Excellence in Training

The Power of Questions

Saturday afternoon I had the pleasure of doing a 4 hour Pursuit of Personal Excellence presentation at the Alberta Game Warden Association conference. It was a great afternoon with a very receptive and very interactive audience of law enforcement professionals and their spouses. That evening I had the privilege  of delivering the after dinner keynote address. In the weeks leading up to the event I pondered various themes and topics for the keynote address. As I mulled over the many possibilities a question from Emerson came to mind. This question is often posed by my friend Bill Westfall, "What has become clear to you since we last met?" 

What has become clear to me over the last few years is the power of questions. The most powerful of all those questions is What's Important Now? (Which I now refer to in all my presentations as Life's Most Powerful Question.) 

As trainers too often you feel like you need to have all the answers. I have learned you do not. What you do need to have is the patience and confidence to ask good questions. As Dan James says "Asking questions will get you the performance you are after far better than dictating demands." Questions help everyone involved to learn and grow through self-­‐reflection which is a more powerful tool for creating lasting change than being told what to do by someone else. Questions guide people to discover the answers through their understand, knowledge, experience and perspective.

Questions are a powerful tool during debriefings. Questions such as

• How did you feel about your performance?
• What did you do well?
• What did you learn from the experience?
• What would you like to do differently in a similar situation in the future?
• What do you need from me for you to be more successful in the future? 

I have discovered the key to effective debriefings is simply to Ask More - Tell Less. 

I ended the keynote address Saturday night the same way I will end this post with the challenge to reflect on your life by asking yourself the following questions from Jim Rohn:

"You must constantly ask yourself these questions: Who am I around? What are they doing to me? What have they got me reading? What have they got me saying? Where do they have me going? What do they have me thinking? And most important, what do they have me becoming? Then ask yourself the big question: Is that okay? Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change."

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.

Registration is now available for the 2012 Legacy of Excellence 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 print versions go to www.warriorspiritbooks.com.   

 

 

Are you going pick on me?

We all know cops don't like to sit in the front row of a classroom. As much as trainers complain about officers that sit at the back, you are no different. Go to any law enforcement trainers conference and the back rows there fill up first. 

When I get people that voluntarily sit in the front rows I like to thank them for doing so. On more than one occasion officers have asked me "Are you going to pick on me if I sit here?" I explain to them that I do not pick on anyone during the presentation and would certainly not pick on someone who has the courage to sit in the front row. 

Why would someone have to ask that question? The answer is simple. Because they have been picked on before, or watched other officers in class get picked on. If you want people to sit near the front then thank them, reward them, encourage them but do not pick on them.

I hear trainers complain about how hard it is to get cops to participate in class only to watch those same trainers embarrass people when they do participate. I have even seen trainers encourage someone to speak up by guaranteeing them "I won't embarrass you" and as soon as the person spoke up the trainer embarrassed them. If you want people to participate in your class then thank them for their participation, acknowledge their contribution, ask followup questions to probe deeper into their answer but do not embarrass them.

It should bother you as a trainer that officers are concerned about getting singled out and picked on in training. If those in attendance are concerned about it you know there are people that stayed away because of it. If you are like me and you have been the one singled out and embarrassed in a class you know what I am talking about. No one likes to be embarrassed especially cops and especially in front of their peers. 

As trainers you need to find ways to encourage people to attend training and make training so informative and enjoyable that they want to come back. If your practices include embarrassing people you need to ask yourself why? What is the benefit? Sure we have all done it at some time and everyone else gets a laugh out of it, but what is the educational benefit? In a risk versus gain analysis the risk is high, and the gain is low. The risk is that officers are reluctant to go to training if they are concerned about being singled out and embarrassed. 

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.

Registration is now available for the 2012 Legacy of Excellence 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 print versions go to www.warriorspiritbooks.com.   

 

You Still Have to Produce

Recently my wife and I went to a popular restaurant with a group of friends. The restaurant had a great reputation as evidenced by the lineup outside the door. Despite the great reputation the service and the food were both mediocre. In fact, based on my initial interaction with the person I believe was the manager or owner of the restaurant I would have walked out if we were not with a group. So why am I telling you this?

