Excellence in Training

Experience is valuable only if.......

"Experience is valuable only if it's imbued with meaning from which one can draw salient conclusions. Otherwise, experience becomes imprisoning."

General Barry McCaffrey

What are people experiencing in your training? Are they gaining experiences from which they can draw salient conclusions about his or her ability to be successful in the field? Are they gaining experiences from which they are able to draw salient conclusions about his or her ability to win violent confrontations? 

All training results in experience. The question is what kind of experience are people gaining when they attend your training - valuable or imprisoning? Valuable experiences instill competence and confidence in your officers.Imprisoning experience instill lack of confidence and fear. Fear of screwing up, fear of getting sued, fear of getting fired, fear of getting injured, fear of getting killed; fear of doing their job. 

In order for training to be a valuable experience it must be well planned and well thought out. The drills and exercises must have a purpose and that purpose should be to instill competence and confidence in the learner. As much of the training as possible should be conducted contextual environments which replicate what the officer will face in the field. These are things like low light, confined spaces, multiple people (witnesses, victims, subjects, bystanders), furniture or other obstacles the officer must work around, varying levels of compliance, resistance and aggression from the subject, multiple assailants, and a variety of weapons in the open, in possession of the subject and used by the subject to attack the officer.

Remember the key to effective training is context, not stress.

Creating valuable experiences for your officers take time and effort. It takes planning and preparation. It means you need to be continually assessing what you are doing in training and asking if it is the best for the learner, or the easiest for you as the trainer. You need to continually vary the drills and exercises so your training is not predictable. If officers know exactly what drills you will conduct in your training and in what sequence then it is time to change things up. Make training fun, fast paced and challenging. 

Take time to review your current training to determine if the experiences you are providing are valuable or imprisoning. This might require you to take an anonymous survey of your officers to get their feedback, or bring in someone from outside to assess your training and provide feedback on improving it. It will take some effort but the benefits to your officers will be worth it. 

P.S. Starting June 1 it is going to cost you an extra $100.00 to attend the Legacy of Excellence Conference so ACT NOW.

Take care.

Brian Willis

If you are interested in booking Brian Willis for a Harnessing the Winning Mind and Warrior Spirit or Pursuit of Personal Excellence Seminar or an Excellence in Training Course contact him at winningmind@mac.com. You can visit his website at www.winningmindtraining.com for a list of presentations and courses Brian can offer your organization, staff training function or conference.

Make sure you check out www.warriorspiritbooks.com.   

 

 

You Can Only Coast in One Direction

"There's only one direction you can coast."

 Brian Tracy

I believe Brian Tracy has a very clear message for law enforcement trainers. If you are coasting you are on a downhill slide.

So, what about you? Are you in coast mode? Are you just doing enough to get by? Are you teaching the same program, the same way as you have always taught it because that is easy? In the classroom and the combatives room are you just going through the motions? Are your choices based on what's easiest for you rather than what is best for your officers? Are you still using PowerPoint presentations with tons of data on every slide and reading each slide word for word? 

Or, are you continually striving to become a better trainer, teacher, instructor or facilitator? Are you continually working to make your programs and presentations better for your officers? When you have down time do you spend it mindlessly surfing the web, Facebooking with 'friends' or do you spend that time reading books that will make you a better trainer or studying other trainers and programs in search of better ways to deliver the material? Do you seek feedback from the people attending your sessions so you can improve the product? Are you continually enhancing your visual aides, stories and examples to make training fun, relevant and engaging? Are you asking your officers what their training needs are? 

"Only the mediocre are always at their best."

 Jean Giradeaux

Embracing mediocrity in your training, and in life is a choice. Pursuing excellence in training is a choice. Mediocrity is the easier choice because it involves less work, less time, less commitment. If you are coasting you are embracing mediocrity. Law enforcement training that embraces mediocrity gets officers killed and injured. 

I am interested to know what are you doing to make yourself a better trainer? What are you reading? What courses are you taking? What conferences are you attending? What audio programs are you listening to? Take a moment and leave me a comment to let me know. 

P.S. Starting June 1 it is going to cost you an extra $100.00 to attend the Legacy of Excellence Conference so ACT NOW.

Take care.

Brian Willis

If you are interested in booking Brian Willis for a Harnessing the Winning Mind and Warrior Spirit or Pursuit of Personal Excellence Seminar or an Excellence in Training Course contact him at winningmind@mac.com. You can visit his website at www.winningmindtraining.com for a list of presentations and courses Brian can offer your organization, staff training function or conference.

