Excellence in Training

When Is Good, Good Enough?

A while ago I recently received an e-mail question from a W.I.N.Newsletter subscriber who I know personally and have a great amount of respect for. He was working overseas training law enforcement officers in another country. His question is “When is good, good enough? We strive for perfection, but here, the standards are different. We have had to alter our expectations to meet the environment (lowering the standard). It is reality and to press too hard for our standard will alienate the audience. It is really quite challenging when you really examine it.”

I recently had this very same discussion with a few trainers here so I thought I would share my thoughts from the three newsletters where I addressed this issue. Starting with this blog posting I will post a three part series to address the question on "When is good, good enough?"

 This is a great question and one worth examining. There are a few issues here. The first is the word perfection. As we have discussed previously we need to strive for excellence rather than perfection, as excellence is attainable, while perfection is not. 

The next issue is the one of standards. This is an issue that faces trainers, managers and recruiting personnel in a variety of organizations and occupations. Do we need to lower or alter standards to meet hiring targets or to accommodate the people we have already hired? The answer is – Depends. I use the word depends to answer a variety questions. The answer is that it depends on the totality of circumstances, which encompasses a large number of factors. 

If this case the answer may be yes, we need to alter ‘our’ standards. Now, I am generally not a fan of lowering standards. However, we must examine where we are and ask ourselves if the standards transferable from one group to another, or as is the case here, from one culture to another. Are we taking standards for law enforcement officers in North America in the 21st Century and seeking to apply them to a culture where law enforcement as they know it may be 20, 30, or 50 years behind us? This individual was recruited to go over to help create the standards and deliver the training because of his expertise. He is a forward thinking and energetic individual who is a leader in his field here. He spent his career striving to bring excellence to his organization and to continually raise the bar for hiring and training. Now we have transported him back in time. Yes it is still 2009 but many of the concepts he is striving to instill are still foreign to those he is working with. The educational standards, fitness standards, perceptions of the role of police in the community, life expectancy of police officers, and concepts of time may all be very different and are a few of the challenges we have to adapt to.

Is it that we are lowering the standards, or are we simply adjusting the standards for the group with the understanding that the bar for excellence may be set at different heights? 

Consider a track and field meet at an elementary school and where the bar would be set for those kids competing in high jump. As they get to junior high and continue in the sport the bar gets higher, in high school it continues to get raised. At the collegiate level the bar is even higher and is at it’s highest during World Championships and the Olympics. What happens if we take the Olympic Coach and send him back in time to coach 10 year old kids? Do they have to lower the standards, or do they just have to lower the bar for a while. Over time the coach will be able to raise the bar as the kids develop the skills and abilities to complete the new skills. The coach will experience some frustration because of the gap between what they are used to working with (skill level and equipment) and what he or she is now working with. They may however, have more patience because they are kids and they are just starting out in the sport and they know they have a long time to get them to the level they need to be at to compete in high stakes competition. 

Now give the same Olympic coach a group of adults who have never competed in a track and field event, and in fact may never have participated in any sport in their lives. The challenge for the coach is to mold them into Olympic caliber high jumpers in a very short period of time. The catch is that if they cannot compete at that level they may die. Might there be a higher level of frustration on the part of the coach? This however, is exactly the challenge facing the person who sent me the question. 

Think about the concept we explored in this newsletter. How does it apply in your agency, your life or your occupation? What are your thoughts about the ideas expressed? What advice would you give him? How would you answer his question “When is good, good enough?”

We will explore the global issue more in Fridays blog.

You can join people from 13 countries around the world and sign up for the W.I.N. Newsletter at www.winningmindtraining.com.

Take time tomorrow to reflect and honor in your own way all the warriors who have served and those paid the ultimate sacrifice.

Take care.

Brian Willis

Winning Mind Training

www.winningmindtraining.com

Warrior Spirit Books - The Home of 'Must Read' books including W.I.N. Volumes 1 and 2

www.warriorspiritbooks.com 

Every Day a Training Day

During my Excellence in Training Course and the controls tactics instructor courses I teach I always ask about in-service training. I ask about how many times a year officers go for training (not qualification, but training) in control tactics, firearms, officer safety, first aid, etc. The answers vary from agency to agency, but the reality is that few train in these areas more that a few times a year. For some agencies it is one day a year, for others it is multiple days.

