- Balanced Scorecard
- Creative Problem Solving
- Dealing with Difficult Customers
- Harnessing your Habits
- Habits Follow Article
- Mood Management
- Transforming Negativity in the Workplace
- Workplace Violence
THE BALANCED SCORECARD
The Reader’s Digest Version
The Balanced Scorecard has been a hot topic in organizations for the past several years – it’s a great way of determining the health of a company, seeing where the cancer is, and then providing a treatment plan for recovery. Successful senior managers do not measure just one performance aspect of the business. You need an assessment of multiple factors to get a balanced picture of the company. For example, I may have the goal of being healthy. If I watch my fat intake, but eat mounds of sugar, smoke Lucky Strikes, and sit in front of twelve soap operas a day, I won’t be healthy. I was only watching and changing one aspect of being healthy.
Your company’s health depends on the money it makes, but also on several customer-related levels like increasing loyalty in current customers, getting new segments of the market to become loyal customers, or exposing current customers to new products and services.
The company’s health also depends on our knowledge and ability to be innovative. You may be the world’s leading expert on beer-making, but that (probably) won’t contribute to the health of the company’s bottom line. You must figure out what you need to know today to keep your edge tomorrow. You also need to know what products and services – what new innovations – will be needed tomorrow.
Thirdly, you have to figure out what procedures or processes you need to master in order to succeed. Do you really need that monthly report, just because it’s always been done? The health of your company depends on processes that will get you to your goal – not just process to have process, but streamlined and strategic actions. If I’m trying to be healthy, one process I should put into place is to periodically learn what health is, because how can I reach my goal without knowing what it looks like.
And, yes, your company’s health depends on its bottom line. But I put this last to de-emphasize it, because it’s been the only measure used for so long, which gave a very unbalanced view of a company’s health. I may lie, cheat, and steal to get new business, and my balance sheet looks great. At first. But my lack of customer-focus means I’m quickly out of business. The annual report does not, by itself, reflect the truth about a company’s future.
The Balanced Scorecard looks at these four major areas of your business (Customer, Learning and Growth, Internal Process, and Financial) and asks you to drill down until you know what you’re doing minute by minute that brings you to your goals. You work with a purpose. It does this by taking you from the abstract to the detailed. The logical progression toward reaching your goal is:
1) Set your overall Goals for each of the four major areas;
2) Take one Goal, and ask yourself, what’s a good Objective that will get me to my Goal? They must be actionable and measurable;
3) Ask yourself, what Initiatives would have to be in place to
obtain the Objective? They must be actionable and measurable;
4) Find (or create) the best way to Measure those Objectives
and Initiatives; and
5) Set your Targets so you’ll know when you’ve hit your Objectives and Initiatives. Be very specific. These also must be actionable and measurable.
Now when you’re doing anything during the day, ask yourself: Is this part of a Target ... that feeds your Initiative ... helping obtain your Objective ... which allows you to reach your ultimate Goal? That's balance.
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WHAT’S THE REAL PROBLEM?
These questions and experiments are excerpted from Megan Johntz’s workshop on Creative Problem Solving. For more information on the full workshop, contact Megan at 314.378.3384 or by email at Megan@PsychToolBox.com.
Often we solve problems only to find they come up again next week. At the end of life, people see fairly clearly what the real, underlying issues were, but when you’re 35 sometimes it’s difficult to see. Through a series of question and experiments, you can dig in and determine what the main issue is. Tackle that, and you’re likely to finish the issue -- actually solve the problem. In my private practice, I’ve seen hundreds of people who have been hunting down the wrong animal for years. Frustration, anger, sadness, feeling like they’re ineffective, they fall on my couch and ask, ‘Why isn’t it working?’ Taking a step back, asking what the real goal is, and finding the true problem, is the first step. Let’s take a look at some simple questions that can lead you to hunt the right animal.
