An expert in coaching and organizational leadership, Dr. Paul “Paulie” Gavoni is a behavior scientist who has worked in education, human services, and sports for over two decades. In this capacity, he served the needs of children and adults in a variety of positions including COO, Vice President, Director of School Improvement, Leadership Director, Professor, Assistant Principal, School Turnaround Manager, Clinical Coordinator, Therapist, Trainer, Coach, and Behavior Analyst. As COO at Brett DiNovi International, Dr. Gavoni is passionate about applying Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) and Organizational Behavior Management (OBM) strategies to help establish positive and engaging environments across industries to bring out the best in people. He is a Board Member of the Opioid Awareness Foundation and The World Behavior Analysis Day Alliance.
Beyond his work in education and human services, Dr. Gavoni is also a former fighter and highly respected striking coach in combat sports. Coach “Paulie Gloves,” as he is known in the Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) community, has trained world champions and UFC vets using technologies rooted in the behavioral sciences. Coach Paulie has been featured in the books Beast: Blood, Struggle, and Dreams at the Heart of Mixed Martial Arts, A Fighter’s Way, and the feature article Ring to Cage: How four former boxers help mold MMA’s finest. He is also an author who has written extensively for online magazines such as Bloody Elbow, Scifighting, Last Word on Sports, and Bloody Elbow where his Fight Science series continues to bring behavior science to MMA.

Abstract: Supporting the needs of clients at scale requires good leadership. Decades of research on applying behavior analysis to leadership practices has given us a number of tools rooted in Organizational Behavior Management (OBM) proven to be effective at bringing out the best in employees so they can bring out the best in the learners they support. However, OBM is not a one-stop-shop, only to be accessed when something goes wrong. Leadership isn’t about position or title (e.g., CEO, Director, Supervisor, Behavior Analyst, etc.), it’s about positively influencing behavior. And good leaders don’t just wait for an issue to arise and then work to put out the fire; instead, they proactively pinpoint, goal set, and create feedback loops to shape performance-improvement. The purpose of this talk is to discuss leadership from any position through the lens of 5 behavioral essentials for producing social valid outcomes within and outside of behavior analytic organizations.