Reinforcement beats training: 4 loops that make change stick
Reinforcement Beats Training
The 4 loops that make change stick
Happy Thursday. This week’s note is about sustainment: how you keep adoption from decaying after go-live. The short version—training is an event; reinforcement is the system.
The idea in 30 seconds
If you don’t build reinforcement loops, adoption decays and “the tool didn’t work” becomes the story.
The framework
Build these 4 reinforcement loops:
Feedback loop: “You said / we changed” Make fixes visible; close the loop fast.
Measurement loop: reliability + one outcome proxy Keep metrics small and honest.
Recognition loop: celebrate the behavior you want Public recognition for teams who model the new standard.
Coaching loop: peers support peers Super-users/champions provide brief, targeted coaching in real workflow.
A quick example
A rollout succeeded early, then drifted at month two. A weekly reliability readout + two small fixes + champion coaching restored performance quickly—without retraining everyone.
How to measure it
Reliability trend (watch for drift)
Time from feedback → change deployed
% of units/teams with a named champion
Coaching touches per week (small and targeted)
One action for this week
Write a sustainment plan in three lines: who reviews reliability, when, and what triggers a change.
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