Ask yourself these questions. It also helps to write it down, even carrying that journal with you during the day, because realizations arrive at the strangest of times.
- What do I want to be when I grow up?
- You schedule an interview with God. What does The Big Guy say your purpose is in your job? in your family? in your community? Why are you here now?
- What was that experiment like for you?
- What was the first answer that popped in your head?
- How much time during your typical day do you spend on this primary goal/purpose?
- How do you get in the way of your own brain and neglect to see the goal attained?
- How does the chatter in your head sabotage your goal?
- How do you box yourself in? With that in mind, how can you temporarily alter restrictions to see more clearly?
- How do you get stuck in achieving the goals you've set for yourself?
- What benefits do I obtain by focusing on side issues? (Spend some time here, because there are usually quite a few.)
- What situation in life has forced you to solve problems creatively, use your resources, and examine your goals closely ?
- So now, what's the Real Problem? We often try to straighten chairs on the Titanic - solving the wrong problem. This leads to a reoccurrence of the problem, increase of other problems associated with not fixing it right the first time, lost time, energy, and definitely increased frustration. Through creative problem solving, your goal setting is more on target.
Experiment: (see if the goals you set, lock you into the solution you get.)
You are waiting for a bus, and once again you realize you don't have the correct change. What is the problem?
- how are you going to get the exact change before the bus arrives
- what can you do after you get on the bus without correct change
- how can you get there another way
- how can you make this trip later
- how can you prevent this from happening again
why do you procrastinate getting change made
What is the true goal?
- obtaining exact change before the bus arrives
- getting to your destination another way
- making this trip later
- preventing this from happening again
obtaining change after you get on the bus
learning how not to procrastinate
If I have the goal of getting correct change before the bus arrives, I walk into a flower shop nearby and make change. What if the more beneficial goal was to learn how not to procrastinate? I have simply put a Band-Aid on the problem by not examining my goals closely enough to know the real problem, thereby coming up with a long-term solution.
Ask yourself this question frequently: If I were not worrying about __________, what would issue would I have to face? For example, if I weren’t mad about him not taking the garbage out, what would I be mad at? Or, if I look behind the problem, what causal problem do I find? This question asks you to step back and analyze if you're working on the right goal instead of wasting time on side issues, and realizing when you’re 80 what issue really needed to be addressed.
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DEALING WITH DIFFICULT CUSTOMERS The following is a brief look at some of the major points in Megan Johntz’s seminar, Snake Charming: Psychtools for Dealing with Difficult People. For more information, contact Megan at 314.378.3384 or by email: Megan@PsychToolBox.com.
TRY TO DIFFUSE Don't be a Perp Perps refuse to take responsibility for their behavior Perps refuse to notice the negative impact of their actions Perps refuse to make restitution Prepare them well in advance of the bad news Stay ahead of them - anticipate, but stay mentally flexible Mirror their non-verbals and paraverbals Empathy galore (not sympathy)
WHEN YOU HAVE TO CONFRONT Preparation / rehearsal Timing Day of the week is important Time of the day is important Pay attention to your mood and timing Good news first? Humor Timing Humor backfires sometimes There is a difference between assertiveness and aggressiveness
RECOVER S.O.L.V.E. the problem Reality check to get perspective You may need to do some Anger Work so you don’t take it out on co-workers or spouses Self-care - take time for all of your basic 5 levels
Are you ever left searching for the best thing to say during a conflict, even hours after it's over? Megan Johntz has put together some simple Hip Pocket Phrases to provide some Plop, Plop, Fizz, Fizz - Relief for Conflicts in the Workplace.
