De-escalation Training Workshop for Employees & Customer Service
By learning the psychology of conflict and aggression as well as underlying causes and self-regulation tactics, workshop members can walk away feeling confident in their ability to keep a bad situation from getting worse and to manage their own emotional reactions in the process.
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What to Expect from Our De-Escalation Training?
This de-escalation training workshop helps those who face emotionally triggered individuals regularly or those who want to be prepared in the event of a unique, stressful situation. The workshop provides you with the following conflict resolution and de-escalation skills:
- Recognizing early warning signs of aggressive behavior before it escalates
- Managing your own emotional needs and how to remain safe
- Slowing down intense emotional reactivity
- Techniques for calming individuals and oneself
- Utilizing the proper body language, tone, and phrasing to de-escalate the situation
- Handling intense situations with the priority of keeping everyone involved as safe as possible
What Are the Benefits of Our De-Escalation Techniques Workshop?
Pollack Peacebuilding’s De-Escalation Training Workshop helps everyday coworkers and leaders as well as those who face the general public. All of us are occasionally presented with unpredictable situations that could feel overwhelming or dangerous. Emotions understandably run high when you feel that your needs, feelings, or safety or the safety of those around you is in jeopardy. This training teaches clear and straightforward tactics that can be practiced and easily recalled in stressful situations. The skills are easy to remember, and practicing them when you don’t need them can sharpen your ability to implement them when you do.
Who Can Benefit the Most from Conflict De-Escalation Techniques?
De-escalation training can benefit employees of any office or industry. We have custom-designed workshops for leaders, customer service agents, security officers, police officers, event managers and staff, or any client services professionals who handle live, face-to-face interactions with the general public. We offer both in-person and online training.
For all employees, conflict resolution and de-escalation skills can be useful for handling unpredictable situations where individuals may be unexpectedly triggered or chronically aggressive.
3 Conflict De-Escalation Skills You Should Have
Recognize the Early Warning Signs
Aggressive behavior usually seems to come out of nowhere. But if you’re properly trained, oftentimes you may be able to notice small warning signs that can indicate an angry person is about to become a safety risk. Learn those warning signs and the different types of aggression so that you can understand what the individual needs instead of what will make things worse.
Remain Calm
If you’re beyond your window of tolerance and feel flustered by the conflict, you won’t have a clear mind to handle the situation effectively. This training can help you learn self-regulation techniques to keep your rational mind engaged so you can neutralize the risk and not escalate the situation with your own anxiety.
Communicate Effectively
When someone is in a combative state, they’re difficult to connect with emotionally. Specific approaches are needed in order to handle this sensitive situation properly. Learn the skills for communicating effectively so you can extinguish the threat and connect with the aggressive individual on a calmer basis.
How Training Impacts your Work Life
Within the workforce, training your conflict resolution skills to mediate other’s conflicts makes for better management and workplace community. Having a supervisor in a position where they are able to identify verbal conflict and de-escalate situations in the workplace while responding appropriately makes for a more cohesive environment. Catching these incidents quickly and being able to make both people in the conflict feel understood are basic de-escalation practices that can lead to greater effectiveness in the workplace. Due to there being not only conflict that arises between coworkers, but also conflict and violence in high intensity jobs, having this deescalation training and knowledge is pertinent to work life.
How Training Impacts your Personal Life
Not only can conflict resolution training be beneficial in a professional setting, but it also aids in one’s personal life. Being able to handle conflict in the moment confidently and with a knowledge to be able to navigate verbal conflict benefits daily life. Having this type of knowledge and support to identify high conflict situations. Being able to take someone else’s perspective, practice active listening, and understand someone else’s point of view not only aids in communication. This ability to communicate while being an understanding active listener reduces conflict and aids in verbal de-escalation.
Having these kinds of communication and de-escalation techniques in one’s conflict resolution toolkit aids in fostering healthy relationships with those close to us. Being able to practice and identify these situations in our lives help us in our interpersonal relationships and aid us in our relationships.When we are able to sit in conflict with another and practice active listening and perspective taking we are able to be better family members, friends, caretakers, etc.
High Conflict Careers
There are many types of careers that are high intensity and often contain trauma management that benefit from de-escalation training. Some of these jobs include law enforcement officers, healthcare workers, therapists, and other jobs that include dealing with crisis situations. Having employees with the ability to grasp a better understanding of the core principles of the teachings and practices of de-escalation training can make the workplace safer. Knowing how to both communicate with these unique techniques to make the worst of situations successful is not only easier but also better for aiding the person in need.
