. Perhaps they can be taught not to eat you but getting them to play nice and balance a ball on their nose is a much more difficult challenge.