Sep 10 / Dr. Kristyn Peterson, PhD, BCBA, LBA, LSSMBB

OBM Works Outside the ABA Clinic. Here Are 20+ Industries That Prove It.

One of the most common things we hear from BCBAs thinking about OBM is some version of: "I get that theoretically ABA works in organizations. I just don't know if it actually works in the real world."

It does. We know because the people who teach our courses have done it.
Moralis Machina is a workforce development company, not a consulting firm. But our collaborators are working practitioners who have spent careers applying behavioral science in real organizations - not just presenting about it at conferences. Between them, they have worked in more than 20 industries. Here's a look at where, and what it actually looked like.

BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE DOESN'T CARE ABOUT INDUSTRY.

Reinforcement contingencies work the same way in a call center as they do in a clinic. Performance problems in a bank look structurally similar to performance problems in a behavioral health organization. Change is hard everywhere, for the same reasons.

What changes between industries is the language, the stakeholders, and the specific systems you're working in. The science doesn't change. Once you've learned to apply behavioral science organizationally, the industry is mostly a translation problem.

WHERE OUR INSTRUCTORS HAVE TAKEN OBM

Animal Shelters

Construction

Gym & Fitness

IT

Professional Services

Arts & Cultural Organizations

Consulting

Healthcare Systems

Learning & Development

Retail

Behavioral Health

Energy & Fuel Retail

Higher Education

Manufacturing

SaaS

Call Centers

Grocery

Human Resources

Non-profits

Tech

Below are three examples of what OBM looks like in practice. We chose these one specifically because they're the ones that tend to raise the most eyebrows.

BANKING

A little context...
Highly regulated industries are interesting OBM territory for a specific reason: the expectations are usually crystal clear, which means when behavior still isn't happening, you can't blame ambiguity. Something else is going on.
Where OBM Came In: 
Banks have a surprising number of audits, and it's not just money audits. We worked with a bank who had failed an important audit (for "asset management", specifically. If you're interested Google it, but it's not really the point of the story). These audits have clear expectations and requirements up front. There are no surprises. But, even though this bank knew exactly what was expected, they'd failed the audit twice. Due to this failure, they were fined money for every day that the issues weren't resolved. Clear antecedents, clear (and honestly pretty gnarly) consequences. And yet, the right behaviors weren't happening. Why? Because they didn't have the right systems or the right environment to get those behaviors to occur. That's what we worked on with them, and it turned into a 3+ year engagement based on the success of that initial project where we righted the ship on the audit. 

*This project was not at Wells Fargo. We just liked the photo. But... we aren't saying we've never worked with them. 

CONSULTING

A little context...
Consulting firms sell performance. Which makes it a little awkward when their own internal performance is the problem… 
Where OBM comes in: 
It's kind of meta, but you can consult with consultants. In fact, this project (which was part of Kristyn's “big girl”, aka full-time job) won her and the team she led the OBM Network's Outstanding Applied OBM Intervention Award in 2024. We focused on increasing "critical work behaviors" of people in the project management office at a management consulting firm. Project managers are often the lifeblood of consulting. Managing tasks, schedule, scope and budget for multiple client engagements simultaneously is table stakes for most consulting agencies, so failing to do it well can have significant negative financial consequences to the consulting agency, and leave their customers with a sub-par product or service. Instead, this consulting agency increased their revenue by $7,277 per month based on these improvements; a substantial gain for their size and average monthly revenue.

Real life footage of us providing a consulting engagement.
Jk. We don't know him. 

GAS STATIONS

A little bit of context... 
Multi-unit retail operations live and die by their ability to scale consistently. When something breaks in the system, it doesn't just affect one location - it blocks growth entirely.
Where OBM came in: 
One of our favorite projects was a gas station chain who came to us saying "We want to open more locations, but we keep losing giant pieces of equipment". Think... $60,000 industrial deep fryers and enormous drink fridges. We knew that these things weren't growing legs and running for the hills from the warehouses. With behavioral Systems Analysis (BSA), 3 GoPros, and a really gnarly Excel spreadsheet masquerading as an inventory system, we helped them sort out their warehouse woes so they had the infrastructure to confidently open 32 new locations in 12 months. 