Regardless of your reputation as a trainer, regardless of the buzz created by past performance you always have to produce. Every time you teach, every presentation you deliver you owe it to the people you are training to be at the top of your game. It may be the 100th time you delivered the material, but for the audience it is likely the first time they have experienced it. Even if they have been to that class before it should be different than the time before, and ideally better than the time before. It will be different and better as a result of your critiquing your performance each time and improving the manner in which you deliver the material. 

If you are not evaluating your performance as a trainer and seeking to improve the content and the delivery of your programs, you are doing a disservice to your officers.  

Having just finished writting this I feel like a hypocrite and owe you an apology. I have committed to post a blog entry every Tuesday morning. Many of you are subscribers and weekly readers of the Excellence in Training blog. Last week I failed to post. I failed to produce. I failed to deliver. I am sorry for that. There are lots of excuses such as travel schedule, writers block, etc but they are just that - excuses. I am sorry I failed to deliver and thank you for your continued support and readership.

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.

Registration is now available for the 2012 Legacy of Excellence 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 print versions go to www.warriorspiritbooks.com.    

Lerner Centered, Performance Based

"Learner Centered, Performance Based" is the theme of the book Telling Ain't Training. The book is written by Harold D. Stolovitch and Erica J. Keeps and published by the American Society for Training and Development. The book is about why training fails, what makes training successful and how you and your learners can achieve astonishing results.

A few weeks ago I encouraged you to look into developing your platform skills to make yourself a better speaker and presenter. The concepts in this book address another critical area trainers need to explore to better serve our officers and that is the area of adult education. There is a wealth of knowledge available regarding the field of adult learning and some key aspects are address in this book.

There are some very good instructor development programs such as the California POST Master Instructor program developed by Jim Fraser that do an excellent job of educating law enforcement trainers about the world of providing training to adults in a manner most likely to actually result in learning.

I would recommend you get a copy of Telling Ain't Training and take your time in digesting the material inside. It is easy to write it off and say "that won't work with cops". It will if it is thought out and delivered properly. We all need to find ways to make classroom training especially, more interactive.

Another great resource is Richard H. Neil Sr.'s book Police Instructor: Deliver Dynamic Presentations, Create Engaging Slides and Increase Active Learning. Neil suffered an extremely serious career ending injury during an arrest and has chosen to continue to serve the law enforcement profession through his role as a trainer. Neil's book is full of practical ideas and exercises on interactive learning activities that Neil has used with law enforcement officers. While many are targeted at the recruit level they can be easily adapted for in-service training. There are a lot of great take aways from this book. For a limited time you can take advantage of a 25% discount off the price of the book. Use Discount Code:ZL5A5762 at their CreateSpace store (powered by Amazon). The code will be active until February.

This is just a starting point but if you combine these two books with Garr Reynolds Presentation Zen you will be well on your way.

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.

Registration is now available for the 2012 Legacy of Excellence 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 print versions go to www.warriorspiritbooks.com.   

 

A Narrow Mind and a Fat Head

At the start of a new year many people get caught up in diets and make that annual promise to eat better and exercise more in order to lose weight. After weeks of over eating people tend to stand on the scale and marvel at the weight they have gained. 

This post is not about diets or exercise although I do encourage you to eat healthy and regularly engage in functional fitness activities. This post is about about narrow and fat, but it specifically focuses on what's above the shoulders, not what is below.

"A narrow mind and a fat head invariably come on the same person"

Zig Ziglar

Sometimes as trainers and educators we develop a narrow mind. You stop looking at what other trainers are doing to see if you can improve. You fail to look outside of our industry for information, advice, direction and new ideas. You stop innovating. You stick with the same lessons plans because it is easier than redoing all of them. You stop going to conferences and courses. When you do go to conferences you discount anything that is different from what you are already doing or you just hang out in the halls and visit because after all there is nothing you could learn in any of those classes. You stop asking for feedback on your program.

Sometimes you also get a fat head. You read the course evaluations and embrace all the ones that talk about how great you are and discount the ones from people that were not that impressed with your program. When people offer advice or constructive feedback you discount it saying "What do they know?" You are the 'lead instructor' for your organization so you start to believe that puts you at the top of the instructor food chain. You get some articles published and maybe even have a book and you start to think there is nothing more you can learn. 

