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The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria

Why Your Behavior Plan Stinks!!! Session 180 with Merrill Winston

The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria

Matt Cicoria

Science, Mental Health, Skinner, Behaviorism, Behaviorconsultant, Aba, Behavioralpsychology, Health & Fitness, Appliedbehavioranalysis, Autism, Acceptanceandcommitmenttherapy, Fba, Social Sciences, Verbalbehavior, Bcba, Functionalassessment, Discretetrial

4.8648 Ratings

🗓️ 22 February 2022

⏱️ 82 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This recording was a fun and way-overdue Patreon member hangout with the incomparable Dr. Merrill Winston. In this episode, we discussed how Greg Hanley influenced Merrill's departure from his previous employer, how he wanted to do more than be considered as the restrain and seclusion guru, his new enterprise, Winston Behavioral Solutions, when it's OK to break the rules, and much more. 

As a matter of fact, we spent the most amount the hangout discussing what makes a good behavior plan (and conversely, why some of them stink!). 

This session started out in an interview format, but we quickly transitioned to Q and A with the attendees, and what resulted was a genuinely enjoyable conversation amongst several experienced Behavior Analysts.

And if you don't listen to anything else, you have to listen to the hilarious story that Merrill closes the hangout with. While I'd love it if you listened to the podcast in its entirety, you could be forgiven for skipping to the end to hear it. 

Here are some links to things that came up in Session 180:

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  • The 2022 Verbal Behavior Conference! The 2022 event will be taking place both in-person and virtually over April 7th and 8th. If you can't make it to Austin, Texas, then head over to behaviorlive.com/vbc for info on how to tune in from afar. The conference itself will feature Vince Carbone, Francesca Degli Espinosa, Tamara Kasper, Pat McGreevy, Sarah Lechago, Kevin Luczynski, Kelle Rich, David Roth, Mark Sundberg, and Hank Schlinger. I will be there too to host the 2022 Panel Discussion, so again, if you’re interested in learning more, head on over to behaviorlive.com/vbc for more details.
  • Institutional Tier Patron Greenspace Behavioral Technology. Greenspace behavior offers cutting edge supervisor coaching, performance and competency-based trainings, and organizational supports for new BCBA and trainees. Find out how you can optimize your supervision practices, improve clinical outcomes, and increase employee satisfaction at Greenspacebehavior.com.
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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hey, everyone, welcome to session 180 of the Behavioral Observations podcast. This is a fun and way overdue

0:05.7

Patreon member hangout featuring Dr. Merrill Winston, who long-time listeners will know has been on the show

0:11.6

several times. In the times in which he's been on the show, we've stayed in touch. And we end up

0:18.0

talking pretty frequently about all sorts of things, behavior analysis.

0:22.6

And so I thought it would be a good idea to bring him on the hangout and have folks asking questions directly and things along those lines.

0:31.7

So in this particular conversation, we talked about how Greg Hanley influenced Merrill's departure from his previous employer,

0:39.2

how he wanted to do more than be considered as just a restrained seclusion guru,

0:44.5

his new enterprise Winston behavioral solutions, and much, much more.

0:49.4

However, we spent the most amount of time discussing what makes a good behavior plan good. And conversely,

0:56.7

what makes some of them, I guess, not past muster. So I think anyone who's out there writing

1:03.7

behavior plans will hopefully get a lot out of this episode. Merrill just has a good way of

1:09.5

making complex things really simple, and I think

1:12.5

there's a lot of messages here that will resonate with the audience. This session started out as an

1:18.7

interview, but we quickly transitioned to Q&A with the attendees, and it was just a really

1:25.2

enjoyable conversation amongst several experienced behavior analysts.

1:28.3

So it turned out to be kind of like sharing ideas amongst the attendees more than anything else.

1:35.3

So it's the kind of conversation I think you'll probably over here in a conference bar or something like that, perhaps minus the alcohol.

1:46.5

So if you don't listen to anything else, I'd like you to listen to the hilarious story that Merrill closes the show with. So I won't

1:52.8

really tease it any more than that. But even if you have to fast forward all the way to the end

1:58.1

to check it out, it's worth doing. It's really funny. So

2:01.9

there is a little bit of, I guess, mild potty language here and there. So if you've got

2:08.8

tender ears listening along with you, just be on the lookout for that. Nothing too, too bad,

...

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