Also... not the customer. Noticing a trend? The truth is many of us are contractually prevented from naming customers, so we just never do it. 

P.S... This project was the case study for one of our BSA CEUs entitled, "How BSA Can Help BCBAs Make a Macro-Level Impact" if you want to learn more about the mysterious case of the missing deep fryers. 

BCBA WHO'S THINKING ABOUT WHAT'S NEXT?

The industries above are not a credential list. They're context.

They mean that when you learn OBM from Moralis Machina, the examples are real, the edge cases are real, and the problems you'll encounter in your own work have probably already shown up in someone's engagement. That's what practitioner-built content actually means.

Not sure where your skills could take you? Start with our free OBM Interest Profile. It takes less than 10 minutes and points you toward the subspecialties that fit your background and interests best.

Frequently Asked Questions

What industries use organizational behavior management (OBM)?

OBM has been applied across a wide range of industries including healthcare systems, banking, manufacturing, retail, nonprofits, higher education, tech and SaaS, consulting, construction, call centers, and more.

Any organization that has performance problems (... which is all of them) is a candidate for OBM. The science of behavior is industry-agnostic; what changes between sectors is the language, the regulatory environment, and the specific systems being analyzed. Moralis Machina instructors have done OBM work across more than 20 industries, from animal shelters to management consulting firms to gas station chains.

Do BCBAs need industry-specific experience to do OBM consulting in a new sector?

No (but it can be helpful). That fact is one of the most underappreciated things about OBM as a discipline. BCBAs bring a framework for analyzing behavior in systems that transfers across industries. You do not need to know how a bank works to diagnose why the right behaviors aren't happening inside one. You need to know how to conduct a behavioral systems analysis, identify antecedents and consequences, and design environments that support performance. Those skills work everywhere. Industry context matters, but it can be learned on the job. The behavioral science framework is the hard part, and BCBAs already have it. 

Is OBM evidence-based outside of traditional ABA and clinical settings?

Absolutely! Organizational behavior management has a peer-reviewed research base dating back to the 1970s, published in journals like the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management (JOBM). Applied research covers performance management, behavioral safety, behavioral systems analysis, training design, and more across a wide range of organizational contexts. OBM is not an extension of clinical ABA; it is a parallel application of the same behavioral science principles, with its own body of research developed specifically in organizational settings.

How is OBM different from regular management consulting or organizational development?

OBM is grounded in the science of behavior. It uses behavioral principles like reinforcement, antecedent control, and systems analysis to understand and change performance. Traditional management consulting and organizational development often rely on frameworks that are not empirically derived and do not account for the contingencies that actually drive behavior. The difference shows up most clearly in how problems are diagnosed: OBM practitioners ask what environmental conditions are producing the current behavior, rather than attributing performance problems to attitude, motivation, or personality. That distinction leads to interventions that are more precise, more measurable, and more durable.

Can a BCBA work as an OBM consultant without a business or management background?

Yes, though there is a learning curve in learning to speak the language of organizational stakeholders. Most BCBAs who enter OBM find that their behavioral science training is a stronger foundation than any business credential. The gap is usually in vocabulary and context, not in analytical rigor.

Understanding how to frame behavioral analysis in terms that resonate with leadership (ROI, KPIs, process improvement) is a learnable skill. The harder-to-learn part - how to actually analyze and change behavior in complex systems - is what BCBAs already know how to do.

What OBM subspecialties are most in demand right now?

Performance management, behavioral systems analysis, and change management consulting are the most consistently in-demand OBM application areas. Behavioral safety has a long track record in manufacturing and construction. Learning and development roles inside corporations are a natural entry point for BCBAs because the connection between behavioral science and training design is immediately legible to hiring managers. HR and organizational development roles are growing as organizations look for more data-driven approaches to people management. The subspecialty that is most in demand for any individual BCBA depends heavily on their existing experience, industry connections, and interests. 

That's why we built a quiz to help narrow it down!