Issue # 3 - February, 2009
Behavior Analysts as Professional Consultants
by Kevin Murdock, BCBA, PhD, Behavior Analyst Consultant
Behavior analysts may be the best trained of all human service professionals.
The Behavior Analyst Certification Board® has established rigorous
professional competencies that support service quality and the protection of
consumers’ rights. These operationally defined competencies are mastered
through extensive coursework and hundreds of hours of supervised work
experience.
Although there is a wide range of proficiencies described for behavior analysts, many of the interpersonal skills necessary for successful interventions have not been defined. A broad set of related behaviors has been described as professional consulting skills in many related articles, chapters, and how-to texts from other disciplines. But, behavior analysts have authored relatively little professional literature on this topic.
Behavior analysts who apply professional consulting skills may significantly improve relations with, and outcomes for, service consumers (i.e., clients). Additional beneficiaries may include key stakeholders, such as families, caregivers, staff, other professionals, managers, or administrators. The remainder of this article includes tips summarized from related publications and more than 30 years of behavioral consulting experience.
Professional Consulting Skills: Introduction to the Basics
Identifying Problem Situations
Behavioral consultants should be especially cautious before entering settings that seriously
decrease chances for a successful intervention. Examples of problem situations include:
- Issues connected with the environment where the intervention will be implemented, such as a lack of resources or sufficient supervisory oversight, or pervasive systemic barriers.
- Issues connected with staff or caregivers who will implement the intervention, such as chronic resistance and performance problems.
- Consumer behaviors that are controlled by variables beyond the treatment setting.
- Cases that require more time than you can commit.
Note: If needed, have a supervisor conduct an ecological assessment with you and/or seek support from other behavior analysts. To gain some credibility early on, you might target some less severe and complex challenges.
Strengthening Rapport
Behavioral consultants must “lead the way.” To build your ability to lead, engage in interaction styles that build and enhance your rapport with consumers and stakeholders. Specific techniques include:
Seek out and greet all key individuals with a smile, direct eye
contact, and a firm handshake. Present your business card.- Learn each person’s name and correct title and use them often in conversations.
- Be a good, active listener. Take notes. Frequently ask for input to show that you are interested, paying attention, and that you care.
- Make it a priority to identify some reinforcers for each individual (e.g., favorite topics, past-times, hobbies, sports).
- Learn important dates for each individual (e.g., anniversaries, birthdays). This information may come in handy during future discussions and events.
- Through your discussions, explore what interventions may or may not be seen as acceptable in the setting.
- Identify and frequently stress common goals, such as:
• the welfare and concerns of the consumer and all stakeholders
• decreasing problematic behavior, plus increasing replacement behaviors
• developing consumer’s self-control methods, access to reinforcers, and independence
• gradually reducing the time and effort required for intervention
• increasing opportunities for effective instruction, socialization, etc.
• improving the environment for everybody involved - Acknowledge and respect stakeholders as individuals with unique qualifications and perspectives who have expert and diverse knowledge about the consumer’s history, behavior and environmental variables.
- Clarify your expectations and those of key individuals. Negotiate and be prepared to compromise. Get agreement on deadlines. Delegate and engage others in some of the work, as appropriate, to increase buy-in.
- Routinely give immediate, positive feedback. Be specific and personalize the feedback with notes, data, graphs, or visuals, when practical. When it is necessary to give corrective feedback, do so objectively and privately.
- Always, as you are leaving the setting, be ready to praise something that you have seen that day. For example, tell a manager about a staff member who did an exceptional job in a difficult situation. Such praise can go a long way to helping that person out, and improving your image as a team player and a generous professional. Routinely making reinforcing comments to managers and administrators will help a great deal when the time comes that you have to make a special request or give some bad news.
- Send follow-up notes to key stakeholders to express your appreciation for improved data trends and particularly difficult situations that have been overcome.
- Learn the culture of the setting. Attend and participate in special activities and social events.
- Build a community of reinforcers for those who implement the intervention
- Celebrate and communicate progress by involving managers, administrators, and other professionals.
- Recruit managers and administrators to assist in the intervention and appreciate the results. Let them know that you would not have been successful without them.
- Teach staff and caretakers how to communicate and promote their successes, and how to recruit praise.
Maintaining a Professional Demeanor
In order to assume and maintain a leadership role, the behavioral consultant should work hard to maintain a professional demeanor at all times. There are some key “do’s and don’ts” for achieving this objective.
Be well-groomed and dress for the occasion. Business casual is the default “uniform” in
most settings.- Be on time (better yet, a little early). Respect meeting or observation time limits (e.g., when leading a meeting, establish the duration at the beginning and stick to it.)
- Always meet task deadlines and other commitments.
- When you are wrong about something, admit it honestly, immediately, and openly.
- Make it clear that you have no “magic wand.” Behavior change usually occurs slowly (a good reason for graphing). Let your team know that there may be setbacks. “Hang in there.”
- Be humble. Do not brag about your training, experience, or whom you know.
- Do not gossip, complain, or be critical about anything.
- Remember that, “the consumer/consultee is always right.” Do not place blame. When performance or progress is less than optimal, it just indicates the need for better environmental design.
- Avoid making “helpful” (and possibly unwanted) suggestions until you are absolutely sure that good rapport has been developed.
- Avoid technical jargon. Use simple, familiar language. Gradually, shift to more technically precise terminology.
- Develop procedures that staff can and will actually use (see Jim’s Carr’s Practitioner Notebook #2).
- Communicate why the specific procedures were selected (e.g., empirical evidence, clarity, do-ability, appeal, low cost.)
- Plan data collection procedures that are easy (and maybe even fun). When practical, reduce effort via automated or computerized data collection tools.
- Test procedures yourself before expecting staff to implement them. Demonstrate procedures and “coach” staff performance via faded prompts and feedback.
- If needed, plan a strategy to reduce reactivity during your observations or presence.
Understanding Staff and Administrator Needs
There will be times in the consulting setting where you will meet some strong resistance to your ideas and suggestions. To be a trusted, well-respected behavior analyst consultant, you must work hard to understand the needs of others. Live by the saying, “Walk a mile in their shoes.”
- Learn and respect the perspectives of stakeholders, and paradigms operating in the intervention setting.
- It may take time some time for others to acquire your level of enthusiasm about behavior analytic methods.
You’ve got your work cut out for you when consultation is
resisted due to unsuccessful or aversive experiences with
prior “experts,” differing theoretical orientations, or beliefs in
popular misconceptions about behavior analysis.- Anticipate and plan strategies to respond to these types of
opposition:
• rejecting the need, rationale, or empirical support for
behavioral intervention
• questioning the “fit” of the intervention to the consumer,
staff characteristics, and setting
• challenging the amount of required time, effort and other
resources (e.g., financial, material, personnel)
• doubting the significance or durability of the behavior change • suspecting undesirable side effects - When staff express opposing viewpoints, listen closely and politely. State your appreciation that they are openly sharing their opinions. Make non-committal remarks like “That’s an interesting perspective,” “I’ll consider what you said,” or “I’ll get back to you soon on that point.” Prepare an informed response and follow up as soon as possible.
- Look for and acknowledge common goals.
- Plan a specific strategy for dealing with especially “difficult” people.
- Know when to get help (e.g., additional consultation, supervisory support), and do so promptly.
By acquiring and polishing your basic professional consulting skills, you’ll be able to maximize results with everyone from the individual consumer to top level administrators. The author hopes this article will stimulate more discussion and research to better define professional consulting skills for behavior analysts. The short reference list below may guide such efforts.
Contact information: Dr. Kevin Murdock provides training and consultation to agencies and school districts serving persons with learning and behavioral challenges. He is a Past- President of the Florida Association for Behavior Analysis. Please direct your feedback and questions to him at: murdock@coedu.usf.edu
References
Bailey, J., & Burch, M. (2006). How to think like a behavior analyst: Understanding the
science that could change your life. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Carnegie, D. (1936). How to win friends & influence people. New York: Pocket Books.
Chandler, L.K. & Dahlquist, C.M. (2006). Guidelines for program implementation and
consultation. (pp. 283-312). In Functional assessment: Strategies to prevent and
remediate challenging behavior in school settings. Merrill Prentice-Hall.
Eubanks, J.L., O’Driscoll, M.P., Hayward, G.B., Daniels, J.A., & Connor, S.H. (1990).
Behavioral competency requirements for organization development consultants. Journal of
Organizational Behavior Management, 11(1), 77-97.
Fantuzzo, J., and Atkins, M. (1992). Applied behavior analysis for educators: Teacher
centered and classroom based. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 25(1), 37-42.
http://www.abainternational.org/tbasearch/view.asp?intID=291&strTable=TBA
Click to view abstract for “Twenty years of applied behavior analysis in treating the most
severe problem behavior: Lessons learned" – Foxx, R. M. (1996). The Behavior Analyst,
19(2), 225-235.
Knoff, H.M., McKenna, A.F., & Riser, K. (1991). Toward a consultant effectiveness scale:
Investigating the characteristics of effective consultants. School Psychology Review,
20(1), 81-96.
McIntyre, L.L., Gresham, F.M., DiGennaro, F.D., & Reed, D.D. (2007). Treatment integrity
of school-based interventions with children in Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis
studies from 1991 to 2005. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 40(4), 659-672.
Witt, J. C. (1986). Teacher resistance to the use of school-based interventions. Journal of
School Psychology, 24, 37-44.
< Previous :: Article 4 of 4