Excellence in Training

Mixed Messages

Treat people with respect.

Be empathic.

Employ active listening skills. 

These important messages are communicated to officers throughout training as critical skills for law enforcement professionals. These skills will help officers remain professional at all times, establish rapport with victims, witnessed and suspects. These skills will help get confessions. These skills are as important as physical skills for law enforcement professionals. These skills will help officers be safer and more effective in the field.

And yet, in the same training programs, trainers refer to subjects as dirt bags, scum bags, assholes, degenerates, pieces of crap, low life, and other disrespectful, derogatory and demeaning terms.

This is extremely dangerous for a number of reason. We will look at two today:

1. Demeaning and derogatory terms send the subconscious message that these people do not train and are ill prepared to deal with the real professionals. While that may be true of some of the subjects officers will deal with, others spend countless hours training and preparing for that inevitable confrontation with police and corrections officers. Some of these individuals are highly skilled in the areas of fighting, gunfighting, weapons handling, intelligence gathering, surveillance and counter surveillance. Officers need to train and prepare to face well trained opponents rather than assuming they will face someone who is unprepared. 
2. It is hard to treat an asshole with respect. It is hard to be empathic with a low life dirtbag. It is hard to use active listening skills with a degenerate scumbag. It is hard to conceal the subconscious messages of contempt, distain and disrespect communicated by your facial expressions and body language. Sooner or later those words and phrases are going to come out of the officers mouth when dealing with the subject, or when the officer is under stress testifying on the stand.

If you are training law enforcement officers to be professionals, then be professional in your training and avoid giving mixed messages. 

Take care.

Brian Willis

The 2011 Legacy of Excellence Conference will be held in Calgary September 6 to 9. Check out the world class lineup of presenters and presentations at www.winningmindtraining.com. The current pricing for the conference ends today so register now and save $50.00.

If you are interested in booking Brian Willis for a presentation, keynote or course contact him at winningmind@mac.com. You can visit our website at www.winningmindtraining.com for a list of presentations and courses Brian can offer your organization, staff training function or conference.

 

 

Building to Scenarios

Scenario based training, (aka: reality based training, confrontation simulation training) can be an important element of proper preparation for law enforcement professionals. It must however, be integrated in training as a building block approach.

Too often I see programs where officers are in static environments for the majority of training and then thrown into scenarios at the end as a test of what they have learned. In some cases the officers are overwhelmed by the scenarios resulting in the trainers complaining about the officers not having learned what they were taught in training.  Remember one of the key themes of Excellence in training is John Wooden's philosophy "You have not taught until they have learned."

In some cases officers are set up to fail in the scenarios to show them what they do not know, or how they can get killed or injured in the field (yes this is still happening). If you are setting officers up to fail in your scenarios, you are setting them up to fail in the street.  

Scenarios can be used for testing but, they have to be implemented throughout training in a building block format.

Ok, so I have said twice "scenarios must be used in a building block format" so what does that mean?

It means:

• start small, 
• start early, 
• integrate decision making into scenarios throughout training, 
• as the scenarios progress ensure you integrate all aspects of use of force, 
• build in time for articulation,
• make sure you include communication skills and decision making, 
• integrate legal issues into scenario decision making, 
• ensure there is congruence with all aspects of training (law, firearms, control tactics, investigations, etc) in the scenarios, 
• remember the focus is context, not stress,
• include decision making,
• include articulation,
• focus on building competence and confidence,
• as you progress through training you can increase the complexity and intensity,
• include articulation,
• ensure you build in decision making.

No it was not a typo that I mentioned decision making and articulation a number of times in this list. In the field officers make decisions every day, often with little time and limited information. After the event they are required to articulate why their decision was reasonable, for them, at that moment in time, based on the totality of circumstances. Do you build these skills in training? Or, do you assume they know how to make good decisions and can explain what they did and why they did it. 

It is important to be able to shoot well, hit hard and drive fast. Poor decision making in these areas however, gets officers injured, killed and in trouble far too often.

In other cases officers act reasonably but are unable to explain why their actions were reasonable.

Scenarios are a way to build these skills. The emphasis here however, has to be on the word build.You cannot simply throw an officer into a scenario at the end of training to test what you have not taught. 

Take care.

Brian Willis

The 2011 Legacy of Excellence Conference will be held in Calgary September 6 to 9. Check out the world class lineup of presenters and presentations at www.winningmindtraining.com. The current pricing for the conference ends May 31 so register now and save $50.00.

If you are interested in booking Brian Willis for a presentation, keynote or course contact him at winningmind@mac.com. You can visit our website at www.winningmindtraining.com for a list of presentations and courses Brian can offer your organization, staff training function or conference.

 

Pay it Forward

"No matter what accomplishments you make, somebody helped you."                              

Althea Gibson, Tennis Player

Who helped you as you progressed through your career and entered the world of training? What have you done to thank them for their mentorship, friendship guidance and tutelage? It is important that you take the time to thank those who have helped you along the way.

It is also important that you find ways to 'paying it forward' to the next generation of trainers who will follow in your footsteps. Pay it forward is a philosophy of helping someone starting out to help them to learn, to grow and to develop as officers and trainers. The power of paying it forward is that is pays tribute to those who have helped you and also gives you the satisfaction of knowing those you help will help others in the future. 

I have seen this play out in a variety of ways in the law enforcement training world.

Trainers who have attended the ILEETA conference on scholarship have paid it forward by becoming more active in the organization, presenting at future conferences and supporting the scholarship fund to help others benefit from this fund in the future.