Make sure you check out www.warriorspiritbooks.com.   

 

 

Prophet in Your Own Land? Not Likely.

It has long been accepted that it is hard to be a prophet in your own land. The 'experts' always seem to come from outside the agency and often show up preaching the same message.  Organizations often tend to overlook the expertise that exists within their own ranks. This is not unique to one agency or organization. It is rampant throughout North America. 

As I travel around North America speaking on the topics of Harnessing the Winning Mind and Warrior Spirit, The Pursuit of Personal Excellence and Excellence in Training I hear similar stories from officers and trainers regarding this issue. I have spoken to great trainers who are recognized as experts in their field, yet not allowed to teach for their own agencies. I have spoken to officers who have been recognized at a national level for their heroic deeds and great police work who are treated like crap by their own departments. The stories are too many to list and I will not reveal the names although some of you know who they are.  

The question I always get asked is why? There are many possible answers, none of which make it any easier to accept. After hearing so many stories from so many great trainers and officers about their being 'black listed' by their agencies I have come to view it as a sign that we are doing something right.

I caution people to about the use of the phrase 'my agency'. My experience is that the majority of the people in the agency appreciate the work you do and support you. There are always a few however, who feel threatened. I believe it is partly a leadership issue. The leaders Jim Collins would refer to as Level 5 Leaders celebrate the success of people within their organizations, the greatest martial arts masters celebrate the day their students are better than they are, and great trainers celebrate the day their students become better trainers than they are. Why? Because they are confident in themselves and their abilities and they know their role is to develop their people and put the spotlight on their people not to outshine them. There are others however, who lack that confidence and want the spotlight for themselves. They want everyone to say "Look at how great that leader is." rather than "Look at all the great people in that organization." Great organizations are lead by great leaders who celebrate all the great people they have in their organizations. If you have not read Good to Great by Jim Collins then take the time to read it. You will gain some great insights about the traits and characteristics of Level 5 Leaders.

If you are one of the many who have been blacklisted by your agency or are being treated badly by them, first make sure it is not warranted. If the treatment is legitimately due to your success my advice is you can choose to let it bring you down, or choose to allow it to lift you up.

When you ask yourself What's Important Now? the answer will be clear. Keep seeking excellence, keep sharing your message, see your mistreatment as a sign you are on the right track and choose to allow it to lift you up.  

Take care.

Brian Willis

If you are interested in booking Brian Willis for a Harnessing the Winning Mind and Warrior Spirit or Pursuit of Personal Excellence Seminar or an Excellence in Training Course contact him at winningmind@mac.com. You can visit his website at www.winningmindtraining.com for a list of presentations and courses Brian can offer your organization, staff training function or conference.

Make sure you check out www.warriorspiritbooks.com.   

 

 

 

You are not going to be doing this forever.............

A number of presentations and discussions at the 2012 ILEETA conference caused me to reflect on a quote I recently read by Terry Lundgren, The CEO of Macys:

“You’re not going to do this forever. There’s a finite amount of time you’re going to be doing this. Do this really, really well.” 

This was the first year that ILEETA founder and legendary trainer and mentor Ed Nowicki was unable to be at the conference.

Coach Bob Lindsey gave a presentation on A Warrior at Any Age. During that powerful presentation he reminded all of us that many in the room would be alive long after Coach has passed.  

During the opening ceremonies we paused to remember the fallen officers who gave their lives in service to their communities, including ILEETA members who died in the line of duty. 

As much as many of us do not like to think about it, there will come a time for all of us when we will no longer be able to provide training. That may be as a result of new job commitments, life commitments, a change in priorities, health reasons or even our death. None of us knows when that day will come however, between now and then Lundgren's message is very clear. Do what you do really, really well. Be the best trainer you can be. Make a commitment to always be better tomorrow than you are today. Seek excellence in training. Continue to learn about the profession of training and speaking. Improve your skills, knowledge, and your platform skills. Attend the ILEETA conference, write for the ILEETA Journal, write for one of the law enforcement periodicals, join outside organizations like the National Speakers Association or The Canadian Association of Professional Speakers. 

As you pursue personal excellence as a trainer make sure you take time to mentor someone new to the profession for they will be the next generation of trainers. You did not get to where you are without the help of others so make sure you pay it back and pay it forward. 

Take care.