In some professions like police officers within law enforcement, training in de-escalation is already provided. So why invest in external training on de-escalating individuals? For one, external trainers are often experts in dealing with even the most high conflict people. These experts, like those we have at Pollack Peacebuilding Systems, bring a valuable perspective to training that internal trainers do not always have. In the end, administering verbal de-escalation training allows employees to lead with better communication in crisis situations as well as provide greater safety to all parties involved within potentially dangerous incidents.
Aggressive individuals can be difficult to handle, especially if your job requires you to be alert around the clock. Contact Pollack Peacebuilding Systems today to get the most from this De-Escalation Training Workshop for you or your employees.
A Few Tips For Successful Verbal De-Escalation
Verbal de-escalation training gives you the tools necessary for resolving conflicts quickly and effectively. And while de-escalation tactics naturally vary depending on the situation and people involved, there are numerous general tips to keep in mind:
- Be Respectful of Personal Space: Remain aware of your proximity to others when utilizing verbal de-escalation techniques, as standing too close can appear threatening. Those you are working with might view your stance as intimidating and become even more upset. Maintaining healthy distances shows respect and helps reduce anxiety in those who are angry, confused, or otherwise distressed.
- Stay Mindful of Body Language: Make a habit of observing body language in situations where emotions are heightened. It can help you determine what to say or do next, such as speaking in a soft voice to someone who is pacing out of agitation. Stay aware of your facial expressions, movements, and gestures as well, since they are non-verbal forms of communication that can help or hinder a situation.
- Avoid Judgment: Remember your verbal de-escalation training about remaining non-judgmental and empathetic. Even if you do not agree with the people you are working with, it is important to keep the person’s feelings in mind. Try to think about the situation from their point of view and how it might have led to their current mindset, including the person’s anxiety. People generally react positively when they do not feel judged harshly, and are more willing to open up and resolve unpleasant situations.
- Use Positive Self-Talk: Help yourself remain calm and reasonable by thinking positive thoughts, such as “I can do this,” “My communication skills will help,” and “I can handle this situation easily thanks to verbal de-escalation training.” Doing so prevents your own emotions from running high and possibly making the problem worse. If you stay calm, those who are upset will find it challenging to maintain their same level of anger or irritation.
- Ignore Authority Challenges: Do not acknowledge team members or anyone else who challenges your authority, as it comes across as defensive. Instead, simply ignore the challenge and redirect the person’s attention to the current issue. Talk about how you want to work together to solve the problem and are here to listen and help.
- Allow Silences: Let “awkward silences” sit instead of trying to think of something to say. Such moments do not have to be unpleasant, as they give people time to reflect on the situation and their own communication skills. Using silence as a de-escalate tactic subsequently helps individuals take a few breaths instead of raising their blood pressure further.
- Provide Positive Choices: Note that upset individuals might not hear everything you say, so set limits on the talk while providing positive choices for them to pick from. Discuss each choice and the potential outcome so team members feel in control instead of cornered into making decisions they don’t like.
Now, for police officers and other law enforcement professionals, the protocol may be a bit different, depending on the severity of the situation and the person’s behavior. Law enforcement agencies should seriously consider the following tips for police training:
- Respect personal space and create space when necessary.
- Carefully determine whether mental illness is at play, as this may be a psychological crisis as much as a behavioral crisis.
- Keep officer safety as a priority, especially to avoid officer injuries.
- Stay in command without creating a power struggle.
- Learn controlled force strategies and pay close attention to the ways other police officers respond with force and serve the situation.
- Make concise and respectful choices to avoid unnecessary altercations.
- Give the person options and offer concise strategies and resources, so the person has some agency in making decisions.
- Use body language neutral techniques and stay aware of nonverbal communication.
- Avoid person challenges or challenging questions unless absolutely necessary.
- Take a few moments to determine when a tense situation escalates, and learn where you have trouble identifying officer specific situations such as mental illness crises, failures to respond, and needs for control force.
- Learn from other law enforcement agencies, including their resources and process for tense situations, to learn what’s working for their officers.
No matter how the situation evolves, whether you’re a police officer or customer service agent, keep your verbal de-escalation training in mind. It helps you feel prepared to take on any issue with confidence. Contact Pollack Peacebuilding if you want to learn more about de-escalation training.
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