I was born and raised in Calgary, Alberta which is famous for the Calgary Stampede. And my favourite part of the Stampede parade were the Clydesdale horses. These are beautiful majestic horses. Now, if you want to get a horse to move you can use either a carrot (a reward) or the stick (a punishment).

What’s better: the carrot or the stick?

If you use the stick… in general, there is more lasting change if you use a carrot. Punishment doesn’t tend to result in long-term change. It also doesn’t focus on the “do instead” behaviour. You’re more likely to see change if you use carrots to encourage the behaviour you do want to see. These are principals of reinforcement theory which has been well validated.

Keep in mind, we don’t always know what is really a carrot for people. That is, we don’t always know what’s reinforcing or what counts as a reward. People may automatically think a monetary reward, but it could also be prestige, respect, social inclusion, promotions, gaining power or authority, more time off. So if you’re looking for a carrot, you sometimes have to figure out what’s really rewarding for someone.

We have a tendency to focus on the “bad” behaviour, but reinforcement theory actually shows this has the tendency to increase the bad behaviour. Instead, be clear on what you want the employee *to do*, not what they shouldn’t do. This is a do-instead goal and you can find a whole session on this in the ImpACT Me app.

Then track the person's toward moves, not the away moves.