The robots are coming! An analysis of creativity in the workplace
DOUGLAS A. JOHNSON
Western Michigan University
July 20th, 2017
Organizational Behavior Management: Origins, Applications, and Advantages Conference
Kinneret Academic College, Israel
Correspondence: behavioranalyst@gmail.com
Slide1

Douglas A. Johnson, Ph.D.
Western Michigan UniversitySlide2

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The increasing automation of theworkplace
FANUC facilities
Nearly half of jobs are susceptible
to being automatedSelf-driving technology and thetrucking industry

Disappearance of tasks requiring
unskilled labor
Trace back until the Industrial
Revolution around 1760
Anti-technology movements suchas the Luddites in the early 1800s
did not halt this progress
Employment in farming in 1900
(41%) vs. 2000 (2%)

The robots are coming! An analysis of creativity in the workplace
DOUGLAS A. JOHNSON
Western Michigan University
July 20th, 2017
Organizational Behavior Management: Origins, Applications, and Advantages Conference
Kinneret Academic College, Israel
Correspondence: behavioranalyst@gmail.com
Slide4

Slide5Slide
6Growing demand inbusiness and industry:Creativity!

Customer service jobs are alsobeing automatedIntelligent speech recognition
applications instead of humanoperators over the phone
Robotic bartenders
Development of a strong sense of
automation anxiety

Despite over 250 years ofincreasing automation,
unemployment rates have notdramatically increased since theIndustrial Revolution
While certain jobs aredisappearing forever, other jobs
are appearing for the first time
everCorporate innovation ascompetitive edge
Not just building new technology,
but finding creative application oftechnologies and creative ways ofmarketing such technology

The robots are coming! An analysis of creativity in the workplace
DOUGLAS A. JOHNSON
Western Michigan University
July 20th, 2017
Organizational Behavior Management: Origins, Applications, and Advantages Conference
Kinneret Academic College, Israel
Correspondence: behavioranalyst@gmail.com
Slide
7

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Slide8Slide9If OBM does not prepare for thecoming workplace of future, we willbe left behind
1950s psychology for a 1950sworkplace
Perception that we have nothing to
say about the most admirable ofhuman achievements
Important for all of behavior
analysis, not just OBM, that werespond to the challenge that weare too simplistic

As is the case with most importantconcepts used casually andinconsistently by the generalpublic, defining creativity is not aneasy task
You will NOT get consensus.

Here’s the definition that I’m going
with: Novelty + value
Fits most of the verbal community
usage of the term
Not a simple topography
Performer and audience: Audience
has inconsistent criteria for value

The robots are coming! An analysis of creativity in the workplace
DOUGLAS A. JOHNSON
Western Michigan University
July 20th, 2017
Organizational Behavior Management: Origins, Applications, and Advantages ConferenceKinneret Academic College, Israel
Correspondence: behavioranalyst@gmail.com
Slide
10

Some forms of valued novelty
are not particularly confusingSlide11Slide12

Minor forms (variability, rulefollowing, Imitation) and major
forms (unclear controllingvariables): Minor creativity
Sources of control aren’t so
obvious: Major Creativity

Building fluency with components
to increase probability of more
complex combinations
Training tends to neglect
More fluent with basic skills, more
likely to extend to new areas ofapplication
Example: Sales pitch at just theright moment delivered with
uninterrupted flow

Pull together skills that werelearned separately
Example of a new customer
demand: Combine a fluent scriptwith some old bit of fluent training
or fact you learned elsewhere:
Unique but effective sales pitch

The robots are coming! An analysis of creativity in the workplace
DOUGLAS A. JOHNSON
Western Michigan University
July 20th, 2017
Organizational Behavior Management: Origins, Applications, and Advantages Conference
Kinneret Academic College, Israel
Correspondence: behavioranalyst@gmail.com
Slide13Wolfgang Köhler
Chimpanzee problem solving withmakeshift ladders
Common sense understanding ofinsight as magical solution fromout of nowhere
Columban simulations: Skinnerand Epstein (cooperation,communication, imitation, selfconcept, insightful problemsolving)

