Sunrise Service It was a trying time for everybody the year The Company built its extruded Expandrium plant in Pocatello. The business office, the planning office, the architects, and top management finally got everything ready, and construction was begun. Ben Franklyn was to be Plant Construction Superintendent, and Ted Shelby and Stanley were his staff. Their task was to coordinate the efforts of the contractors, the mechanical engineers, the electrical engineers, and the operations people. They soon found this was not easy, and about a month after the ground was broken, Ben called a staff meeting. "I don't like the way this project is going," he told Ted and Stanley. "That's my take too, Ben," said Ted. "As I see it, there's a problem in getting everybody together on what's to be done." "Yeah," added Stanley, "I can tell you exactly what's going on. One of the electrical engineers comes and says that his group needs another generator installed. So you go to the mechanical engineers to see about the structure to house it. They're busy working on the ventilating system, and anyhow, they can't do a thing about the generator structure until the contractor hires some ironworkers. So you go to the contractor. He's busy on the main building, and anyhow, he can't submit any plans until the operations people okay the specifications for the generator installation." He continued, "So you go to the operations people. They're busy making modifications in the materials flow charts, and anyhow, they can't pass on the specifications until the electrical engineers explain to them why they want the extra generator in the first place. All those people have their priorities and their schedules, and none of them worries very much about the others." "I know all that," growled Ben. "The question is how do we fix it?" "I'd say we need to get together and talk it over. We need open communication," Ted suggested. Ted likes to have meetings. 'Meetings!" says Ben. "We've wasted enough damn time already!" Ben doesn't like to have meetings. But after a minute's thought, "You know, Shelby, maybe that's not such a bad idea, no, not such a bad idea at all. Get together and get our signals straight, yeah, each morning before work." "But work starts at 7:30," says Stanley. "Well, an hour should be enough," says Ben. "We'll start at 6:30." And almost absentmindedly, "Yeah, 6:30 ought to do it all right." "Now just a minute, Ben," says Ted, who doesn't like meetings that much, "if we can't get those people together now, we certainly can't get them together when we're all half asleep." "Never you mind," says Ben. "I know what I'm doing." Ben schedules a series of meetings every morning at 6:30 A.M. for the supervisors and engineers from his various groups, and he notifies them that they are expected to be there. For two straight weeks, they are there, and they are not happy. Still, they do manage to solve some of their problems. 74In the first meeting of the third week, Ben begins by saying, "I am really happy with the progress we've been making. If things go OK today, I don't know that we need to meet tomorrow morning. Things go just great that day, and Ben skips a day on the meeting. The next meeting ends with Ben saying, "It seems to me that we've got the next couple of days under control, so what do you say we skip the meetings until next week. You've all got your marching orders, so let's see how things go, and maybe we'll have a meeting next Monday morning." As it turned out, everything kept going so smoothly, that next Monday's meeting was the last "sunrise service" that anybody had to attend for the duration of the project. Why did such a tactic work? Could Ben Franklyn do anything but generate animosity by requiring his people to attend a meeting at 6:30 in the morning? Well, in the first place, he demonstrated that he meant business by showing up himself at all those meetings. In the second place, he made it quite apparent that all they had to do to quit having those meetings was to get together and coordinate their efforts. The principle Ben used here we have termed negative reinforcement, defined as the removal of a painful stimulus once a desired behavior is consistently performed. Ben wouldn't have appreciated the psychologists' terminology, but he sure as hell understood the application of the principle. Discussion Questions 1. How did Ben Franklyn use the principle of negative reinforcement to achieve his objective? 2. Why did negative reinforcement work better than punishment or positive reinforcement in this situation? 3. How was Ben able to avoid hostility and anger throughout the "sunrise services?" 4. Can you think of similar examples from your own experience where a person of authority used negative reinforcement? Was the individual as clever as Franklyn in arranging to deflect personal criticism? Was he or she successful