Introduction: To some workplace violence is often taken for granted as the proverbial disgruntled employee who decides to come into the workplace vigorously towards a co-worker or supervisor over some unknown reason. Therein lies the importance of the effectiveness of a comprehensive workplace violence prevention program supported by quality training that educates and informs. Employee perceptions, experiences and expectations are at the start of individual conflict and when left unabated escalate beyond control.
Felix: In this Blog, Guest Blogger Jesse Pudles of Spot Corp Events and I take on the reality and the fuel of how miscommunications lead to misunderstandings leading to verbal exchanges and emotional conflict. And, when left alone festers and alienates the parties involved polluting the work environment along divisive lines. From my experience as a workplace security advisor, this is a leadership problem complicated by poor communications skills. My recommendations have always been to view violence prevention as a proactive strategy requiring multiple intervention tactics and strategies.
Felix: Jesse Pudles my Guest Blogger, Founder & CEO of Spot Corp Events, offers unique intervention strategies that go to the heart of preventing conflict through effective communication techniques and tactics supervisors can employ and employees can learn in managing personal behavior, minimizing conflict, preventing escalation, and reducing tensions at work.
Felix: Jesse as we talk about appropriate intervention strategies, I thought I would ask you to process this true event through your psychological safety principle. How would it have prepared this supervisor to have been in a better position to not only anticipate a problem but managing the situation before losing control? What do you see happening here and how could it have been managed differently? Now, I will tell you that your invitation to be a Guest Blogger is seen as a valid and plausible training solution I consider as a valued intervention strategy. So, I am looking forward to reading how you would engage with the supervisor and managers in a training session to manage these types of issues proactively and when confronted.
The Scenario: One Friday afternoon, Manager Jane approaches Supervisor John to discuss the previous discussion around reorganization of the unit’s work environment that Manager Jane emphasized was already beyond her date of completion. Not having all employees present to discuss the urgency of his manager’s requirement, he comes in over the weekend with a few unit volunteer employees to begin the necessary changes his manager expects completed immediately.
Unfortunately, there is one employee on vacation who was not available on Friday nor familiar with the required physical realignment of the unit’s workspace that would affect him the most. Upon arrival at work on Monday his observations caught him by surprise since things are not the way he left them as emotions ran high. This was a concerning leadership decision because the absent employee, though known as a reliable and dependable, was also known as a “hot head”.
Instead of the supervisor waiting until Monday to discuss the requirement with the unit employees, the well-intended supervisor overreacted by not waiting until Monday. On the other hand, the vacationing employee who emotionalized the moment instead of calmly addressing his concerns, erupts into a verbal tirade creating a hostile environment. What seemed like an extremely easy situation to avoid in the first place escalates now into the adjudication of the explosive employee’s outburst as a violation of the workplace violence zero tolerance policy.
Jesse: Thank you so much for the scenario and these insightful questions and the challenge of being a part of your workplace violence prevention consultations, Felix. When looking at workplace violence prevention solutions, many are only looking at de-escalation solutions after the violence has started or conflict has begun instead of looking ar proactive intervention tactics and strategies. However, by focusing on psychological safety—which includes creating an environment where people are comfortable speaking up, sharing gaps in understanding and building enough trust that people feel comfortable taking risks, and making mistakes—workplace violence can not only be de-escalated, it can be stopped in its tracks altogether. With that understanding, this is how I would manage the scenario presented:
The first step when looking at any preventable issue is to explore the challenges that a leader exhibiting this kind of behavior might be facing. This starts with a conversation, in this case with the supervisor.
Based on the information you provided, my expectation is that the supervisor might feel like the team jumps to conclusions, that they do not listen to him, and that he may be unable to get his team to follow his leadership or direction. The key when it comes to leadership and psychological safety is listening between the lines. What is he saying?
What I am hearing is a communication breakdown. Something in the way the supervisor is communicating with the team is not coming through as intended. It is not clicking. I might ask further questions like:
“When you make a decision for the team, how do you usually go about it?”
“What kind of decisions do you make on your own?”
“What kind of decisions do you ask for the team’s opinion or have a conversation with the team first?”
Just based on this, I usually have enough information to start designing a session. From there, I identify the biggest challenges we can address immediately.
Based on what I am seeing in this scenario, the top three issues are:
Empathy – If the supervisor feels unheard, it is mutual. He does not feel listened to, which usually means his team does not feel like their perspectives, wants and needs are being heard either.
Support – Are people feeling valued? When people lash out or shut down, it is often because they do not feel supported by their coworkers or leadership. We need to explore and enhance that support.
Decision-Making – Are decisions being made democratically? A decision-making style that incorporates everyone’s voice can transform a team’s dynamics.
Now we have our blueprint. This is where things get interesting, and bear with me because we are about to go somewhere a bit unexpected.
All my team building and employee engagement work uses theater and storytelling as catalysts to shift thinking in a playful yet digestible way. This environment removes the usual resistance that always comes up when learning something new, especially when it is about us. As we laugh and share together, walls come down. The open sharing that results from our exercises gives customized insights into the challenges a specific team is confronting, providing solutions that will lead them to success, and it does all of this while bonding them closer together.
Additionally, for anyone still resistant to this unique type of intervention, we pair all our activities with research. As you begin to understand the purpose behind it, your resistance will also dissipate. We have seen this repeatedly.
The final reason for my approach is something called embodied cognition, a theory that shows we do not just learn with our brains but with our entire bodies. When learning is connected to movement, emotion, and experience, it activates multiple cognitive systems and becomes not just intellectually understood, but felt, which makes it more likely to be remembered.
Now that we understand the why behind this approach, and we understand the breakdown of this team, we are ready to build a session that not only prevents workplace violence, but builds towards improved retention, productivity, and morale for the whole team and eventually the whole company!
Felix: In conclusion, thank you, Jesse, for offering the value of psychological safety training as an example of multiple intervention strategies. Leaders should look for opportunities to hastily engage with situations in looking for swift solutions rather than doing things as usual. I think your psychological training exercises hit the proverbial prevention nail on the head for me. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
About Felix P. Nater, CSC:
Felix is a certified security consultant (CSC) as awarded by the International Association of Professional Security Consultant IAPSC) and President & Chief Security Consultant at Nater Associate Ltd. He helps organizations implement and manage workplace security strategy with a focus on workplace violence prevention and the hostile intruder threat. He is a former federal law enforcement officer having worked as a United States Postal Inspector on a Workplace Violence Prevention Team and Major Crimes Team. He is a retired Army Reserve Sergeant Major having assignments from company first sergeant to command sergeant major at a major army reserve command.