I recently spoke to an officer who extended the offer to another officer from his agency to stay with him at the host hotel for the Legacy of Excellence Conference at no cost as a way to pay it forward.

I know officers who offered to pay for their peers to attend a training seminar in their city as a way to pay it forward.

The question for you is what are you doing to pay it forward? What are you doing to help someone just starting out in your profession? What are you doing to help someone the way others have helped you?

You can pay it forward with time, knowledge, mentorship, books, friendship, business referrals, finances or a variety of other ways.

"If your actions create a legacy that inspires others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, then you are an excellent leader." Dolly Parton

By paying it forward you will inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more and that will make a difference in the world.

Let me know how you are paying it forward.

In an effort to help you pay it forward we have decided to offer a Pay it Forward volume discount on the four books we have published through Warrior Spirit Books. If you buy a minimum of 10 books you will receive a discount of 20%. If you buy 20 or more books you will receive a discount of 25%. Until July 1 we will pay the shipping costs and the GST. It can be any combination of the four books.

Pay it Forward pricing applies to the following books:

1. W.I.N.: Critical Issues in Training and Leading Warriors

2. W.I.N. 2: Insights Into Training and Leading Warriors

3. If I Knew Then: Life lessons From Cops on the Street

4. If I Knew Then 2: Warrior Reflections

To take advantage of this offer send me an e-mail at winningmind@mac.com.

Take care.

Brian Willis

Winning Mind Training

www.winningmindtraining.com

www.warriorspiritbooks.com

 

Think Inside the Box

We often hear the term "Think outside the box." If you have heard me speak or read the previous post on this topic you know that I am not a fan of 'thinking outside the box'.

You live in a box world. Budgets, the law, policy, training standards, etc create boxes for you. Boxes provide both a structure and a framework within which you organize content.

You do however need to:

1. Clean out the box to get rid of all the old and outdated crap.
2. Get a bigger damn box. 

I recently read a quote from Linda Resnick that made me think about this issue in a slightly different way. Resnick said, "Think inside the box. The answer to the problem lies within the problem itself." What a great quote in so many ways. 

For trainers the boxes are your course training standards, your lessons plans, policy, procedures, budgets, facilities, time and your own teaching style.

Is your tendency to look outside the box if your officers are not performing the way you would like them to? Be honest with yourself here. If so, what outside the box factors are are you blaming?

When you find yourself falling into this trap I challenge you to take a step back and ask yourself what inside the box solutions can might be available to you?

Training standards are often the focus of blame, and offer an easy out for trainers who say "we are restricted by the training standards". Training standards are critical and form the foundation for the creation on lesson plans. Training standards generally determine curriculum while allowing for flexibility in delivery. 

By looking inside the box you may discover you can change the delivery method or timing of the material and change your outcomes while still meeting the standards. It has been my experience that problems are most often caused by delivery, not content. The question then is how can you use the contents of the box differently? How can you deliver the contents of the box differently? How can you rearrange the order of the items in the box differently? We you look inside the box for the solution you might just be surprised at the results. 

Take care.

Brian Willis

The 2011 Legacy of Excellence Conference will be held in Calgary September 6 to 9. Check out the world class lineup of presenters and presentations at www.winningmindtraining.com. 

If you are interested in booking Brian Willis for a presentation, keynote or course and learn how to rearrange your box contact him at winningmind@mac.com. You can visit our website at www.winningmindtraining.com for a list of presentations and courses Brian can offer your organization, staff training function or conference.

 

Are you setting officers up for problems?

Is the delivery method of your training setting officers up for failure in the field, or predisposing them them to experience PTSD?

Are the the comments made in press releases setting officers up to hesitate in the field oror have emotional problems following events?

Training

When you train officers on how stress affects the mind and the body are you teaching officers about the types of stress responses and perceptual distortions they may experience, or are you telling them what they will experience under stress? Stress is subjective and the level of stress and degree of response will vary from officer to officer. 

While educating officers about PTSD are you explaining the signs and syptoms along with strategies if an officer experiences these signs and symptoms, or are you telling officers if they are in a deadly force encounter they will have these problems? If you are teaching them they will have problems, then expect it to happen. 

Expectation is a powerful tool. Be careful of the expectations you create through the way you deliver your training.

Press Releases

The following was a comment made by a well meaning Sheriff regarding a shooting where one of his officers died and the subject was killed. "You deal with a lot of guilt," he said. "Guilt for not saving their fellow officer and the guilt for having to take the life of another person. It's hard on my officers." These comments were made shortly after the event. While the Sheriff appears to care about his people and the comments are well meaning they may set officers up to believe they should feel guilty.

Every day officers are in situations where they could lawfully justify shooting subjects, and do not. In some of those situations officers place themselves at huge risk to 'give the subject every opportunity to put down the weapon and give up'. Following many of these events we hear a representative of the organization comment to the media, "Our officers used great restraint today in not shooting this person." While well intended, these comments can get other officers hurt. The next day an officer may be at a very similar call and feel they need to shoot the subject to protect themselves and others. They may hesitate however, as they are thinking if Officer Smith showed great restraint yesterday, what does that mean if I shoot this person today? That hesitation may cause them or someone else to get injured or killed. 

The people in your organization who have the responsibility to conduct press releases must be aware of the importance of the words they choose. 

Take care.

Brian Willis

The 2011 Legacy of Excellence Conference will be held in Calgary September 6 to 9. Check out the great lineup of presenters and presentations at www.winningmindtraining.com. 

If you are interested in booking Brian Willis for a presentation, keynote or workshop contact him at winningmind@mac.com. You can visit our website at www.winningmindtraining.com for a list of presentations Brian can offer your organization, staff training function or conference.