Regardless of how many days you get each year we need to ask if there is a way to make the training more regular. Now, people argue with me and stat that they are locked into a certain number of hours a year and their agency will not change that. OK. Can you change the way you deliver that number of hours?

For instance, one trainer recently told me he gets 5 days of control tactics training twice a year. Excellent. My experience however, is that this is significantly more than most agencies in North America. Here are some of my questions:

• Instead of 5 days twice a year can we find a way to deliver one day a month for 10 months? 
• Even better, can we find a way to deliver have a day every two weeks for 10 months? 
• Even better can we find a way to deliver 2 hours a week for ten months? 

Before you start to argue that this schedule is not logistically possible, step back and imagine ways to make it work rather than immediately arguing that you cannot do it. If you had more instructors spread throughout the department could you do it? If you trained the sergeants to deliver some of it could they do it at roll call or shift briefing? What other options are there for delivery of the material on a more regular basis? 

The point here is that we need to find new ways to ensure we are training skills, tactics, knowledge, etc on a more regular basis. Annually is not the ideal. The ideal is to make a shift in our traditional thinking and find a way to make every day a training day. Even if we only train for 10 minutes every day it will make a difference. 10 minutes a day, four days a week for 48 weeks (that gives you a month off for holidays) is 32 hours of training a year. That 10 minutes can be spent on a skill, reviewing a tactics, discussing an element of the law, reviewing policy, having a When / Then discussion, or a variety of other training ideas. If we could make 10 minutes a day in addition to the annual or semi annual training your officers already do think about the difference it could make to the overall skill level and professionalism in your agency.

Take care.

Brian Willis

Winning Mind Training

www.winningmindtraining.com

Warrior Spirit Books - The Home of 'Must Read' books including W.I.N. Volumes 1 and 2

www.warriorspiritbooks.com 

The No Asshole Rule

As promised here is the book review:

The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t

 By Robert I. Sutton PhD.

Published by Warner Business Books

This insightful book written by Robert Sutton, Professor of Management, Science and Engineering in the Stanford Engineering School, addresses the critical issue of those people in the workplace that are often referred to as jerks, bullies, weasels, tormentors, tyrants and unconstrained egomaniacs. Suttons feels that asshole (a term cops are very familiar with) best captures the essence of these people.

In the introduction Sutton states:

“I wrote this book because most of us, unfortunately, have to deal with assholes in our workplace at one time or another.  The No Asshole Rule shows how these destructive characters damage their fellow human beings and undermine organizational performance. This little book also shows how to keep these jerks out of your workplace, how to reform those you are stuck with, how to expel those who can’t or won’t change their ways, and how to best limit the destruction that these demeaning creeps cause.”

In Chapter 1 What Assholes Do and Why You know So Many Sutton distinguishes between those just having a bad day (“temporary assholes”) and the persistent nasty, destructive jerks in the workplace (“certified assholes”). In this chapter he provides two tests for detecting assholes:

1.     Identify people who persistently leave others feeling demeaned and de-energized;

2.     Look to see if their victims usually have less power and social standing than their tormentors.

Sutton also identifies what he calls the ‘Dirty Dozen’: Common Everyday Actions That Assholes Use. Sutton cites research to show that this type of person is not restricted to just one type of business or profession. We all have them.

Chapter 2 The Damage Done: Why Every Workplace Needs the Rule, examines the impact to people and productivity in the workplace causes by the bullying behavior of assholes.  Based on research from a number of sources and experience Sutton has created a formula for Total Cost of Assholes (TCA). He provides a list of factors to consider when calculating the Total Cost of Assholes to your organization. These costs are a result of lost productivity, sick time, staff turn over and other factors.

Chapter 3 Implement the Rule, Enforce It and Keep It Alive, looks at strategies for implementing the No Asshole Rule. In this chapter he provides some tips and insights including the fact there may be some value to having a token asshole to remind people how not to behave and the unpleasant consequences for breaking the rule. He also cautions “Be Slow to Brand people.” This chapter also addresses the ‘Top Ten Steps For Enforcing The Rule’.

Chapter 4 How to Stop Your “Inner jerk” from Getting Out is a chance for critical self-reflection. This chapter is about keeping your “inner jerk” from rearing its ugly head. Sutton states “If you are an asshole all the time, you need therapy, Prozac, anger management classes, transcendental meditation, more exercise, or all of the above.” The chapter however is targeted at the rest of us who can turn caustic and cruel under certain conditions. He provides tips on “How to Avoid Asshole Poisoning“ in the workplace. He also identifies that to avoid acting like or becoming a known asshole, know thyself and Admitting You’re an Asshole is The First Step.

