“Why is that?” I asked. She explained that it was because there were a greater than normal number of kids who weren’t disciplined at home. The lack of reinforcement there seeped into the way they acted at school. But, “they’ve come a long way,” she added. Pointing out that the extracurricular teachers and classroom teachers teamed up to adjust their behavior.
Some of the ideas they used are explained in the book Don’t Shoot the Dog. This book suggests a behavioral approach to training. Animals like dolphins and dogs come to mind as being malleable, but in the book Karen Pryor writes about how humans can be “shaped” too.
Of course, we don’t always shape good behaviors (like the second graders at home). There were multiple points in the book where I wrote ‘doh!’ and ‘yep’ to acknowledge that I had accidently shaped some unwanted behavior. For example, when my youngest daughter wants something she will ask and ask and ask again until she gets it. Without realizing it, I must have given in after enough “can I have this” to encourage this behavior.
Fortunately, Pryor goes on to say that many activities can be reshaped. For example, a troublesome dolphin would sink to the bottom of the aquarium when Pryor called on it to perform. She couldn’t swim to the bottom to nudge the animal up, so she trained it to go to the bottom. Once the dolphin did that on command, Pryor never gave the command.
There are many ways to shape the behaviors of other people, but few to shape your own. Successful training requires immediate, intermittent feedback of varying reward levels. How can investors do this?
- Start small. Dolphins don’t do the big jumps out of the water on their first pass. Investors could begin their investing approach by simply buying into stocks on a consistent schedule. Maybe set aside funds every two weeks when most people tend to get paid and put money to work in names at varying price points. Try especially to not be afraid to buy quality stocks when markets pull back.
- Reward good processes. Training an animal to do something has almost no luck component, whereas investing does. Investors should focus on identifying the right tools that help shape where their portfolio selections come from. At StockNews.com, we use POWR Ratings to help investors identify stocks that offer the best opportunities for current funds to be deployed. With our ratings always being updated on a daily basis, this is ideal for investors whatever day they decide to come on the site to dive into our research.
Like the mistake I made with my kids, you don’t want to reward unwanted behaviors. Rather, reward processes that put you in good situations. Investing returns are never guaranteed, but by creating good behaviors you’ll increase your odds substantially.
Mike Dariano writes at TheWaitersPad.com.