“You are not the hero. Your job is to make your people the hero and your job as a trainer is to be the wise and humble mentor.” Nancy Duarte One of the consistent traits of great trainers and leaders that come up in class discussions is humility. “It’s Not About You.” Is one of the three guiding principles of the Excellence in Training program and the Dare to Be Great workshops. I also share the above philosophy from Nancy Duarte in both programs.  “Regardless of what you have accomplished and achieved you will always be good relative to what you can become. Greatness, it turns … [Read more...]

What if you switched from an FTO model to a PTCM (Partner, Teacher, Coach, Mentor) model? What if you thought of the new officer as your partner who needs some coaching, guiding, and developing instead of a “boot”, an “FNG”, a “snot nosed recruit”, or any of the other derogatory terms people use for officers in FTO phase. The reality is that you may need him or her to save your life in the first 15 minutes of your first shift together.  What if you shifted the focus from scoring and evaluating a new officer every day to a focus on teaching, developing, coaching, and mentoring every … [Read more...]

The purpose of using videos of actual events in training should be to provide the opportunity for participants to learn from the experiences of brother and sister officers to best prepare themselves for future calls. It should not be to scare people, or as a gut check or reality check with recruits to “see if they want to be here”.   Video review should not be about the officer in the video unless you are sitting down with that officer to review the video and debrief the incident with them. The debriefing of the video should be about the participants in the training and enhancing … [Read more...]

In a 2021 blog post titled The revolution in online learning Seth Godin addressed some issues that we need to pay attention to in all of our training, in person and online, in preservice academies and with in-service training:  Not education, learning.Education is a model based on scarcity, compliance and accreditation. It trades time, attention and money for a piece of paper that promises value.But we learn in ways that have little to do with how mass education is structured.If you know how to walk, write, read, type, have a conversation, perform surgery or cook an egg, it’s … [Read more...]

VUCA is a term you hear a lot these days, as it has become common lexicon in many fields. VUCA is an acronym for Volatile Uncertain Complex and Ambiguous.  Law enforcement professionals today live and work in a world of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. On his website, John Black DBA, says, “Policing is complexity within complexity, and police use of force is arguably one of the most complex things to understand.” The question for you as a trainer is, “Are you preparing your people for this VUCA world through your training?”  To prepare the heroic men … [Read more...]

“Take it from a college professor: there's nothing you learn in college that you can't learn elsewhere.” Adam Grant Ph.D. There continues to be a push from groups both inside and outside the law enforcement profession for a university or college degree to be a prerequisite to get hired as a law enforcement officer. I am a fan of education. I am not a fan of law enforcement agencies having a requirement for applicants to have a college or university degree. Education comes in many forms. Formal college and university education is simply one form of education. Agencies need to look at … [Read more...]

Your job is to instil discipline, not be a disciplinarian. If you need someone at the Academy to be a disciplinarian it should be the Academy Director, not the trainers.  Your job is to train, teach and coach people, not weed people out.  Your job is to instil competence and confidence and build trainees up, not beat them down. Your job is to teach recruits how to manage stress, not to stress them out.  Your job is to help them learn how to work out to “be fit to be useful” in limited time, with limited equipment, not to use physical exercise as punishment, or to “smoke … [Read more...]

“They could just put the car in reverse and get the hell out of there.” is a common statement from law enforcement professionals during video breakdown discussion regarding tactical options for officers involved in ambushes or other violent encounters during traffic stops. There are certainly times where disengaging from the situation is a viable, yet seldom discussed and rarely utilized, option for officers.  The point we often miss in these discussions is that Reverse is not the only option, and may not be the most desirable option. Putting the car in Drive and accelerating forward … [Read more...]

There are three phases of training in law enforcement.  Pre-Service AcademyFTOIn-Service As a profession we need to think differently about all three phases. It is important to take a step back, look at each of the three phases, detach from the emotional investment in what you are currently doing, and ask yourself some important questions. Below are a few questions to reflect on and act on regarding each of the three phases of training. This is not meant as an exhaustive list of questions, but a starting point for the discussion.  Pre-Service Academy Is our curriculum, … [Read more...]