Slide14

One of our preferred organisms:
the reliable pigeon

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15

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Keep things analogous to Köhler
Peck plastic banana rather thanplastic key dischello

The robots are coming! An analysis of creativity in the workplace
DOUGLAS A. JOHNSON
Western Michigan University
July 20th, 2017
Organizational Behavior Management: Origins, Applications, and Advantages Conference
Kinneret Academic College, Israel
Correspondence: behavioranalyst@gmail.com
Nice in the sense they have little
history with this object

Slide17Creatures of flight, not typicallyclimbers

Slide
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Pushing is also unusual

Slide
16

I’m a box. I don’t speak.

The robots are coming! An analysis of creativity in the workplace
DOUGLAS A. JOHNSON
Western Michigan University
July 20th, 2017
Organizational Behavior Management: Origins, Applications, and Advantages Conference
Kinneret Academic College, Israel
Correspondence: behavioranalyst@gmail.com
Slide19

Three component skills taughtindependently until fluent

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Pulled together with theappearance of creative insight, butnote that this comes from thehistory of organism (not magicalprocess)
Much like what we are doing with
OBM here as a whole
We’re taking the behavior analysis
skills that were learned to fluency
elsewhere, applying them under
the new demands of theworkplace, and hopefully
encountering rewards

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Slide
21

Creativity is just connecting things.
When you ask creative people how they did
something, they feel a little guilty because
they didn't really do it, they just saw
something. It seemed obvious tothem after a while.
That's because they were able toconnect experiences they've had andsynthesize new things. And the reason
they were able to do that was thatthey've had more experiencesor they have thought more about theirexperiences than other people.
– Steve Jobs

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Quote from Steve Jobs to illustrate
this notion

The robots are coming! An analysis of creativity in the workplace
DOUGLAS A. JOHNSON
Western Michigan University
July 20th, 2017
Organizational Behavior Management: Origins, Applications, and Advantages ConferenceKinneret Academic College, Israel
Correspondence: behavioranalyst@gmail.com
Slide22

Slide23Slide24Changing current environments toevoke successful novel
performance
Problem-solving as self-managed
environmental rearrangements

Unlike most training efforts,
innovation is unlikely to have apredetermined outcome
Fluency and thin schedules –persistence: how do you knowwhat skills are relevant

Planned extinction and capitalizing
on resurgence
Neglected aspect of extinction
process

The robots are coming! An analysis of creativity in the workplace
DOUGLAS A. JOHNSON
Western Michigan University
July 20th, 2017
Organizational Behavior Management: Origins, Applications, and Advantages Conference
Kinneret Academic College, Israel
Correspondence: behavioranalyst@gmail.com
Slide
25

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Direct reinforcement of novelty:
Novelty as just another dimensionof behavior

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26

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Guidelines

Select for employeeswith skills suspected
to be relevant toinnovations

Slide
27

Rearrange
environment for
novel sources ofstimulus control

The robots are coming! An analysis of creativity in the workplace
DOUGLAS A. JOHNSON
Western Michigan University
July 20th, 2017
Organizational Behavior Management: Origins, Applications, and Advantages Conference
Kinneret Academic College, Israel
Correspondence: behavioranalyst@gmail.com
Slide
28

Intrinsic motivationis unlikely to besufficient

Slide
29

Failures will becommon, so
minimize aversive
outcomes

Slide
30

Explicitly target
novelty or
creativity forreinforcement

The robots are coming! An analysis of creativity in the workplace
DOUGLAS A. JOHNSON
Western Michigan University
July 20th, 2017
Organizational Behavior Management: Origins, Applications, and Advantages Conference
Kinneret Academic College, Israel
Correspondence: behavioranalyst@gmail.com
Slide
31

Pair creative action
with reinforcing
stimuliSlide32