"A Year of Listening" Podcast | Episode 01 | Police Reform with Lou Hayes


When friend Colleen Powell emailed me out of the blue to ask if I'd be a guest on her new podcast, I jumped at the idea. Not because Colleen and I share our view of the world; she and I tend to disagree on much. But rather, I accepted the invitation because I believed in her mission for the A Year in Listening podcast:
I believe there is a middle place where even the most opposing beliefs can find common ground.  A Year of Listening Podcast is designed to reclaim the lost art of civil, nuanced and compassionate conversation about a variety of polarizing topics.  In short, we’re tackling all the topics your mother warned you never to discuss at cocktail parties.  The goal of this show is to help people understand the very personal experiences that often guide our beliefs in the hopes that this expands our compassion and empathy for those who believe differently than us. 
For this, I admired Colleen's vulnerability and courage.

We decided to discuss police reform (link to show notes). What are some the topics and questions we meandered through?
  • How did I get to where am I? 
  • Why is police reform important to me?
  • How is complexity science applied to law enforcement?
  • Is there a problem in policing?
  • What is "accountability?"
  • What are the standards & expectations to which police are held?
  • How might citizens better understand the process of evaluating police incidents?
  • Are we adequately preparing our officers to police an armed populace? 
  • How might implicit racial bias impact police officer decision-making?
  • What's the impact of social media in police agencies?
  • How do we go about shifting police culture?
  • What is the value of unconditional respect & emotional intelligence in police-citizen interactions? 
  • How do labels of Blue Live Matter or Black Lives Matter (& the extremists within each of those groups) affect meaningful conversation & change?
  • What's up with body worn cameras?
  • Where is "police reform" headed in the future?
  • ...and much more.
You can listen to A Year of Listening podcast here on iTunes, and elsewhere...

And if you have guest ideas (yourself included!) to discuss a topic that your "mom warned you to never discuss at cocktail parties," seek out Colleen...

***



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 @LouHayesJr or on LinkedIn. He also maintains a LinkedIn page for The Illinois Model.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Presentation Hack: Your Last Slide(s)

Image
I've written before about introductory presentation slides . When the audience is filtering into the room, I prefer to play a few minimalist slides on a looping show over the typical static slide jammed with titles, organizations, names, events, and logos. (Many of you have circled back to me after having used this trick to share your successes with it! Thanks for trying it!) But what about ending the presentation? What tricks do I use to bring closure to a projected slide deck? How do I handle a summary or a Question-and-Answer session? First let me contrast two (2) different chronologies of the tail ends of presentations: Weaker Ending Final detail point. Grand closing (climax?) "Are there any questions?" Answer them if they're asked. Thank the audience. Awkwardly leave the platform Stronger Ending Final detail point. Brief Summary "Before I get into the final closing, what questions can I answer?" Answer them if they&#
Read the entire post here »

Presentation Hack: "For those of you who don't know me..."

Image
I've been to quite a few weddings. Not that I've been invited to more than any of you, but I have moonlighted in a few banquet halls over the years. As such, I've heard my fair share of toasts by Best Men and Maids of Honor. (And eaten my fair share of dinners in the back half.) For many Best Men or Maids of Honor, the dinner toast is one (1) of the most stressful aspects of a wedding weekend for them. Public speaking causes all sorts of anxiety - magnified by the pressure of knowing your failure might ruin your best friend's most special day of his/her life! Yikes! It doesn't take long to determine who is comfortable holding the microphone. And whether I can see the body language or not, it's sometimes the first few words that come out of their mouths that give it away. Few public speaking phrases get me to cringe as reliably and as intensely as an introduction of  "For those of you who don't know me..." This introduc
Read the entire post here »

The Generalist versus The Specialist

Image
There exists a conspiracy against the Generalist. Today's culture rewards those who Specialize: doctors, athletes, teachers, cops. Being labeled a Generalist comes with ridicule of being luke-warm, a moderate, uncommitted, or without passion. Those images are false. They are hallucinations. Time and time again, life penalizes the Specialist. We never learn from our mistakes. Striking a balance between being a Generalist or a Specialist hinges on one factor: one's confidence in the future . The equation is quite simple -- the greater the predictability of approaching problems, the more one should become the Specialist; the less foresight one has, the more benefit in being the Generalist. This axiom holds for any aspect of life: financial investment, medicine, emergency preparedness, physical fitness, backcountry camping, education, gambling, and of course....law enforcement operations. As with most of our theories, this is a spectrum bookended by two extremes. With a
Read the entire post here »