OK, time for honest reflection for all of us. Have you developed a narrow mind? Have you gotten a fat head? Be honest. It happens to all of us at one time or another. The key is to recognize it and do something about it. 

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.

Registration is now available for the 2012 Legacy of Excellence 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 print versions go to www.warriorspiritbooks.com.   

 

 

What Questions Do You Have?

Do you encourage or discourage questions in your classes? What about response to your questions?

Do you ask "Any questions?" while looking away and gathering up your papers, or while holding your hands up with palms facing out? If so, you are asking for questions, but discouraging people to actually ask them.

A better question might be "What questions do you have?" This question along with an open posture implies that you expect questions and encourages people to ask them. The key here is to wait long enough after you ask this for someone to actually ask a question. 

When you do ask questions of the audience you need to have the courage and the patience to actually out wait them. People are uncomfortable with silence and will seek to fill it. If you are impatient and are not comfortable with the silence then you will often be the first one to break it and will start talking again. If you wait someone will ask a question, or volunteer an answer to the question you asked. 

If you ask questions of the audience and truly want participation then never embarrass someone who had the courage to volunteer an answer. Doing so may get some laughs from the rest of the group but you will make everyone leary of speaking up in your class. You will also make it hard for trainers that follow you to get participation. 

Asking questions and asking for questions is a great way to get people involved in the presentation. Remember to be patient and ask more desirable questions. 

So, what questions do you have?

Take care. 

Brian Willis

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.

Registration is now available for the 2012 Legacy of Excellence 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 print versions go to www.warriorspiritbooks.com.   

You Will, or You May?

If you have been reading this blog for any length of time you know I am a huge advocate of the power of words. Today I will look at the words ‘will’ and ‘may’ and their potential impact in training.

When teaching officers about the effects of stress on the human body are you telling them they will experience things such as auditory exclusion, visual narrowing, time distortion, a sense of detachment, and intrusive distracting thoughts? Or are you education them about what they may experience during a tense, uncertain and rapidly evolving event?

When it comes to PTSD are you teaching officers they will suffer from it if they are involved in a critical incident? Or are you educating officers about the signs and symptoms so they know what to look for in themselves and their fellow officers, and they know what to do if they are experiencing PTSD in some form?

Will and May - two simple words with profoundly different meanings and implications. If you are telling officers what they will experience you are potentially setting them up for problems.

The word may however, educate officers about possible responses without telling them what they will experience. Every officer’s experience will be different. There are no guarantees about what they will experience. The word ‘may’ allows them to experience the event in whatever way is natural for them and allows them to accept what they are feeling is natural for them.

It is critical to talk about the signs and symptoms of PTSD so officers know what to look for without setting them up to believe they will have problems. It unacceptable to turn a blind eye to the issue or continue with the old adage that ‘big boys don’t cry’ and neither do cops. It is not a sign of strength to suck it up. It is a sign of strength to ask for help if you need help.

It is also critical to set officers up for the most desirable outcomes rather than program them to believe they will have problems. 

Take care. 

Brian Willis

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.

Registration is now available for the 2012 Legacy of Excellence 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 print versions go to www.warriorspiritbooks.com.   

Behaviors and Options

Just when you thought the debate about Use of Force Models had died down someone feels the need to write an article for a Chief’s magazine slamming those that advocate teaching to the law rather than teaching to a model.

I am not going to weigh in on the model versus no model debate. I will however, weigh in on ways to deliver training to develop competent and confident officers.

Models serve as a visual aide to help visual learners understand how use of force options fit into totality of circumstances. They are not a decision making tool for law enforcement officers.

Training needs to be designed and delivered to teach officers what they can do, teach them when they can do it and help them develop the confidence to do it immediately.  How do you do that? Teach the law and teach behaviors and options.  Based on the behaviors of the subject and the totality of circumstances the officer always has a range of force response options he or she can utilize.  There is no one right option; there is always a range of reasonable options. Teach behaviors and options, decision-making, failure drills (what to do when a tool or techniques does not work) and articulation throughout training. This allows officers to learn to apply the law and adapt to a variety of behaviors and circumstances resulting in officers that are both competent and confident. At this point if you have a model, teach officers how behaviors and options fits into the model so if he or she ever has to answer questions on the stand concerning the model they can explain the totality of circumstances and how their actions reasonably fits into the model. The officer’s notes and reports however, describe the subject’s behaviors and are written based on the totality of circumstances, not based on the model.