Brian Willis

If you are interested in booking Brian Willis for a Harnessing the Winning Mind and Warrior Spirit or Pursuit of Personal Excellence Seminar or an Excellence in Training Course contact him at winningmind@mac.com. You can visit his website at www.winningmindtraining.com for a list of presentations and courses Brian can offer your organization, staff training function or conference.

Make sure you check out www.warriorspiritbooks.com.   

 

 

People Don't Care

I heard an interview with a professional speaker who made a profound statement regarding training. He said "People don't care what you have done, they don't care what you know. What they really care about is what you can teach them." If I could remember who said it I would give them credit as I believe this is a powerful guiding principle for trainers and I use this quote during my Excellence in Training presentations and courses. 

Why am I talking about this? Because I see too many trainers that spend 10 to 15 minutes of their presentation going over their bio with the audience. This is generally a waste of time and as a general rule is usually a less desirable way to start a presentation.

In many cases people know who you are before the presentation ever starts. If it is necessary to provide an introduction to establish credibility then give it out in advance or have someone else introduce you at the start of your presentation. If someone is going to introduce you make sure you provide them with a short bio they can read. After the introduction jump right into your presentation and resist the urge to add to your bio. In most cases you can cover your bio in small bites during the presentation rather than at the start. This allows you to start with a bang and capture the attention of the audience immediately. 

If people truly want to know what you can teach them, and I believe that to be true, then focus on the message. Sell the material and sell solutions to their problems rather than selling yourself. If you focus on the audience and provide a great learning environment for them, they will be sold on you as well.

Take care.

Brian Willis

If you are interested in booking Brian Willis for a Harnessing the Winning Mind and Warrior Spirit or Pursuit of Personal Excellence Seminar or an Excellence in Training Course contact him at winningmind@mac.com. You can visit his website at www.winningmindtraining.com for a list of presentations and courses Brian can offer your organization, staff training function or conference.

Make sure you check out www.warriorspiritbooks.com.   

 

Great is a Process

One of the books on my recommended reading list is Jim Collins' Good to Great. While rereading Collin's Good to Great and the Social Sectors a particular paragraph struck me as something all trainers need to remember. Collin's states:

No matter how much you have achieved, you will always be merely good relative to what you can become. Greatness is an inherently dynamic process, not an end point. The moment you think of yourself as great, your slide toward mediocrity will have already begun. 

Take the time to read this over a couple of times and let the message sink in. As soon as you begin to think of yourself as a great trainer. As soon as you begin to think your presentations and programs are great. Your slide to mediocrity has already begun.

I see too many trainers who think they are great and stop critiquing, stop learning and stop challenging themselves to be better. As a result they stop improving. Sure you can ride on your reputation for a while, but in doing so you are doing a disservice to those you have the privilege and responsibility to train.

As soon as you start thinking you are the industry best practices (see last week's post), you are no longer seeking better practices and next practices and you have begun the slide to mediocrity.

I challenge you to seek excellence and engage in the process towards being great rather than embracing mediocrity. Excellence is hard. Mediocrity is easy. Excellence requires ongoing effort and sacrifice. Mediocrity requires little effort and no sacrifice.

The choice is yours.   

Start your journey by registering now for the 2012 Legacy of Excellence Conference and save $100.00 of the registration fee. 

Take care.

Brian Willis

If you are interested in booking Brian Willis for a Harnessing the Winning Mind and Warrior Spirit or Pursuit of Personal Excellence Seminar or an Excellence in Training Course contact him at winningmind@mac.com. You can visit his website at www.winningmindtraining.com for a list of presentations and courses Brian can offer your organization, staff training function or conference.

Make sure you check out www.warriorspiritbooks.com.   

 

Best Practices vs Better Practices

Throughout my career I have heard people talk about the need to benchmark training, policy and other elements based on industry best practices. I could never figure out why we should settle for what someone else determined were best practices. It seemed to make more sense to set the bar ourselves and seek to continually become the leaders in the field rather than have someone else set the bar. I could never quite figure out how to best put that into words until recently. While reading Mark Sanborn's book Up, Down, or Sideways (his book The Fred Factor is a must read) I was delighted to find Sanborn address this issue.  

He explains that the concept of best practices always needs a qualifier - best practices ... for now ...that we know of...given the circumstances....

He goes on to point out today's best practices are next week's second best practices and next month's obsolete practices. 

Sanborn suggests rather than best practices we seek to establish better practices and next practices.

Better practices: how can we do what everyone else is doing best, but do it better?

Next practices: how can we change the game?

