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High stress situations are tough. Whether you’re about to step into a potentially combative law enforcement crowd control situation or lead a tinderbox of a staff meeting to resolve a hotly contested workplace dispute, optimal performance is critical. But, did you know peak performance on the job actually begins in the mind? Mental preparation uses proven psychological strategies to help you do your best in high stress situations: from shifting the focus from getting good results to simply being excellent at what you do, to clarifying the difference between rising to the challenge and responding to a threat, to improving your confidence in your skills so you can feel poised and relaxed, to learning how to focus on success and trust your better instincts.

Is your team ready for a new internal process for better external outcomes?  We can help with Mental Preparation Training.

There’s an old saying that goes like this: listen louder than you speak. Difficult situations become emotional because people can’t necessarily feel what was heard or understand the difference. Turning confrontation into conversation isn’t an art. It’s a smart strategy for de-escalating potentially antagonistic scenarios. Conversation enhancement training improves your skills, from breaking bad news to talking through emotionally-charged situations, from discussing mistakes to handling challenging conversations.

Do you want to turn confrontations into conversations? Let us help.

As melting pots around the world continue to evolve and diversify–from different races and ethnicities, to religions and cultures–it’s important to understand the value of community awareness, from a workplace standpoint. Getting to know a community–who lives there and why, what neighbors want and expect from each other and the businesses and organizations within the community–is critical to creating meaningful partnerships that work for the health and safety of the community. Community Awareness Training teaches you effective strategies for recognizing types of diversity bias and updating your behaviors; improving adversarial relationships and finding common ground; intervening appropriately and professionally; showing transparency in decision-making and actions; and being trustworthy and accountable.

Great nations start with stronger, safer, more connected communities. We can help.

How many times has what a person is doing been so loud you can’t hear what they’re saying?

That’s body language...and it’s often an excellent indicator of what someone is thinking, feeling, and planning. Research has shown that as much as 55% of an individual’s communication is through body language; 7% of communication is based on the actual words, and 38% comes from tone of voice.  Those statistics put a whole new slant on the importance of making sure signals aren’t crossed and you’re getting (and receiving) the right message every time.       

Curious about how you can improve your skills in accurately reading body language to enhance your job performance? Our Body Language Awareness Training can help.

Diversity is the cornerstone of a strong democracy: skin color, ethnicity, religion, gender, and sexual orientation. But sometimes, the melting pot can overheat. Cultural competency cools off hot situations and misunderstandings with respectful understanding, open communication, and welcoming collaboration. It also improves community workplace productivity and harmony.  Understanding what different cultures expect in terms of justice, honor, harmony, and reciprocity, and how they deal with conflict can help you succeed in the workplace and avoid liability, possible job loss, and harm to the community due to discrimination.

It’s time to lead and improve cultural competency. We can help.

How many times have you stepped into the middle of something–you’re not quite sure exactly what–but you know it’s not right?  That gut instinct is also called situational awareness.  It’s the ability to seamlessly assess the environment and sense who’s dangerous, what’s a problem, and where are the opportunities. Paying attention is crucial to preventing human error and vital to good decision-making–from law enforcement to health care, manufacturing to the military, high-risk industrial practices to high-stakes corporate meetings. Situational Awareness Training is a defensive mindset that teaches you how to really see your environment, understand the situation you’re in, and project future outcomes.

Want to increase your ability to pay attention to what’s happening around you? Our Situational Awareness Training can help.

How many times have we heard, an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind? Conflict does that to people–whether it’s within a marriage, at a police traffic stop, or in a corporate boardroom.  Conflict resolution is the practice of turning to each other, not turning on each other, coming together to negotiate a peaceful solution to a problem and improve relationships. Confrontations eat up resources: time, energy, money, motivation, and morale. Conflict resolution helps organizations improve the workplace for both employees and the public, enhance street cred and trust; reduce the costs of legal, employment, and PR problems; and lower turnover due to resigning or fired staff.

Interested in improving your conflict resolution skills? Then it’s time to call us.

