All Behaviour is Purposeful

What is the best way to acknowledge those in our world who have “questionable” behaviour? Surprisingly – through reward. By seeing, hearing and accepting them for where they are any given moment.

While training at NLPU at the Trainer and Consultancy Programme in 2006 in Santa Cruz (California), I learnt about behaviour. I had never really considered behaviour being separate to self before and learnt that all behaviour is all purposeful. A means to an end. A way to communicate and often unconscious.

This revelation was all based on the research undertaken by anthropologist Gregory Bateson. He was observing the behaviour of a porpoise and its trainer and saw that the trainer would reward the animal with a fish whenever it did a trick. The porpoise would then perform a new trick in return.

The reward was to keep engaged and encourage “new” behaviour. So when the porpoise failed to perform a trick, it would still be rewarded with a fish and this would result in a new trick – again rewards resulted in new creative behaviour.

If this nature is true in animals, can you imagine what our world would be like if we had a basic reward system for undesired behaviour in humans? Calling into existence a new behaviour?

Words are enough.