As an ABA practice grows, clinical quality alone is not enough. Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs) must be trained to manage systems, people, workflows, quality, and accountability. Organizational Behavior Management, or OBM, gives clinicians the tools to lead consistently, improve performance, and prevent growth from creating chaos.
I recently met Stacy, a BCBA practice owner. She was looking for a part-time role with a small caseload to supplement her income due to her own practice not generating enough income for her to live. The more I talked with her, the story followed a similar pattern as reported by other BCBA business owners I’ve talked with: daytime hours are spent firefighting and answering familiar questions from families and staff, with evenings and weekends spent on things like billing, with no one able to manage a function well enough for the BCBA practice owner to let go. Stacy was passionate about her team and families, and I have no doubt there was excellent, ethical, clinical quality. However, how can Stacy continue working 70 hours per week just keeping the chaos to a minimum while her company stopped growing and helping more kids?
As Stacy’s company grew, she remained the single source of information (aka a single point of failure in a broken system). She’s an excellent BCBA, but that didn’t prepare her to manage a team, a function, or an organization. A growing practice now needs people who can manage:
I recently met Stacy, a BCBA practice owner. She was looking for a part-time role with a small caseload to supplement her income due to her own practice not generating enough income for her to live. The more I talked with her, the story followed a similar pattern as reported by other BCBA business owners I’ve talked with: daytime hours are spent firefighting and answering familiar questions from families and staff, with evenings and weekends spent on things like billing, with no one able to manage a function well enough for the BCBA practice owner to let go. Stacy was passionate about her team and families, and I have no doubt there was excellent, ethical, clinical quality. However, how can Stacy continue working 70 hours per week just keeping the chaos to a minimum while her company stopped growing and helping more kids?
As Stacy’s company grew, she remained the single source of information (aka a single point of failure in a broken system). She’s an excellent BCBA, but that didn’t prepare her to manage a team, a function, or an organization. A growing practice now needs people who can manage:
Realities of Managing an ABA Practice
Many ABA companies promote strong BCBAs into supervisory or leadership roles without giving them a management framework. A BCBA may suddenly be expected to coach or supervise other clinicians, monitor quality at a larger scale, manage parent escalations, hold staff accountable to billing expectations, coordinate with intake, scheduling, billing, HR, and payers, and make decisions that affect the entire practice.
But they may not have been taught how to set clear performance expectations, give behavior-specific feedback, use data to manage staff performance, identify process breakdowns, hold people accountable without being punitive, train others to fluency, and delegate effectively.
BCBAs need to learn to build systems instead of constantly firefighting and doing the work themselves. Without OBM, growth often turns high-performing clinicians into overwhelmed managers. I’ve seen hard working high performing BCBAs take on leadership roles, only to write every assessment and treatment plan themselves instead of coaching others and holding them accountable. It’s a surefire path to burnout that can be avoided by using OBM as a management framework.
But they may not have been taught how to set clear performance expectations, give behavior-specific feedback, use data to manage staff performance, identify process breakdowns, hold people accountable without being punitive, train others to fluency, and delegate effectively.
BCBAs need to learn to build systems instead of constantly firefighting and doing the work themselves. Without OBM, growth often turns high-performing clinicians into overwhelmed managers. I’ve seen hard working high performing BCBAs take on leadership roles, only to write every assessment and treatment plan themselves instead of coaching others and holding them accountable. It’s a surefire path to burnout that can be avoided by using OBM as a management framework.
How OBM Fits In
OBM applies the science of behavior to workplace performance. For Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) organizations, this should feel natural: we already believe behavior is influenced by the environment. OBM simply applies that same logic to staff, supervisors, and systems, and it works. OBM is not “corporate management language.” It is behavior analysis applied to organizational performance.
OBM helps leaders diagnose issues and answer:
Leadership & Management Shortage
Stacy continued to take on all the management work because she reported no other clinician has been able to take on management of a function, and she didn’t trust a non-BCBA to understand what she does everyday. Although other practices have trained non-BCBAs to successfully manage a function in an ABA company, I understood her preference. The reality is many BCBAs do great clinical work for years, don’t want a leadership position, but may want to manage a single function as a next step for them.