Chapter 5 – When Assholes Reign: Tips for Surviving Nasty people and Workplaces. In this chapter Sutton offers strategies for dealing with customers, peers, bosses and workplaces where the “pro asshole rule” rather than the “no asshole rule” prevails.

Chapter 6: The Virtues of Assholes – Sutton writes “But I’ve become convinced that it’s naïve to assume that assholes always do more harm than good. So this chapter is devoted to the upside of assholes.” Sutton adds a caution “Beware, however, that these ideas are volatile and dangerous: they provide the ammunition that deluded and destructive jerks can use to justify, and even glorify, their penchant for demeaning others.”

Two of the key sub plots of this chapter are:

·      Do You Want to Be an Effective Asshole: 5 key Lessons

·      Why Assholes Fool Themselves: are you Suffering From Delusions of Effectiveness?

Chapter 7: The No Asshole Rule as a Way of Life. Sutton starts this chapter with a funny story about the first time he head about a book on asshole. He goes on to expand on seven key lessons from the book:

1.     A few demeaning creeps can overwhelm the warm feelings generated by hoards of civilized people.

2.     Talking about the rule is nice, but following up on it is what really matters.

3.     The rule lives- or dies- in the little moments.

4.     Should you keep a few assholes around?

5.     Enforcing the no assholes rule isn’t just management’s job.

6.     Embarrassment and pride are powerful motivators.

7.     Assholes are us.

This book has been on my must read list for some time. There are assholes in every field including law enforcement. Sometimes we work for them, sometimes they work for us, sometimes we work with them, and (most importantly to recognize from a training standpoint) sometimes we are the assholes.  All of these scenarios are less desirable situations for our officers, our families and our own health and well being.  This book provides strategies for dealing with all these scenarios.

Take care.

P.S. Just a reminder there is still room on the Excellence in Training and Verbal Trauma Control Courses in Lake Oswego, Oregon November 16 to 20 and in Edmonton, Alberta November 30 to December 4. 

E-mail me at winningmind@mac.com for details.

Brian Willis

Winning Mind Training

www.winningmindtraining.com

Warrior Spirit Books - The Home of 'Must Read' books including W.I.N. Volumes 1 and 2

www.warriorspiritbooks.com 

Hell's Kitchen Part 2

Ok, so you probably wondering why I even care about Hell's Kitchen and Chef Ramsey and wondering what the show has to do with training law enforcement professionals. I believe it has everything to do with training, managing, and leading. As someone who has dedicated the last 20 years to training professional warriors to perform at their best in challenging circumstances I strongly believe the attitude that treating people like shit will teach them to perform at a high level in a tense, uncertain and rapidly evolving event is seriously flawed thinking. 

It concerns me that so many people in our society are fascinated by watching people get treated that way. That fascination leads to huge ratings for the show and packed houses at Hell's Kitchen. It also leads to a proliferation of abuse in training and in the workplace. Because of Chef Ramsey's fame and the popularity of the show there are people out there in a position of authority who think that is the way to treat people if you want them to perform under stress. 

Some of those people who are fascinated by the show are law enforcments trainers and people in leadership positions. I have seen this type of abuse take place in law enforcement academies around North America and heard the horror stories from enlightened trainers, concerned officers and true leaders. This attitude also permeates the street and new officers in some agencies are still treated like lowly 'dog shit' recruits rather than well trained law enforcement professionals with limited field experience. 

If they are not well trained, then you as a trainer need to take action and fix that. Either fix what is going on at the academy or, if you have no control over the academy, then fix it when they get to your agency.

Don't get me wrong. I do not believe Chef Ramsey is to blame for all the less desirable and sometimes destructive training that is taking place at some academies. I do however, believe that shows like Hell's Kitchen make it socially acceptable to treat people like crap in the name of high performance. When you treat people like that in a professional setting some will have the ability to brush it off as a game that is played and they will function despite it, a few will actually be motivated by it, others however will think they have to take shit from people (especially people in a position of authority) and some can hardly wait until they graduate and get in a position of authority in the field or in the academy to be able to treat people like that. They justify their treatment of others by saying "That is how it was when I went through the academy, and damn it look how good I turned out." People with that attitude did not turn out as great as they think they did.

