Posts

Everything is Connected

Image
Everything is connected. Some things...hashtaconnected. Some things: 
more strongly or loosely;to more or less things;more or less interactive.Somebody will always disagree with where you drew the boundary around the system. They do this in two (2) main ways:
Make it bigger; thereby more complex.Make is smaller; thereby simpler."Carving nature at its joints" will never be a wholly objective endeavor.
"All models are wrong; some are useful." - George Box
Some carvings are, however, justifiably wronger than others.



***


Lou Hayes, Jr.is a criminal investigations & intelligence unit supervisor in a suburban Chicago police department. With a passion for training, he studies human performance & decision-making, creativity, emotional intelligence, and adaptability. Follow Lou on Twitter at @LouHayesJror onLinkedIn. He also maintains aLinkedIn page for The Illinois Model.
Post a Comment
Read the entire post here »

Chidike Okeem, on awards and recognition

Image
The following is from a Twitter thread posted by Chidike Okeem, combined & reposted with his permission.




It's so important to design your life in such a way that awards & recognition are not central to your identity.

Doing excellent work should be central to your identity—irrespective of whether that work is awarded and recognized.

When awards and recognition are central to your identity, it is extremely easy for people to control you.

Awards are decided by extremely fallible human beings. They're not objective measures of brilliance. Just focus on being great.

People can deny you awards and accolades, but they cannot take away your greatness. Chase greatness and history will remember you kindly.

Do you want to stunt someone's growth? The easiest way to do it is to fulsomely praise and reward their mediocrity. They'll NEVER improve.

Praise is often used as a tool of suppression and control. It's so powerful because it's a sugary killer.

Do you know why Nigeria…
Post a Comment
Read the entire post here »

The Biggest Hurdle for Tech in Policing (& Probably Your Business Too!)

Image
I recall a new gadget put in our squad cars a dozen years ago: a driver's license scanner. It was to be used like those at the grocery store check-out. Scan the barcode on the back of a motorist's license and the data would be miraculously imported into twenty (20) or so boxes on a traffic citation or warning. 
Except it was just as quick and habitual for most every cop to just type the digits into the keyboard than to grab the scanner out of the cradle and actually get a decent scan.
Several months into the program, a Command officer asked in roll call how the scanner was working in the field. Nobody wanted to answer. Except for one (1) seasoned copper who offered up, "Sir, they're great. I use it everyday!" We were shocked! Nobody expected this particular old school cop to use that sort of technology. The Command officer's eyes beamed with excitement on the success. 
The copper continued. "It's mounted at just the perfect height and position to hang…
Post a Comment
Read the entire post here »

Presentation Hack: Receiving Feedback

Image
Last week, I moderated a four (4)-hour workshop on Emotional Intelligence. The audience was 27 police sergeants from across Illinois, as part of a three (3)-week college-level course on supervision. I previously knew one (1) attendee.

Today, I received a composite evaluation from the organization that hired me. It combines all the responses into a single document. I paste it here in entirety, in italics:


Comments: 
-
Post a Comment
Read the entire post here »

OODA: Framework of Frameworks

Image
If OODA is depicted (incorrectly) as a circle, it ignores so many of the pathways that keep it so universal.

When I whiteboard OODA, I draw in lots of extra pieces. One (1) of them is a crystal ball along the arrow from Decide-to-Observe. I consider it the crystal ball feedback pathway.

It's where options are pondered before commitment. It's how the actor is mentally rehearsing, simulating, modeling, forecasting, anticipating, using imagery, and even predicting.

This crystal ball pathway is where Gary Klein's Recognition Primed Decision-Making (RPD/RPDM) sits. The actor pushes scenarios through hypotheses to find a suitable match - often the first match that is reasonably fit for the current situation. It's a lightning fast cycling through OOD-OOD-OOD...until a good enough option can be released forward into a committed decision. (Commitment of course being a relative term.)



[above RPDM image attributed to Klein, 1983]
Another aspect here is that of paralysis-by-analys…
Post a Comment
Read the entire post here »

Presentation Hack: Contingency Planning

Image
I once pulled out a pocketknife so I could shave off the plastic collar on my HDMI plug that wouldn't fit into the venue's podium panel.

I've been that guy in the audience who whipped out a dongle from my bag to save the day. I shrugged my shoulders when a fellow attendee jokingly shouts, "Who the f%&k carries an HDMI-to-VGA adaptor around with them?!?" 

We've all been there. You're in the audience at a conference and the next presenter is having trouble getting his/her laptop to connect to the projector system.

You know the script:

"Ok folks, we're having some problems up here. Hopefully we will be getting started in a few minutes...."

They call the tech support to the podium and continue to be baffled at the settings, the tangle of cords, the remote control, the sound speakers..."Hey, can you hear this in the back?"

If you've been in that situation as that speaker, you know how much more awkward it is for you than for the a…
Post a Comment
Read the entire post here »

Adaptive Thinking Workshops

Image
I've been fielding more questions about hosting workshops for both law enforcement audiences & participants...and non-law enforcement! I actually really like that idea, but I'm not in a position to push them forward. It's going to have to be an on-request sort of venture. 

Want to see my philosophy & some content that would be included? Here is what you might see in a workshop for law enforcement, from a detailed proposal for a police department:


ADAPTIVE PHILOSOPHY
Law enforcement culture tends to utilize a linear, technical mindset for training, intelligence, policy, operations, and supervision.  At the same time, police officers, supervisors, and command staff continue to struggle with complications from poor decision-making and leadership. This antiquated framework is a carry over from an industrial education model primarily designed for efficiency via cost savings and the maximization of time...for training factory workers! The unpredictable modern law enforcemen…
Post a Comment
Read the entire post here »