“We can’t just look at our present experiences or use the same mental recipes over and over again; we’ve got to look at other disciplines and activities and relate or connect them to what we know from our experience and the strategic world we live in.”
Colonel John Boyd
As a law enforcement trainer you need to look at other disciplines and activities and connect them to what you know from your experience and the strategic world you live in so you can enhance the training you provide to your officers. This is critical for us as trainers in order to raise the bar and enhance the profession.
You need to read outside the world of law enforcement and seek to connect the dots to what you are doing. You need to break down the silos in your own training academy or training unit.
You need to read Mindset: The New Psychology of Success and talk to your officers about Fixed and Growth Mindsets. As trainers and leaders you need to need to shift to a Growth Mindset. Focus your feedback on effort not outcomes and help officers understand that effort is the path to mastery.
You need to read Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth and teach your officers the importance of effort (Duckworth says effort counts twice) and other key elements in developing grit.
You need to read Peak: Secrets From the New Science of Expertise by Anders Ericsson and teach the difference between Naive Practice and Purposeful and Deliberate Practice. Help officers understand the power of Purposeful and deliberate Practice in developing skills.
You need to read Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning by Peter Brown then find ways to build in reflection, active retrieval and interleaving into your training. Build your training based on what the science of learning tells us is best for learners, not best for the trainers or people who create the syllabus.
What you will find when you read these books is many of the authors reference each others work and their messages are all linked and all very applicable to law enforcement training.
Read Resilience by Eric Greitens and Brave, Strong, True by Kate Hendricks Thomas and find a way to teach resilience to your officers starting and the academy and reinforced throughout their careers.
In order to best serve our officers and continually move the profession forward we need to think differently, look outside our profession and seek to connect the dots.
Take care.
Brian Willis
Winning Mind Training – Dedicated to helping the men and women of law enforcement Embrace the Suck, Look for the Good, focus on What’s Important Now and Dare to Be Great. .
The Excellence in Training Academy – Where trainers come to grow. Committed to serving law enforcement trainers to help them learn and grow.
Check out the free Introductory webinar and Featured Interview at www.excellenceintrainingacademy.com
Join the Excellence in Training Academy using the code eitblog to the the first month membership free.
Interested in hosting an Excellence in Training Seminar? Contact to me at winningmind@mac.com and we can work together to determine what will best suit your needs.
Address: