How to Train Your People

Imagine placing a rat into a new cage that has a toy with two levers. If the rat presses down on one, it gets shocked and with the other, it is given food. The rat will quickly learn to avoid the shock-giving lever and to engage only with the food-releasing lever. This simple environment trains the rat to exhibit these habits. 

Although the surroundings of rats in the wild are more complex, they also condition specific behaviors. Wild rats learn where to find water and how to avoid predators. They discover safe places to build nests and raise their young. In a rat colony, a social environment emerges and this too becomes a training ground for behavior. Some rats will become aggressive, while others will become more reserved. 

We humans are also social animals and as such, we too are conditioned by our social network. And this works the other way as well: we condition the people around us. Our people train us and we train our people. 

You are an environment that trains the people you interact with. The way in which you are treated by others is due, at least in part, to how you have trained them to treat you. Even if you disagree with this idea, I invite you to try it on like a new pair of glasses. It might enable you to see your life in a way that you’ve never seen it before. 

This week, I invite you to ask yourself: 

How am I training people to treat me? Am I excited about how people are treating me? If not, what can I start doing, stop doing, commit to, or request that might train people to treat me differently?

God bless,
Dan

P.S. This article is inspired by a series of questions that executive coach Joseph King Barkley asked in the weekly development call of Novus Global. Also, I missed writing an article last week so reader #51 will be getting $100. I’m recommitting to writing these articles weekly and to giving another $100 to a randomly selected reader if I miss one. Thank you all for your ongoing accountability and support.