ABA companies struggle to find managers to oversee things like scheduling, so why not train BCBAs to manage by using OBM, so they can have a change of pace and add value to the practice. In Stacy’s case, she needs to invest in some OBM supervision for one of her BCBAs, and maybe herself too.
What OBM Supervision Should Teach BCBAs
BCBAs that want to manage a function and get into leadership need to use OBM for a lot of things. Learning how to set clear expectations, selecting behavior and outcomes for measurement, consequence management, training to competency, and diagnosing performance issues are just some of the ways OBM can help BCBAs.
It starts with setting clear expectations for staff. For example:
Selecting the right target behavior and outcomes to measure is a critical component of OBM. Supervisors should learn to identify practical performance indicators, such as treatment integrity scores, supervision frequency, client progress towards goals, and parent training frequency. If you aren't collecting data and reviewing it, you aren’t managing or using OBM. Supervisors should understand that staff behavior is shaped by consequences. Recognition, attention, opportunities, reduced friction, and meaningful support can all affect workplace behavior. Ensure the right consequences are in place for staff to drive the desired behavior or outcome.
OBM-informed supervision should teach BCBAs how to train staff using rationale-provision, modeling, rehearsal, feedback, and fluency checks rather than assuming that telling someone once is enough. Behavioral skills training is so helpful.
OBM-informed supervision should teach BCBAs how to train staff using rationale-provision, modeling, rehearsal, feedback, and fluency checks rather than assuming that telling someone once is enough. Behavioral skills training is so helpful.
Diagnosing Performance Issues
Think about something as simple as a Scheduler that doesn’t notify a technician of a cancelled session. This communication should be part of a routine process, and it’s a big deal when someone shows up to a session that the company knew was canceled. Not every performance issue is a motivation issue. Skill deficits happen for a variety of issues too. OBM helps supervisors ask:
The performance diagnostic checklist is an invaluable tool for getting to the root cause of a performance issue. If you have a recurring problem that no one seems to be solving, this tool is your friend. It can help determine if it’s an issue with motivation, skill, equipment, or something else. Once you know the root causes(s), you can fix the problem.
Benefits of OBM
OBM isn’t just for operations. It can be applied to clinical quality. Think about the behavior and outcomes you want to measure, such as how often a BCBA updates a client’s program, how long it takes clients to achieve goals, and even time in treatment.
Staff turnover can also be measured. Staff often leave organizations because of unclear expectations, poor training, inconsistent feedback, lack of support, or weak supervisors.
Staff appreciate clear expectations, recognition when the data shows they’re doing well, and far less chaos with daily operations. People are more likely to stay when they know what success looks like and have a supervisor who helps them get there
Developing Managers With OBM
Stacy can start to learn OBM in a variety of ways. Study an OBM Certificate, engage an Executive Coach who is a BCBA, and most importantly, take steps to start implementing OBM in a practice. A confidential confidant who is an OBM supervisor can help a BCBA practice owner apply the principles of OBM to their workplace, and act as a sounding board for decisions. Start with one function, define some desired outcomes and behaviors, track the data and measure it. What gets measured gets managed. Stacy should pick the most chaortic function she doesn’t want to manage, define desired outcomes of the function, what behaviors drive those outcomes, and what data to collect. Use a performance diagnostic checklist to see what’s broken, fix it, and watch the data.
OBM Supervision
OBM supervision should not be theoretical. It should be embedded into the real work supervisors are already doing. If a BCBA has been in a leadership position and used OBM before, they could be a good fit to give you supplemental supervision. Include a practical list of topics such as:
If ABA organizations want to grow without sacrificing quality, they must invest in OBM supervision for the people responsible for leading the work. For a practice owner like Stacy, it can reduce her workload and chaos. As an ABA practice grows, the organization must intentionally train people to manage functions. OBM gives BCBAs the structure to become effective leaders, not just strong clinicians. Clinical quality starts the practice. OBM helps it grow.
ABA practice owners can reach out for support any time. We don’t do paid consulting, and are simply happy to have conversations with like-minded BCBAs trying to improve the field. OBM@acclaimtraining.com
Jamie Turner
MBA, PMP, BCBA
