Most of my work is helping in changing behaviour. Only sometimes do I help in understanding the behaviour to be changed. The behaviour you engage in is directly related to the results you get. By extension of that, the behaviour of the people around you is related to your own.

I have discussed this [1] before. Another example is when you allow bad behaviour, you increase the chances of it happening again.

Last year, as part of of my own personal development, I worked in an outbound call centre. As an outbound call centre, they were very focused on getting sales. As long as you get sales, the managers don’t particularly care what else you do. This lead to all kinds of hi-jinx. Some of these included:

• Coming into the morning shift direct from a night club
• Signing into the phone then going shopping
• Going to a long lunch at a nearby bar and returning too drunk to walk
• Direct lies to customers to ensure a sale

Several times the team was told to stop infringements and bad behaviour, yet there was little or no other action taken. This lead to an increase in both the severity and frequency. These events didn’t happen by accident. They built up little by little over time. And with each little incident that was ignored it gave everyone else an behavioural example of what is permissible.

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