Have you settled for the alleged best practices with your training, or worse settled for mediocrity by doing what you have always done? It is easy to do what you have always done. It is easy to do what you claim is industry best practices. It is tougher to do what Sanborn suggests and continually set the bar by establishing better practices and next practices.

The people I admire most in life are always striving to improve themselves, their training, their products and their services. They are the leaders in law enforcement training and they are the leaders in business. 

What about you? Are you settling, or striving?

This week I am at the International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association (ILEETA) annual conference. This amazing training event is all about better practices and next practices. 

And speaking of better practices and next practices register now for the 2012 Legacy of Excellence Conference and save $100.00 of the registration fee. 

Take care.

Brian Willis

If you are interested in booking Brian Willis for a Harnessing the Winning Mind and Warrior Spirit or Pursuit of Personal Excellence Seminar or an Excellence in Training Course contact him at winningmind@mac.com. You can visit his website at www.winningmindtraining.com for a list of presentations and courses Brian can offer your organization, staff training function or conference.

Make sure you check out www.warriorspiritbooks.com.   

 

 

Being Forced to Change Holsters

In previous blog posts I have shared my thoughts concerning agencies changing holsters. I believe it can be very dangerous so make sure if you are changing holsters you are doing it for the right reasons and training officers appropriately in the use of the new holster. Appropriately does not mean a bunch of draw strokes standing flat footed at the range. It means training in context. It means training with imagination and emotion. It means dynamic training closely replication a variety of situations officers may find themselves in out in the field.

I recently received an e-mail from a very frustrated officer whose agency was changing holsters. The officers were not given a choice and there was no grandfather clause to allow experienced officers to carry the old holster while new officers were trained on the new rig. The officer felt extremely confident with his current holster and was afraid in a gunfight he may revert back to the old mechanics. He was looking for ideas from me to fight the change. Here is part of my response:

The ideal is we address these issues up front and give serious consideration to the need to change and if the agency is going to change holsters the method for implementing that change becomes critical.

Having said that, you need to determine at what point you should stop fighting the change, embrace the change and commit to training in a manner that is most likely to instill new habitual behaviours with the new holster. If you have to change holsters then the longer you hold onto the resistance and the negative self talk regarding the new holster the more likely it will be that you will have issues. If you have done all you can to convince the powers that be to allow you to continue the use of the current holster perhaps the time has come to embrace the new holster and start taking action to prepare yourself for situations where you will need to draw your gun on the street. Understand, that even if you get to keep your current holster for now, if it breaks or wears out you will need to transition to the new holster. 

Once you decide to move forward and embrace the new holster take some time to imagine all the advantages with the new rig. Continually tell yourself that you are as efficient with the new holster as you were with the old and embrace those statements as your reality. Train hard, train often and train in context. Imagine being in deadly force situations in a variety of situations and positions and practice drawing while you are moving forward, backward, to the left and to the right, practice drawing from the drivers seat in a car, drawing from the passenger seat in a vehicle, drawing from the ground, drawing while fighting with a subject. Also imagine and practice retaining your weapon in the new holster from a variety of situations. Every time you practice drawing imagine a threat and drawing in response to the threat. Train with imagination and emotion every time you train with the new holster.                               

I feel for this officer and share his frustration. There comes a point in this type of fight however, when we must decide to embrace change and move forward taking the necessary steps to train and prepare ourselves.                                                                                                                                                

I am happy to report that I heard back from this officer who has a chosen to take a very positive attitude towards the new holsetr and invest in his own training to develop the necessary habitual responses with the new rig. 

Take care.

Brian Willis

Register now for the 2012 Legacy of Excellence Conference and save $100.00 of the registration fee. 

If you are interested in booking Brian Willis for a Harnessing the Winning Mind and Warrior Spirit or Pursuit of Personal Excellence Seminar or an Excellence in Training Course contact him at winningmind@mac.com. You can visit his website at www.winningmindtraining.com for a list of presentations and courses Brian can offer your organization, staff training function or conference.

W.I.N. 1: Critical Issues in Training and Leading Warriors, W.I.N. 2: Insights Into Training and leading Warriors, If I Knew Then: Life Lessons From Cops on the Street and W.I.N. 2: Warrior Reflections are now all available in e-book format for your iPad and your favorite e-book reader. For those of you who still love to hold a real book in your hands go to www.warriorspiritbooks.com.    