If you are using a model to educate visual learners in court also ensure you educate them about the reality that use of force is subject driven. Subjects always have the opportunity to cooperate. When they choose not to cooperate they create a situation where officers in the lawful execution of their duties have to use some level of force to control the subject. The level of resistance or aggression by the subject will make up part of the totality of circumstances, which will determine the level of force the officer reasonably believes is necessary to establish control of the subject.

You need to continually evaluate what you are teaching, but more importantly you need to evaluate how you are teaching to ensure you are doing what is best for your officers. 

Take care. 

Brian Willis

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.

Registration is now available for the 2012 Legacy of Excellence 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 print versions go to www.warriorspiritbooks.com.  

 

 

 

 

After the Shot

Last week I talked about the need to train for up close and personal deadly force confrontations.  So, what happens following a deadly for encounter where one of your officers has shot someone?

Are you educating your officers, starting in the recruit academy, about what to expect after the shooting?

Do they understand the officer involved shooting protocols in place in your jurisdiction? Will it be your agency doing the investigation or an outside agency?

Have they been told that some investigator or supervisor may seize their gun? This may happen at the scene or at the office. Ideally the officer will be given a replacement gun but officers need to be warned that may not happen.

Have you educated your officers on the effects of stress on memory? Do they understand the important of rest following an event and prior to completing their statement?

Do they know who to call for competent legal representation? Is that phone call their responsibility or will some else automatically make that call for them such as a representative from the union, association, FOP, or PBA?

Have you trained your supervisors about their roles and responsibilities following a shooting?

Have you done your best to ensure the people tasked with investigating the shootings have attended the Force Science Institute certification course (www.forcescience.org).

Have you educated your administrators about the science and the realities of combat and the effects of stress? Have you educated your public information officers, Chiefs and Sheriffs about more desirable things to say to the media following an officer involved shooting?

Too often officers get training in how to take the shot, and when the law allows them to take the shot and are left on their own to figure out what happens after the shot. This is a critical moment in an officer’s career and their life and is far too important to be left to chance. Do the research and make sure you educate your officers about what they need to do for themselves after the shot. 

For access to a great resource on OIS protocols click on this link and download the handout from John Bostain's presentation at IACP. OIS Protocol Handout

Take care. 

Brian Willis

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.

Registration is now available for the 2012 Legacy of Excellence 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 print versions go to www.warriorspiritbooks.com.  

 

 

Up Close and Personal

Are you training officers to win up close and personal violent encounters?

Are you training officers to shoot a subject from inches away, who poses a threat of death or grievous bodily harm to the officer or someone else?

Are you training officers to shoot a subject in the back to save the life of a fellow officer or a citizen?

Are you training officers to shoot a subject in the back of the head from inches away to save a life?

Are you training officers to shoot a subject from inches away to save the life of a fellow officer who is engaged in an up close and personal struggle with the subject? 

If you answered yes to all these questions congratulations are in order. You are doing a great job. Unfortunately, you are in the minority. As I travel around North America and talk to officers about Harnessing the Winning Mind and Warrior Spirit we always engage in this conversation. The reality is few agencies are training officers in these vital life saving skills. Failure to train these skills has cost officers their lives and it is unacceptable.

There are a lot of excuses for not doing this training, but no valid reasons. Close quarters tactics can be covered during control tactics training using red guns. Shooting up close in personal and shooting in the back can be done at the range, can be done during the scenarios and can be done in control tactics classes. The important thing is you have to do it.

Firearms instructors and control tactics instructors need to sit down and talk about how they can all integrate this type of training into their programs. You cannot assume someone else is addressing it only to find out after an officer is murdered that no one was covering these tactics. This issue is about mindset as much as it is about actual tactics so make sure you address both the physical and mental aspects.

Take care. 

Brian Willis

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.

Registration is now available for the 2012 Legacy of Excellence 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 print versions go to www.warriorspiritbooks.com.