About the Training:

Verbal Diffusion- De-Escalation with Difficult Individuals

The landscape of work-life stresses has generated many emotions that spill over into the workplace. Concerns over social unrest, inflation, violence in schools and the workplace, have resulted in feelings of emotional distress, personal problems and anger. Sometimes these feelings of uncertainty, are displaced and directed in the form of anger, to employees in various workplace settings. This program will help employees identify potentially distressed individuals and learn verbal diffusion and conflict resolution techniques to de-escalate these encounters.

1. The Landscape of Work-Life Stresses that Affect People

2. Types of Difficult Individuals

• In Office / Work Environments
• The Entitled Patron
• The Angry Customer
• In Community Settings
• Co-Workers / Contractors

3. Situational Awareness – Identifying Confrontations

• Did You See It Coming?
• The “Fight of Flight” Reaction when encountering, anger, threats or possible assaultive behaviors
• Paradigm Shift: Seeing the World Differently
• Monitoring your Own Reactions

4. Identifying the Potentially Distressed Person

• Affective versus Predatory Violence
• Behavioral Indicators of the Potentially Aggressive Customer /Individual
• Aggressive Non-Verbal, Pre-Attack Indicators

5. Verbal Diffusion –De-Escalation Strategies

• Stages of Conflict Resolution
• “Rules of Engagement” with Challenging and Distressed People
• ABCs of Verbal Diffusion
• Active Listening Skills
• Empathic Communications
• Setting Limits
• Assessing and Managing Threats
• “Exit Strategies” in Unsafe Situations

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Co-Sponsors

• Library of Michigan
• MIOSHA CET Division
• Center for Workplace Violence Prevention
• Incident Management Team

Trainer: Dr. Kenneth Wolf          (248) 217-1677         email: kwolfphd@theimt.org

Dr. Kenneth Wolf has conducted violence prevention, threat assessment and verbal diffusion trainings for a wide range of healthcare, retail, service organizations and industries. He has consulted with the United States Postal Service, UAW, municipalities and Fortune 500 Companies. He assists organizations with developing comprehensive workplace violence prevention programs, trains threat assessment teams, conducts active shooter survival training exercises and designs crisis recovery programs.