I believe in high standards. I believe in pushing people to excel. I believe in rewarding people when they work hard and strive for personal excellence. I also believe in treating law enforcement professionals in training and in the workplace like professionals.

Tuesday's blog will contain a book review I did for the ILEETA review that speaks to this issue and should be recommended reading for all law enforcement trainers and leaders. Speaking of ILEETA, if you are a law enforcement trainer and are not a member of ILEETA then go to the website (www.ileeta.org), download the membership application and join. It will be the best $45.00 you have every INVESTED. 

Take care.

P.S. Just a reminder there is still room on the Excellence in Training and Verbal Trauma Control Courses in Lake Oswego, Oregon November 16 to 20 and in Edmonton, Alberta November 30 to December 4. 

E-mail me at winningmind@mac.com for details.

Brian Willis

Winning Mind Training

www.winningmindtraining.com

Warrior Spirit Books - The Home of 'Must Read' books including W.I.N. Volumes 1 and 2

www.warriorspiritbooks.com 

Hell's Kitchen

Intrigued by all the hype about the show called Hell's Kitchen with Chef Gordon Ramsey I finally broke down one night and watched part of an episode. The trailers and ads for the show had turned me off as I do not believe that treating people like crap, screaming, yelling. belittling and demeaning is the best way to create a culture of excellence for long term performance. 

After about 10 minutes of watching the show I turned it off out of frustration. I then proceeded to go on a rant about Chef Ramsey's philosophies on getting the best out of people and 'training' them to perform under the demands of the job. My youngest son Cody was near by and was good enough to challenge my assumptions based on the brief part of the show I had seen. He indicated that Ramsey is not always like that, I did not watch the whole show and that I was unaware of what went on behind the scenes. It is always good to get an outside opinion when one is emotionally invested in your position (although you have to hate it when your kids are right). 

As a result of that discussion I made the conscious decision to watch an entire show one night and happened to catch an episode when they were down to the final two chef's to see who was going to be selected the winner. On that show Chef Ramsey actually treated the two participants like professionals and while he set the standards high for them he treated them as if he expected them to meet the challenge and perform at the top of their game. They responded accordingly. 

This lead to another discussion recently with both my sons (ages 26 and 23) who serve as a sounding board for me on a variety of issues. They both are well grounded, have great imaginations,have an entrepreneurial spirit and a passion for excellence but also bring a very different point of view to many issues and discussions. 

By now some of you are thinking you are reading the wrong blog and must have somehow gotten connected to the food channel. Let me assure you that you are at the right place and there is both a point to this and a direct relation to training law enforcement professionals. 

Unfortunately, you will have to wait until Friday to get the rest of the story. I am on the road teaching a ground fighting instructor course and have to complete some of my daily reading as well as some preparation for tomorrow's class. I promise I will finish the rant and make my point Friday. If you have a chance to catch an episode of the show between now and then please do so.

Take care.

P.S. Just a reminder there is still room on the Excellence in Training and Verbal Trauma Control Courses in Lake Oswego, Oregon November 16 to 20 and in Edmonton, Alberta November 30 to December 4.

Brian Willis

Winning Mind Training

www.winningmindtraining.com

Warrior Spirit Books - The Home of 'Must Read' books including W.I.N. Volumes 1 and 2

www.warriorspiritbooks.com 

Excellence Not Pefection

Recently I have added a third key theme to my Excellence in Training programs. In addition to 'What's Important Now' and 'You Have Not Taught Until They Have Learned' I now also talk about Excellence as the goal, not perfection. The following is one of my newsletters I wrote on the topic that I would like to share with you:

Here are two choices for living your life:

1.     Strive to be the best that you can be in your life and your pursuits. Make a commitment to always be better tomorrow than today. Accept that failure is part of life and is an opportunity to find a better way of doing things. Accept that the pursuit of excellence is a life long exciting journey of continual improvement and constant positive change. Pursue your dreams and your passions.

2.     Seek a goal that is impossible to achieve. Accept that whatever you do it will never be good enough. Live in fear of making a mistake or failing.

 Applying the W.I.N. Philosophy which would you choose?  Option 1 is the pursuit of personal excellence we have spoken about often in these newsletters. Option 2 is striving for perfection. Perfection, in my opinion, is impossible to achieve. Therefore, it creates in many people a hesitancy to act out of a fear of failure.  I imagine all of you chose Option 1.