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HARNESSING YOUR HABITS
Psychtools for Every Day Success
Eat right. Exercise. Take Geritol Stop biting your fingernails. Be more organized. Work smarter. (Do I sound like your mother?) If I could wave my magic wand and you instantly changed every bad habit, and mastered every effective habit, would you take me up on it? Sounds like snake oil, doesn’t it? And yet you got those habits somehow, right? You learned that annoying pattern of avoiding unpleasant tasks until someone’s screaming at you, or taking your gym bag to work once again, only to toss it in the trunk on your way to Wendy’s for lunch. What was your New Year’s resolution by the way? If it was to save money or lose weight, you’re in the vast majority. And you’ll still be in the majority on December 31st, 2000 when you take one more drink and promise to do better in 2001.
THE HABIT TRAP
Most people still struggle with habits that plagued them 20 years ago. It seems to be the human condition to struggle with all kinds of habits, from habits of the head (‘I can’t do that – what if I screwed up?’ or ‘There’s no way I can get all this done’), to habits of the hands (smoking, eating, etc.) Even sleeping poorly, procrastination, and forgetting are habits waiting to be broken.
Steven Covey in Seven Habits of Highly Effective People pounded it into our heads – habits make or break success. But how do you break the cycle? Or better yet, how do you gain the habits that lead to success? Covey set the destination, but we need a road map – concrete tools - telling us how to get there.
You have a natural ability to master habits. I know this because you’re human. And if you argue that point, you have bigger hurdles than mastering habits. Every human has habits. Even if you’re very unorganized, and like variety (or out and out chaos), you’re still a creature of habit. If you’re raising kids watch them. They thrive in a routine, almost deadly predictable environment, because on a very basic level we don’t like change. We realize life is loony and strange, and we’d like to know what’s around the next corner. The peephole in your front door helps reduce stress of the unknown: is it a land shark knocking, waiting to swallow me whole? Or is it my granny in pastel paisley coming to take me to tea? That’s why habits are necessary; they give us predictable, safe feelings of being in control of a little chunk of an otherwise loopy world.
THE CHALLENGE
So are your habits controlling you, or do you use them to get what you want? In my seminar, Psychtools for Mastering Habits, I’ll teach you simple, do-able tools for breaking or creating habits, but you need some information first. Three quick tools to try before my talk: ask around, ask inside, and prioritize.
A client walked into my office and said, ‘People don’t like me.’ Hmmmm, I said. Why? ‘I don’t know. I’m nice to them. I say nice things. But people take a long time to warm up to me, and I’m often lonely.’ I stopped the session and asked permission to videotape. The next week that woman bounded into my office, hugging that videotape. ‘I never knew!’ she said. No one had ever told you?, I asked. And she reported remembering several times, even in grade school, when people had commented on it, but she had dismissed it. The video showed it: her natural, resting face was a cartoonish scowl. Her habit of frowning had drawn lines in a relatively young face, and she still didn’t realize her insides and her outsides didn’t match – she was coming across as a spinstress schoolmarm, even when she felt happy inside! Other people will sometimes tell you your bad habits, or comment on the habits you need but don’t have. It’s our fault for not asking, and not listening when the information comes. Try this experiment: ask three close friends or family members what three habits you need to master, and which three habits get in your way.
One client of mine hated a co-worker, and spent a lot of therapy dollars venting and strategizing ways to deal with this difficult person. I noticed she had a common habit of not looking at me when I was giving her difficult feedback. She would look away, pick at her hands, or even close her eyes. I asked her if she looked at this difficult co-worker, and she responded, yes – of course. I asked her to watch. She thought I was odd, but I am so that’s okay, and she went away.
The next week she came through the door with a sheepish grin, and said she found it very difficult to look at someone she was in conflict with. Ah, ha! What do you lose when you don’t look at someone? You lose all the subtle non-verbals that make up (depending on who you read) 85 – 90% of all communication. This difficult co-worker had a very shrill, parental voice, but her non-verbals were kind and compassionate. My client took the challenge of simply changing the habit her eyes were in, and she reported becoming friends with her adversary in a few weeks. My client wasn’t even aware of her habit to avoid eye contact in difficult situations, until an outside observer pointed it out. Ask people who will tell you the truth about your habits.