 

Creating Change

As a trainer you are a change agent. The purpose of training is to change behavior. If you want to change the behaviors of the people you are training you need to find a way to engage them.

This can be a challenge for all of us for a number of reasons: 

1. Trainers have a tendency to teach in the manner in which they like to learn. Not everyone learns the same way you do.
2. Trainers have a tendency to teach in a manner that mimics how they were taught. If you went through training that was straight lecture with bad powerpoint, you may be prone to teach the same way. If you went through training that was one way communication, from the front of the room to the students, you may teach the same way. If you went through training where the trainer always picked on one or two people in class, you might do the same. If you went through training where you were yelled at continually, you may tend to yell a lot. 
3. Trainers avoid activities they are personally uncomfortable with. If you hate small group work, you will often not use small group work in your class. If you hate teach back sessions, you will usually skip that in your classes. 
4. Trainers avoid activities where they think they may get push back from the students. A percentage of the people will be uncomfortable with some interactive activities. That is ok as long as the class is a mixture of a variety of activities. 

The key is to step back and seriously evaluate how you teach. Objectively ask yourself if you are truly engaging the audience. This needs to be done with a critical eye. It is easy to say the audience was engaged because they laughed, they smiled, they told you how great you were, and they keep bringing you back. Those are all nice things but, ask yourself if behaviors have truly changed because of your training. If the answer is no then they are having fun, but they are not necessarily engaged in learning. You need to determine if you are truly a change agent, or if your are just very entertaining. Nothing wrong with being entertaining, but changing behaviors has a better chance of changing lives and saving lives. 

Take care.

Brian Willis

If you are interested in booking Brian Willis for a Harnessing the Winning Mind and Warrior Spirit or Pursuit of Personal Excellence Seminar or an Excellence in Training Course contact him at winningmind@mac.com. You can visit his website at www.winningmindtraining.com for a list of presentations and courses Brian can offer your organization, staff training function or conference.

Register now for the 2012 Legacy of Excellence Conference and save $100.00 of the registration fee. 

W.I.N. 1: Critical Issues in Training and Leading Warriors, W.I.N. 2: Insights Into Training and leading Warriors, If I Knew Then: Life Lessons From Cops on the Street and W.I.N. 2: Warrior Reflections are now all available in e-book format for your iPad and your favorite e-book reader. For those of you who still love to hold a real book in your hands go to www.warriorspiritbooks.com.   

 

Advice from William Wallace

In my Excellence in Training presentations I often show the Battle of Sterling clip from the movie Braveheart. After a rousing speech to his fellow countrymen William Wallace is about to go and insult the English commander to ensure there is a fight. His close group of men ask him what he wants them to do and his response is "Just be yourselves."

That single bit of advice is very fitting for all trainers, speakers and presenters as well. I have seen and heard some of the best presenters in both the law enforcement world and the world of professional speaking. The truly great ones are all very different in their styles and personalities. They have different approaches to presenting their material and different philosophies on how to best engage the audience. The one thing that works for all of them is they are comfortable in just being themselves.

You cannot be Dave Grossman, Gordon Graham, Travis Yates, Bill Westfall, Jeff Chudwin, Chris Butler, John Bostain, Tony Robbins, Larry Wingett, Joe Calloway, Mark Sanborn or W. Mitchell so do not try to be. If you try to be anyone other than yourself you will come across as insincere and lose all credibility with the audience. If you do not have experience in a specific area then let people know that. If you use a quote or line from someone else reference them and give them credit for the material. 

Be yourself. Be sincere. Be passionate. Research your material. Be relevant. Be purposeful. If you do that you will be successful. By successful I mean you will make a difference in the lives of the people you have the honor and privilege to teach. 

Take care.

Brian Willis

If you are interested in booking Brian Willis for a Harnessing the Winning Mind and Warrior Spirit or Pursuit of Personal Excellence Seminar or an Excellence in Training Course contact him at winningmind@mac.com. You can visit his website at www.winningmindtraining.com for a list of presentations and courses Brian can offer your organization, staff training function or conference.

Register now for the 2012 Legacy of Excellence Conference and save $100.00 of the registration fee. 

W.I.N. 1: Critical Issues in Training and Leading Warriors, W.I.N. 2: Insights Into Training and leading Warriors, If I Knew Then: Life Lessons From Cops on the Street and W.I.N. 2: Warrior Reflections are now all available in e-book format for your iPad and your favorite e-book reader. For those of you who still love to hold a real book in your hands go to www.warriorspiritbooks.com.