Here is an excerpt on the topic of Excellence vs. Perfection from Lou Tice of the Pacific Institute:

“Are you a perfectionist? Do you know anyone who is? Today, I want to talk about the drive to be perfect and what it can cost you.

What's so bad about being good?  Nothing at all, but trying to be perfect can cost you a lot in terms of mental health and harmonious relationships. You see, people who can mobilize themselves in the face of tough problems are usually folks who don't worry about being perfect. They're happy to move ahead with a partial solution, trusting that they'll invent the rest as they go along.

Now, perfectionists will try to tell you that their relentless standards drive them to levels of productivity and excellence that they couldn't otherwise attain. But often just the opposite is true. Perfectionists usually accomplish less, because they waste so much time paralyzed by fear of failure. They won't start anything until they know how to finish it without any mishaps, and that's a mistake. 

Even though they don't know exactly how they're going to do something, high-performance people keep their vision of the end-result uppermost in their minds and forge ahead anyway. They believe that they'll get the help they need, find the resources they need, and figure out the how-to's as they go - and they usually do.

 If, for some reason, they don't achieve the outcome they wanted, they don't waste energy beating themselves up about it. They simply learn from the experience and move on. “

This week’s challenge is to step back and take a look at your life and your training programs. Which of these options have you chosen?  Actually, there is a third option. That is to be an ostrich and think like a victim, accept mediocrity in your life and training, and make excuses for your situation, your decisions and your life. I am assuming that if you have been reading this blog consistently that this is not acceptable to you so I did not list it at the start.

Take care.

Brian Willis

Winning Mind Training

www.winningmindtraining.com

Warrior Spirit Books - The Home of 'Must Read' books including W.I.N. Volumes 1 and 2

www.warriorspiritbooks.com 

CEWs and a Gun Fights

I am sure you thought you had heard the last of my thoughts and rants about CEWs however I have to address an issue that has bothered me for a while and was sparked by a recent incident. 

My question is why are we taking CEWs to gun fights? Why are we using CEWs on subjects that: 

• have firearms, 
• are threatening us or someone else with a gun,
• subjects that have shot at us and are reloading or attempting to fix a malfunction with their guns
• subjects that are threatening us with an edged weapon
• subjects that are attacking us or others with an edged weapon

Where are officers learning that a CEW is an alternative to the use of deadly force? Is it in your training program? If so then you need to change your training before an officer gets seriously injured or killed. A subject with a gun can raise and fire that gun in about a half a second or less. An officer that is going to get within range to use a CEW and expose themselves to a lethal threat to use a less lethal tool is taking an unnecessary risk that has, and will continue to get officers hurt. 

Is it in the media when some high ranking police official makes a comment that we got CEWs so officers do not have to shoot subjects with a knife? If so then educate your personnel about the realities of action versus reaction and time and distance. The average human being can cover about 11 to 15 ft. in a second. Therefore the subject theoretically has the ability to cover the distance between themselves and the officer with the CEW and attack them with the edged weapon before that officer, or their cover officer can react. The officers can still win the fight but now they may have to win it after one or more of them have been cut. 

CEWs are a tool. A tool that has a time and a place. A tool that is a great asset to officers when used appropriately. A tool, that like any other tool fails. 

Have a look at your training programs and your press releases. If either is setting up for officers to fail then take care.

Take care.

Brian Willis

Winning Mind Training

www.winningmindtraining.com

Warrior Spirit Books - The Home of 'Must Read' books including W.I.N. Volumes 1 and 2

www.warriorspiritbooks.com 

Legacy of Excellence Conference

Problem Solver?

I recently read a great quote that said "You will only be remembered for one of two things: the problems you solve or the ones you create."

So, how will you be remembered? Will you be remembered as a trainer who not only had the ability to identify problems, but had the courage, passion and imagination to solve them? Will you be remembered as a trainer who taught your officers to be problem solvers, or as someone who simply taught techniques as part of the mandated curriculum? Will you be remembered as someone who was always looking to fix the blame, or always looking to fix the problem? Will you be remembered as a problem identifier, or as a problem solver?

The problems might be with the current curriculum, with equipment, with facilities, with budgets, with time allotted for training, with personnel resources to deliver training, with the level of certification and education of your trainers, or a variety of other issues. 