Ask inside is similar, but you become your own video camera. Watch two things: your thoughts, and your actions. Some people like to keep a short journal at the end of the day, capturing thought and action, so they can see patterns emerge. Also, ask yourself what three habits you want, and which three you’d like to leave behind. Then take one habit a week, and just live life watching to see how things would be different if you enhanced or erased that habit. Don’t change anything; just contemplate how life would be better. I’ll tell you in the seminar why this experiment has actually helped you change and you didn’t even know it.
Prioritize. You can change any habit in 21 days, but there’s a catch: you can only work on one habit at a time. So take a look at the information you gathered from outside sources, and from your internal study, and pick the top five. For overachieving, type-A folks, this may be distasteful, but if you are in the habit of overwhelming your schedule, maybe that’s one of the first habits to tackle! Don’t set yourself up to fail by taking on more than the human brain can handle. Try to change every habit you have, and your brain will blow up. That’s fairly messy, plus my liability policy doesn’t cover audience’s heads blowing up.
THE END -- UNTIL THE SEMINAR
Will you be a perfect person after the Mastering Your Habits speech? Probably not. Will you walk in with the great pre-tool of slid data about your habits, and walk out with concrete tools to change those you don’t want and master those you need? Definitely. Your habits often define you; they can make or break careers and marriages. They’re slippery little buggers, so join me in the quest for habit mastery, and we’ll learn how to make them serve us, instead of being slaves to another broken New Year’s resolution.
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HABITS FOLLOW-UP ARTICLE
Why am I writing on Habits again? Just to be ironic? No; if you’ll remember from the March meeting speech, the basics of habit mastery are STOP - ERASE - REPLACE. You simply keep stopping the bad habit until the replaced behavior becomes habit. So this FOLLOW-up article is my way of reinforcing good habits – a way of reminding you of the simple tools that lead to powerful habits, instead of destructive ones.
STOP: whether it’s a thought in your head ("I’ll put that aside and have time for it tomorrow"), or a behavior (stress-eating, nail-biting, or smoking) kick it out of your life. It’s your head – you get to decide what’s in it and what’s not. And they’re your hands – a ghost didn’t possess your body and make you eat 26 Oreos. Use the 1960’s technique of Thought Stopping, and when you catch yourself engaging in funky mental gymnastics or old, unwanted actions, just say no. Literally. In the 60’s, therapists taught people to scream out loud, "STOP!" Well, we’ve all mellowed a little since then, so just say it to yourself. Stop! As many times as you find yourself thinking or doing any unwanted behavior. Like a stubborn child, your head and hands will take a little while to learn who’s boss, so keep at it. It takes about 21 days to lose a bad habit, or create a good one.
ERASE: use any visual you want – see the unwanted thought on a blackboard and erase it with a comically huge eraser. See yourself smoking on a tiny TV screen, in black and white with wave lines if you want, and then turn off the set. Actively erasing the image of old behavior helps speed up the new reality. You’ve heard to visualize your goals or else you won’t reach them, right? Same technique. In your head you can blow up that pack of cigarettes, strangle that Big Mac, or see yourself shredding your credit cards.
REPLACE: here’s the fun part. You get to do what you really want. We all have our ideal selves, and now you get to be closer to that ideal. So stop the old, erase it away mentally or actually, and then replace the thought or action with the good habit.
So, if you want to eat better the progression looks like this: the thought to eat that last donut at work pops into your head (of course! It’s the last one! And you’ve been good all morning, and you deserve it because you did such a great job on that report, and you’ll go exercise right after work, etc.). Yell at yourself: STOP! See yourself with giant, greasy donuts graphed onto each thigh. Put yourself in a bikini to make it better, and then see someone squeezing out the grease from the donuts. As it fills the room, your image disappears into the pool of liquid fat.
