Behavioral Karma: 5 Scientific Laws of Life & Leadership

by Brett DiNovi, Paul Gavoni

Whether it's rising out of bankruptcy, handling a divorce/separation, being a great parent, teaching a classroom, leading a work team, or building a business from scratch as an entrepreneur, the science of applied behavior analysis has 5 Scientific Laws of Life & Leadership that are proven by the authors to lead you to success. Life has provided us with many challenges. Victims of bullying as children, we both struggled with our own sense of self. Fortunately, we each found combat sports and used them as a springboard to develop confidence or grit that would see us through a number of dark times, including depression, anxiety, death, homelessness, & bankruptcy. As former combat athletes and coaches, we will use some combat sports analogies throughout this book, as we see many aspects of life and leadership as a struggle. A fight. And like the famous fictional character, Rocky Balboa said, “You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward; how much you can take and keep moving forward.” Life is not a fight in the literal sense, of course, but in the sense that we must each learn to navigate obstacles and overcome adversity if we are going to move toward who and what we value. There is a science for navigating these obstacles that will allow you to improve behavior, performance, and achieve desired outcomes. This science, the science of human behavior, is frequently misunderstood or misrepresented. But it is real and it is highly effective, and the practical application of the technologies can make an immediate and lasting difference in your life and the lives of others. Since that time, we have been fortunate enough to use science to help thousands of children with disabilities, parents, students, teachers, principals, and organizational managers, and leaders achieve various valued outcomes. From turning around failing schools and developing champion athletes to building and leading an organization from zero to eight $ figures, we have always been passionate about helping people achieve valued outcomes. Given that we are armed with what we believe to be the most powerful toolbox in the world for improving performance and helping people reach desired outcomes, we feel we cannot go wrong in sharing the 5 powerful laws and supportive behavior hacks outlined in this book for improving life and leadership. Incidentally, a hack, for those of you don’t know, can be characterized as “an appropriate application of ingenuity.” Perhaps one might even consider a behavior hack “a clever approach.” A behavior hack, therefore, might be considered“a clever approach to applying scientific and lawful principles of behavior to achieving positive outcomes.” And our book is chock full BEHAVIORAL KARMA™ of the practical application of behavior science for making a positive difference in your life and the lives of others.

269 pages, Paperback

Published July 15, 2020

Reviews

[Sean McNeil · Rating 4 out of 5]

The five laws are
1. Pinpointing - pinpointing the problem, the result or outcome, and the desired outcome
2. Goal setting
3. Self Monitoring
4. Feedback
5. Pay for performance

The book definitely inspired me to be better about goal settings and make sure that behaviors are aligned with the goal outcome. I did not really get anything out of the “pay for performance” section. I recently read the book, “Drive” which had many examples of how motivation needs to come intrinsically and paying for performance can actually backfire, so I am pretty skeptical of that section.

Two things that did stick with me
- The idea of “psychological flexibility” - being aware of one’s behavior and the environment in the present moment and then doing the right thing at the right time across context, regardless of negative thoughts, feelings or bodily sensations. The example used in the book was someone who was nervous for a fight and instead of channeling that energy into preparing for the fight, they go around and spend time and energy talking to their peers and coaches, hoping they will say something that helps get rid of the feeling. This doesn’t actually help them achieve their goal though and it would be better to spend that time and energy improving this performance.
- The 5 second rule they talk about where if you think of doing something that is aligned to your goals, you have 5 seconds to do it. Applying this has been surprisingly helpful. For example, if I think about getting up to unload the dishwasher, rather than thinking “I will do it later”, I have 5 seconds to get up and do it.

[Bobby Newman · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are a great many books in the world that promise to teach leadership skills and life lessons. They often rely on the "epiphany" experiences of authors that taught them their lessons. Behavioral Karma, while using very powerful and moving author experiences to exemplify the principles, is based on a data-based and empirically verified science of behavior that is based on regularly printed peer-reviewed research journals and dozens of annual conferences. Authors DiNovi and Gavoni teach about this science of Applied Behavior Analysis, clearing up misconceptions (for example explaining how thoughts are "covert behavior" that are absolutely considered within the science). Terms like "establishing operations" and "rule-governed behavior" and "social validity" and "ratio strain" (among many others) are explained in easily understood and applied ways. Most importantly, the authors show us how behavior is determined by conditions, antecedent and consequential, and how we can use this knowledge to structure environments and interactions to bring about the outcomes we all desire. And yes, there is a whole empirically verified literature on self-management that describes how one can set up contingencies that shape one's own behavior. As the authors powerfully demonstrate, changing your behavior in the manner recommended changes the behavior of those around you in reciprocal cycles. The authors demonstrate how many typical management strategies are in the end self-defeating, and the scientifically-supported and reinforcement-based techniques they advocate achieve the desired ends in more mutually pleasant interactions. The techniques and principles can be applied in leadership, but also in everyday life in a powerful manner. Kindle delivered this last night and I found myself going straight through. This is a highly recommended read.

[Thomas Stevenson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a great resource for anyone interested in human behavior. DiNovi and Gavoni add their own personal narrative styles that make this book feel like more than a textbook or a self help book. I think this is great for ABA students like myself especially, but there’s something here for everyone.