The important thing here is that if you have identified a problem, then before you go to the boss with the problem identify a number of possible solutions. Please do not immediately default to playing the 'liability card'. After a while administrators get tired of trainers always saying "This is a liability issue." It may well be a liability or risk management issue the question is what are you going to do to solve the problem. 

The solutions usually take a little imagination and a little creativity. What can be helpful is to reach out to other people either within your agency or from other agencies for ideas. Chances are that if you are having this problem then someone else likely had the same problem and came up with a solution. This is one of the great values of belonging to organizations like ILEETA reading the Force Science Newsletters , reading books like W.I.N. Critical Issues in Training and Leading Warriors and W.I.N. 2 Insights Into Training and Leading Warriors  and attending events like the Legacy of Excellence Conference.

Take care.

Brian Willis

Winning Mind Training

www.winningmindtraining.com

Warrior Spirit Books - The Home of 'Must Read' books including W.I.N. Volumes 1 and 2

www.warriorspiritbooks.com 

Legacy of Excellence Conference 

Imagine Vs. Visualize

The following is an except from an article I wrote a number of years ago on the topic of imagery versus visualization. I would like to revisit this issue by sharing my thoughts from the article:

There are a number of scientific theories about how the human mind processes information. One prominent premise, as evident in a great number of books on sports psychology, is that the mind processes information in pictures. In these publications the reader is encouraged to use visualization techniques by closing their eyes and seeing or picturing themselves in their mind’s eye performing some aspect of their life or their sport. The reader is told that visualization skills will help them improve their physical performance, achieve their goals in sports and life, and even allow them to enhance their self image and self esteem. These books are filled with case studies and testimonials from athletes who have utilized visualization techniques with great success. This wave of success has lead to an ever increasing demand for sports psychologists to conduct visualization exercises and provide athletes with visualization skills at all levels of athletics. 

Many law enforcement trainers have embraced this theory of information processing and have adapted it into the arena of mental preparation and conditioning for law enforcement officers. Based on the research and success from the world of athletics visualization techniques are seen as proven a method of engraining the most desirable programs into the subconscious mind. The carryover into the fields of firearms training and defensive tactics are immediately apparent and officers around North America are continually encouraged to use visualization techniques to enhance their skills. Officers are very rarely taught how to use these skills, only told that they should use them to improve their performance. 

As much success as athletes and law enforcement officers have had with visualization techniques there is a problem with this theory of mental processing. The problem lies in the reality that not everyone processes information visually. In fact, some behavioral scientists believe that only fifty to seventy percent of the population is visually wired and actually process information in pictures. This means that if you take a room full of law enforcement officers and have them go through the exercise of closing their eyes and seeing themselves or picturing themselves in their minds eye performing a skill, between a quarter and a half of them would be unable to accomplish this task.

While the participants who are visually wired will see the pictures, for the others it is as if the movie screen in their mind screen is blank. This inability to see the pictures leaves them wondering what is wrong with them, why they are unable to complete this simple task. Most officers who are unable to see the pictures will never say anything to the trainer guiding the session for fear of embarrassment. They will however, be convinced that visualization does not work for them (and they are right). If they do speak up about their inability to see the pictures, they are usually told to try harder and eventually they will be able to do it. Increased efforts simply lead to further failures firmly entrenching the belief that for some unknown reason they are failures, and unable to tap into the power of their subconscious mind. In future sessions, they will simply go through the motions completely convinced they cannot utilize this powerful skill. The negative effect intensifies when the trainers informs them that visualization is a simple yet effective tool that they must use to enhance their ability to win violent confrontations. Now, these officers will not only wonder why they cannot visualize, they may begin to question their ability to be successful on the street.

The question for trainers then becomes how you can overcome this hurdle to ensure that every officer can harness the power in their subconscious? The answer is quite simple and lies in a competing theory on how the mind processes information; the theory that professes that the mind processes and stores information in images, not in pictures. Each person experiences those images in a way that is unique to them. Some people imagine events in the first person, as if they are actually living it, while others experience events in the third person. For those people that are wired visually the images will be in pictures although they will experience the images differently. Variations include the clarity of the pictures, whether they are in black and white or color and even here there are varying degrees of the brightness or vividness of colors.