Then see yourself at your ideal weight and size, without that post-sugar and fat slump you’d have gotten eating the donut. You have tons of energy, because you’re eating the fuel your body was designed for – fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and protein for energy. You enjoy your figure, and how your clothes fit. All this takes under 5 seconds. Twenty-one days of yelling at yourself, seeing the old image drowning in fat, and inserting the new image of you, and you’ll eat healthier.
The catch: you can only do one habit at a time. So you may have to continue eating donuts while you quit smoking or procrastinating. I know, you’re really broken up.
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MOOD MANAGEMENT
SUCCESS UNDER YOUR SKIN
The FOLLOWing is a short excerpt from Megan Johntz’ workshop on Mood Management for corporations and organizations wanting to improve their most valuable commodity - their people.
Contact Megan Johntz today to put Psychtools to work building your company's success.
A recent survey found 36% of WORKPLACE VIOLENCE was caused by marital or relationship issues; 24% of WORKPLACE VIOLENCE was caused by stress of the job or stress from co-worker strife, and only 18% of violent acts at work were due to being fired. American workers are often on the edge, and unskilled at managing their emotions well.
Those who have mastered their moods, are shining, and rising to the upper levels of corporate America, but there seems to be a huge gap between those people and the majority of employees in a given company.
Imagine the success of an organization able to say about each employee that he or she is emotionally mature, able to take criticism well, take responsibility for their mistakes, look for creative solutions benefiting the while company instead of becoming territorial for one department, and on and on. That’s the company able to survive and prosper in this fiercely competitive age.
So let’s take a look at what to do with these troublesome emotions. Pay attention to each tool you learn, for they translate into your family life as well as they do at work.
Feeling basics:
We are always feeling - 24 hours a day.
We are inherently capable of the full range of feelings.
Feelings are personal facts that become reports on our emotional state when shared.
Appropriate expression of feelings enhances intimacy in relationships.
Feelings don't kill, however not expressing feelings can.
We are each responsible for our own feelings and their expression.
There is no bad emotion in and of itself. What you do with that feeling when it comes is what either helps or hurts the situation, others, or yourself.
Trouble emotions:
anger
fear
sadness
Physiology of feelings
Feelings are simply a chemical dump in your body, which in turn creates many physical and mental reactions that we have come to label with the terms “anger” or “happiness”, etc. These chemicals running around in your bloodstream do some very helpful things (extra adrenaline during a crisis helps you fight back or flee), but when misunderstood and mismanaged, they can build up and be detrimental to your very physical health. In the seven years or so that I’ve been studying emotions and health, I’ve run across many studies indicating a build up of these emotions - these chemicals - may be linked to serious health problems.
The FOLLOWing list is simply what Megan Johntz has come across in seven years, so I’m sure there are other studies out there that I just haven’t had time to investigate. You probably have heard of some other physical ailment associated with anger, or depression, etc. So take my partial list, and then keep an ear open during the nightly news, as researchers are finding new correlations between emotional distress and physical health every day.
As I write this, today a study was reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association citing childhood trauma - emotional scars from mom and dad divorcing or childhood abuse - making it more likely that person will smoke, and have a harder time quitting than someone who did not suffer major childhood trauma.
Please remember back to your horrendous statistics class, and know that just because two things (i.e.: anger mismanagement and the growth rate of cancer) seem to exist together, it doesn’t mean one causes the other. We always need more research. So all of that said, the FOLLOWing is a list of studies I’ve come across that associate mismanaged feelings with physical ailments.
Migraine Headaches
Arthritis
Degenerative Joint Disease
Incontinence
Low Back Pain
Sleep Disturbances
Gout
Obesity
Higher Mortality Rate
Bulimia
Anorexia
Hypertension
Lupus
Upper Respiratory Infection
Epstein Barr
Large Bowel Cancer
Cardiovascular Disease
TMJ
Teeth Grinding
Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Culitis
Smoking
Alcoholism
Prescription Drug Abuse
Depression
Low Self-Esteem
Assertiveness Difficulties
Low Social Support
Panic Attacks
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Phobias
During the workshop, participants explore areas such as:
What do I do with anger, sadness, and fear?