Conflict is inevitable...combat is optional. Yet millions of people report workplace conflict that unfortunately turns violent every year, at a cost of billions of dollars. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health states workplace violence can range from violent acts (assaults and threats); to severely disruptive and psychologically damaging behavior; to a hostile, abusive, or intimidating workplace. The causes include anger about the job; personal stress due to finances, a relationship, job loss, or family dynamics; low self-esteem; illness/pain; alcohol/drug abuse; and even the work environment itself. Workplace violence kills or injures employees, cripples morale, damages business, compromises personal and workplace security, costs money, and ruins reputations.

Are you interested in safeguarding your organization and people?  Our Workplace Violence and Awareness Training can help.

The worst happens: something goes sideways in upholding the law. Bad outcomes happen and the organization or employee gets sued.  Beyond the cost of legal fees and lawsuits is the human cost of injury or death, job loss, bad PR, damaged public confidence, destroyed reputations, broken trust, and harm to the community. Liability is a mountain nobody wants to climb. Risk assessment and management are critical parts of the budget and planning process because they protect people, organizations, and local governments from liability for misconduct, harm, or violation of rights.    

Do you want to protect your organization, your people, and your community? Our Risk Assessment Training can help.

Nobody said it was easy. The workplace can be full of day-to-day stressors. But it’s a totally different story for first responders. Because of the emotional and physical rigor of their high-stakes jobs, first responders can be overwhelmed with higher than normal rates of PTSD, depression, suicide, and high-risk alcohol and drug use. Job stress and trauma can affect physical health, strength, and energy. It impacts a professional’s ability to adjust, pay attention, focus, think, reason, and enjoy life. It can damage relationships with colleagues, family, friends, and the community. It impedes communication and cooperation. It can be hard to park the job outside the door each night after work, but emotional resilience helps professionals do just that. Emotional resilience is all about how well you handle stress and get back on track.  It takes self-awareness, confidence, compassion, and self-care to bounce back.

Ready to bounce back strong, calm, balanced, and effective? We can help.

It is said, bravery is the not the absence of fear, but action in the face of fear. The key is to make it the right action at the right time. De-escalation is all about first taking a breath during a confrontation and making sure that what’s about to happen is an appropriate and measured response. A new take on the old “make the punishment fit the crime” mentality, de-escalation training helps officers in the moment assess the situation before responding, and make wise decisions that protect themselves, the subject, and the public.  Equal parts psychology, conflict resolution, mediation, self-defense, and peacekeeping, de-escalation helps officers enforce the law smarter and safer for everyone.

De-escalation improves the ability of departments to avoid costly wrongful death and excessive force litigation, community mistrust, PR black eyes, and bad reputations. It uses the perfect combination of evaluation and instincts, patience and persuasion, right judgment and appropriate response, to achieve departmental and community goals.

Ready to own fear and take bravery to a new level of safety and effectiveness with the right measured response to emotionally-charged confrontations? Our De-escalation Tactics Training can help.

Professionalism is more than just conduct at work, it’s about character. Looking the part doesn’t cut it–professionalism is an inside-out, head-to-toes personal culture. And for first responders, it can be a matter of life and death. Professionalism is made up of equal parts good attitude, teamwork, positivity, fairness, honesty, integrity, accountability, trustworthiness, cooperation, and leadership. Unprofessional, inappropriate behavior can be career-ending, leading to liability and lawsuits, criminal charges of discrimination and violence, ruined reputations, and personal devastation. Professionalism protects lives, builds reputations, saves money, and boosts morale.   

Our Professionalism Training can help.

Say what? That’s a new one. What exactly is an ism? An ism is anything that positions you or makes you feel that another being is less-than. It can be racism, sexism, religious intolerance, gender discrimination, sexual orientation bias, age-old prejudices, and in-the-moment hate. Bottom line, it is dominate-ism and we recognize it as a source of conflict, discord, and disconnect.

Isms are old patterns and ways of being that, if we’re being really honest with ourselves, no longer support us personally or in the job. They aren’t gratifying, uplifting, or inspiring. They aren’t helpful, connecting, or rewarding. They’re pretty much garden-variety meanness that at best can get you trending on YouTube (in an oh-so-not-good way), and at worst, fired.

A world without isms is a place where we expand our view (and our viewpoints) to walk more confidently, compassionately, and wisely through the job and the world, with the best end result of all: feeling good about ourselves and our contributions.

If you are ready to accept imperfect perfection, then we are ready for you.