In real estate and business, the elemental truth is simple "Location, Location, and Location."

In behavior management, the elemental truth is similar, "documentation, documentation, and documentation."

A friend of mine, (Bert Webb) who publishes Open Loops, a site on efficiency and effectiveness in education and business, and I have worked together on several projects designed to streamline documentation. Most of these have taken the form of fill in the blank and pop up electronic documents that greatly increase the speed with which we may record the information.

11. Write out, in detail, the specific behavior that you see as the problem. Let it "cool" for 24 hours and read what you wrote. If you still consider the behavior to be a problem you should continue to the next step.

Keep in mind, temporary inconveniences, or things that will not affect your efficiency, effectiveness or growth really are not problems. In these instances, you should use what I like to call "Lincoln's Logic."

If Abraham Lincoln had a problem with someone's behavior, he sat down and wrote a letter that illuminated that person's shortcomings in great and cruel detail. He then, having gotten it off his chest, put it in a drawer to cool. If, when he read the letter 24 hours later, he still felt it was important enough to address he would take the issue up with the person.

12. In your documentation, you must be sure you are addressing the problem behavior and not the person. For example, you would not say, "Mr. Edwards is always late." Instead, you would record, "On the dates of 4/1, 4/2, 4/3 and 4/5 Mr. Edwards arrived at 9:15. Arrival time is 9:00."

13. Although, you may assume the person is aware there is a problem that may not be the case. At this point, you should explain your expectations to the person. In many cases making the person aware there is a problem solves the problem. Make sure you record this exchange with dates and times.

14. If the area continues to be a problem, you should develop a plan of action. Explain in detail what you expect the person to do to correct the situation.

At this point, if you are in the business community, you may be asking "why?" The answer is money. It is almost invariably less expensive to "grow a great employee" from what you have than it is to recruit, hire and train a new one.

If you are in education, similar elemental truths hold true. It is "better" to "grow a great student" from what you have, than it is to be miserably unhappy with what you have.

15. You must come to agreement on the plan to replace the maladaptive behavior. If both parties do not buy in to the solution, it is unlikely to be successful. Document this agreement with signatures and dates on a written plan of action.