How do I handle a co-worker who is definitely not managing his or her emotions well?
How do I teach my kids or encourage my employees toward emotional maturity?
Why would I not notice a feeling - learn to disconnect?
How can building self-awareness of anger, increase peace?
How can my head help my heart, which ultimately improves the work of my hands?
How can not waking up refreshed effect my emotions, and what are the top 5 tools for getting a good night’s sleep?
How does the food on my plate effect my emotions?
What’s all this I hear about light bulbs making me happy?
Does exercise really make me less stressed?
What’s the rule of humor? Is laughter really the best medicine?
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TRANSFORMING NEGATIVITY
In the Workplace
The FOLLOWing is a short excerpt of the outline from Megan Johntz’s workshop on Transforming Negativity for corporations and organizations wanting to improve their most valuable commodity - their people.
For more information on the Transforming Negativity Workshop or Keynote, contact Megan Johntz at 314.378.3384, or Megan@PsychToolBox.com.
"The boy will come to nothing."
- Jakob Freud concerning his son Sigmond
"He made a great mistake when he gave up pitching. Working once a week, he might have lasted a long time and become a great star."
- Manager of the Cleveland Indians, Tris Speaker, concerning
Babe Ruth
"You ain't goin' nowhere... son. You ought to go back to drivin' a truck."
- Jim Denny, manager of the Grand Ole Pry when firing
Elvis Presley after a performance in 1954
Effects of negativity:
Physical
headaches
backaches
stomachaches
itching
cold hands and feet
muscle tension
exhaustion
illness
Mental
irritability
forgetfulness
difficulty concentrating
depression
panic attacks
forgoing dreams and aspirations
poor self-esteem
Behavioral
increased smoking
increased drinking
increased eating
increased drug use
poor eye-contact
poor productivity
absenteeism
increased arguments
lack of creativity
apathy
Where it comes from:
family issues
good economy
bad economy
jealousy
competition
low self-esteem
pressured culture
How it spreads:
mutual pathologies
hierarchical systems
hypnosis / norms
defenselessness
THEM
(Understanding that Negative Person)
"Critics are the unpaid watchmen of my soul."
- E. Stanley Jones, author of The Way
"To avoid criticism do nothing, say nothing, be nothing."
- Eleanor Roosevelt
Tool #1:
Understand the mind of the negative person:
Often believe their criticism is helpful
Often motivated by a simple desire to solve problems
Often feel it is their duty to find something wrong
Some see their criticism as merely 'letting it all hang out',
'being real', or 'expressing emotions'.
Many were raised to be critical, apathetic, or confrontational.
Some will create negativity if none exists.
I think ___________________________ does what she/he does,
because __________________________________________________
US
(AKA: Why doesn’t everyone have a problem with that person?)
Mental filters (counteract using Cognitive Restructuring tools)
Experiment:
The most negative kind of people to me are:
______________________________________________________________
To me, conflict means:
______________________________________________________________
My average response to negativity is:
______________________________________________________________
My preferred response to negativity is:
______________________________________________________________
tools
Cognitive restructuring
read your head to find the lie
find the opposite / evidence
bombard your system with the new (the truth)
Face the critic within
unknown double standard
seeing yourself in others is uncomfortable
Wear their shoes
background information
assumptions
Try not to lose twice
lose the gem
learn about ourselves
Paraphrase
calming & clarifying
practice so no parroting
Permission to tune-out
3-Critic Rule
hip-pocket phrases
"I'm sorry you feel that way."
"Sounds like we have very different views on this."
"Thanks for letting me know what you think."
"I'm not willing to do that."
"Unfortunately, that's not a priority for me."
"I hear what you're saying."