The key here is accepting that everyone can imagine – not everyone can visualize. Some would argue that this is simply semantics and the two terms: imagine and visualize mean the same thing and are therefore interchangeable. It is important to understand that the subconscious mind processes information literally. Therefore, visual language only speaks to those who process images in pictures. For the rest of the population you may as well be speaking a foreign language. This concept is extremely difficult for visual people to understand, but makes perfect sense to all those people who are not visually wired. To those people who have read all the sports psychology books and sat through all the visualization sessions wondering what was wrong with them - why they couldn’t see the pictures, this theory makes perfect sense.  

Take care.

Brian Willis

Winning Mind Training

www.winningmindtraining.com

Warrior Spirit Books - The Home of 'Must Read' books including W.I.N. Volumes 1 and 2

www.warriorspiritbooks.com 

Legacy of Excellence Conference

Make Things Happen

In July I had the great fortune to attend the Force Science Institute five day certification course in Calgary. This course was attended by over 70 law enforcement trainers and investigators and was a result of the efforts of Staff Sergeants Darren Leggatt and Chris Butler of the Calgary Police Service. Darren and Chris are dedicated professionals who had attended the Force Science Certification Course the previous fall in San Jose. Having seen the value of the program they worked tirelessly to bring the course to Calgary.

The September 28 issue of the Force Science Institute newsletter talked about the efforts of  Sergeant Craig Allen of the Hillsboro Oregon Police Department to bring the two day Force Science Institute Seminar to Oregon. This two day seminar exposed over 130 officers from the state of Oregon to this need to know information. Sgt. Allen was able to work with City County Insurances Services which is based in the state's capitol and covers 150 or Oregon's law enforcement agencies to pay for over half the officers attending. The same newsletter talked about the efforts of Alex gardner, the District Attorney for lane County, Oregon who set up a one day seminar with Dr. Bill Lewinski from the Force Science Institute in Eugene, Oregon. The seminar will be attended by approximately 200 people including politicians, media representatives, civic leaders, district attorneys, human rights commission members, law enforcement personnel and some activists who are consistently skeptical of police conduct in force situations. 

On Monday of this week I was in Bend, Oregon presenting on the topics of Excellence Through Training (targeted at supervisors and command level personnel) and Excellence in Training (targeted at trainers) at the IALEFI Regional Training Conference. In speaking with Dennis Carroll, the IALEFI RTC Co-ordinator, he impressed upon me that the reason this RTC not only happened but was a huge success was due to the efforts of Sgt. Todd Fletcher of the Bend PD. I had not met Todd personally until the conference but have to say that I was hugely impressed with his 'make it happen' attitude during all our dealings leading up to the conference and his efforts and attitude during the conference. I was also extremely impressed with the efforts of Todd's wife Crystal who was helping out with the conference and Kim Morse, the Bend PD Training Section Administrative Assistant. Kim had a mazing positive attitude and was putting in 16 hours days working continuously to ensure that the conference was a success.   

Almost every week I get e-mails from Commander Randy Meyers of the Oak Lawn, Illinois PD about an upcoming course that he is hosting at his facility. I have had the pleasure of knowing Randy for a number of years and teaching courses for him in Oak Lawn. Randy works tirelessly to bring top quality training programs to Oak Lawn to expose his officers to as much training as possible. Randy's efforts result in him working long hours six or seven days a week and while his officers, and those of surrounding agencies are the beneficiaries of his hard work and commitment his efforts often go unnoticed. Randy also teaches college courses and is a dedicated husband and father.

It has been said that people can be divided into three groups: Those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what happened."

Above are just a few of the many stories of people who have made things happen. Over the years I have been involved in organizing conferences, courses, sports team and other events. There are always a few who are willing to step up and do whatever it takes to make the event a success. Unfortunately there seem to be a lot of people who wait for things to happen, who wait for someone else to take the initiative.

By make things happen I am not just talking about bringing training programs to your location. I am talking about making changes to the training you deliver either by updating content or changing the deliver to enhance the learning experience for your officer. I am talking about making the commitment to coach and mentor others. I am talking about the pursuit of excellence.

The question this week is which group do you fall into? If you cannot honestly say you are in the 'make it happen' group then my next question is "What are you going to do to change that?"

Take care.

Brian Willis

Winning Mind Training

www.winningmindtraining.com

Warrior Spirit Books - The Home of 'Must Read' books including W.I.N. Volumes 1 and 2

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