Confirmed with Kris and we are a go for a seminar February 20th, 1000-1600 at his dojo. I'll put together a lesson plan, a flier and get an e-mail list going.
Intriguing suggestion to work directly on a class (maybe videos? A book?) specifically for cops who need to attain control and side-step the Monkey Dancing. Primate behavior gets a lot of play in the next book, but saying, "Don't do X." Is easy. the challenge is training behaviors to replace the 'don't' and get a good effect. A lot of the strategies for people/cops whatever (like yelling or being bossy) are used because they work. But when they fail, they fail catastrophically. Need to outline the concepts and see what format will get the point across most clearly.
An old friend, a former thug who thinks a lot, may be coming up for air after a long hiatus. Might join us for the weekly brawls if his schedule permits.
Decisions to make. Things to plan.
6 comments:
Looking forward to checking out the book.
Definitely interested in the program on avoiding/stopping the Monkey Dance.
Too often, cops get trapped in the Monkey Dance when people don't comply immediately...
Wait....there's weekly brawls?
In NLP they talk about "anchoring" a mental state. Usually, it's the use of some small ritual (movement, mental script, breathing pattern, etc..) to induce the desired state. In my case, I credit 40 years of kata with causing the effect (come to think of it, kata requires all three of the things mentioned above). You see a lot of yelling and being bossy on the street and if I see a rookie going that way, we have a counseling session. That sort of behavior can go terribly wrong.
Maintaining awareness of self and the levels of the psyche and how they respond and interact to internal state changes and external stimuli prevents ego (the monkey dance). Thanks to James for the term 'anchoring' - perfect. Be steadfast in yourself and others won't cause you to give them what some rightfully deserve.
I think there are two main factors in a cop falling into a Monkey Dance.
First, you've got the guys with ego issues. Either too much ego or too little... The guys who are too sure of themselves can't believe someone would dare not comply -- so they end up locked in a Monkey Dance situation with someone on the street. The guys with too little over-react, either by backing down when they shouldn't, or by just getting stuck in a stalled cycle, or by going overboard at the slightest resistance.
The other factor that I think gets a cop stuck in a Monkey Dance has been called "presumed compliance." We get so used to the 85 to 90 percent of the people we deal with pretty much complying (even if they're mouthy as they do it) that the guy who doesn't locks you into a mental state of "what? huh?" Sometimes this means a freeze -- but sometimes, it means a Monkey Dance sort of exchange until one of the players gets into an effective frame of mind.
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