My own hip-pocket phrases:
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
Use your support system
de-toxing
sort the information into major and minor
Verbal Judo (Pollyanna Warfare)
point-counterpoint
internal protection
Schedule negativity
built in
strategic flow
Hunt for the positives
search for them - they are there
set the tone - infect them
Go with the 'We can't..."
gather information
ask for their reversal
SCENARIO #1
"We can't get that report out by Friday."
"We can't?"
"No."
"Well it has to be done."
"There's no way."
"I don't care what it takes, just get it done by Friday at 5:00."
SCENARIO #2
"We can't get that report out by Friday."
"We can't?"
"No."
"What's blocking it?
"Well, X, Y, and Z."
"Hmmm. That's a good problem. I wonder what we could do?" (Strategic silence and/or "What's your best hunch?")
"Well, I might be able to A, B, or C, but it would take
more money."
"Good solutions. I like what you said about B, because that would definitely get the report done by Friday. Like you, I'm concerned about the hit to our budget."
"Yeah."
"How can we keep the benefits of B, while reducing the risk of going over budget?" (Strategic silence.)
"I don't know."
"Would you give it some thought, and get back to me..."
"Do you have 5 minutes to get a cup of coffee and brainstorm some options...?"
"Let's both come up with 3 ideas and get together again at..."
"I'm sure we can find a better solution than just having to force it down our throats."
Soft-spots
self-knowledge
boundaries
What areas of your life are off limits:
at work?
with negative people?
with the family you grew up in?
with your family now?
with friends?
with strangers?
Boundaries - hip pocket phrases:
"You may critique what I do, but please don't tell me how to improve my marriage." (You may X, but not Y.)
"Right now, that's not an area I want to discuss."
"That's a real soft spot for me. I'd appreciate it if we could change the subject."
"That's an issue I need to solve myself."
"Would you be willing to/willing not to..."
Nonverbals
eye-contact
posture
facial expression
Changing the subject
picking a new topic
cultural factors
When all else fails, duck!
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WORKPLACE VIOLENCE
It’s the #2 cause of death on the job. Recent research finds that the leading cause of WORKPLACE VIOLENCE is not being fired: over 35% of violent acts in the workplace are caused by problems at home. Corporate America can’t control what goes on in someone’s kitchen or bedroom, or can it?
The FOLLOWing is an excerpt from Megan Johntz’ seminar on “WORKPLACE VIOLENCE: How Kitchen Conversations Kill Co-Workers at the Water-Cooler.”
For more information on Megan Johntz’ full program, contact her at 314.378.3384 Megan@PsychToolBox.com.
SITUATIONS PRONE TO WORKPLACE VIOLENCE
troubled clients
working alone
job locations
handling money
time of day/long waits
enforcing rules
serving alcohol/dispensing medication
JOBS PRONE TO WORKPLACE VIOLENCE
providing a service: benefits officers, taxi drivers, bus drivers
caring for others: health care workers, community workers
education: teaching, non teaching staff
money transactions: retail staff, delivery persons
delivery/collections: postal workers, couriers
controlling: ticket collectors, pub staff, enforcement officer
inspecting: planning inspectors, OHS officers
security: police, corrections staff
serving the public: crisis centers
WARNING SIGNS
Person has not bathed or changed clothes
Person is unusually disputative or agitated
Person is "giving away" personal belongings or saying good-byes
Person has just suffered a great personal or professional loss
Person makes veiled or obvious threats
Person has a history of drug or alcohol abuse
Person has a history of mental illness, gang membership or violent acts
SOCIETAL FACTORS
Violent society
Violence prone neighborhood
Large number of weapons in circulation
Early release of mental patients and/or criminals
POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER
Recurrent, intrusive recollections and/or dreams of the event
Flashbacks as if the event is still happening
Intense distress when in contact with "triggers"
Attempts to avoid anything associated with the event
Stress signs such as: sleep, concentration or relaxation disturbances
Contact Johntz Presentations today and
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