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Welcome to our first newsletter of 2021. Not being able to travel and meet with our clients face-to-face has been a challenge, especially in regards to our training programs. But like many of you, we are getting increasingly accustomed to interacting through the computer monitor and have retooled our presentations to be more compatible with an e-training format.
There are some advantages of course. In the past, just getting everyone together at the same time and place has typically presented the greatest logistic challenge. This has been particularly true with our more comprehensive (and more lengthy) Threat Management Team trainings, since everyone involved have busy schedules.
We have found ourselves busier this year, as many of our clients who initially postponed training in 2020, are feeling more comfortable with the "Zoom" experience - not to mention that it is clear that we are all not likely to be resuming travel anytime soon.
This newsletter focuses on the above-mentioned Threat Management Team - or Crisis Response Team or Risk Management Team, etc.; the label is not important. What is important is that an effective workplace violence program should include at its core, a trained interdisciplinary team who bear the responsibility for making those critical decisions when faced with a threat or any kind of troubling or high-risk behavior that could potentially present a risk or harm to the organization or one of its members.
Since I have provided overviews of this subject in the past in these newsletters and in my book, I thought that I would discuss some of my ongoing thoughts based on my experience and/or based on questions that are typically raised.
It Takes A Team: some thoughts
- Flexibility. I tend not to have a rigid pre-conception of what a team should look like or even how it should operate. Yes, there are some important general guidelines, but for the team to be effective, it has to fit within your corporate culture and it has to function in a way that you know will work within your internal structure. Determining what works logistically within your organization becomes part of the team's initial training; once the team understands the essentials of the threat management process, then the team itself can be involved in the discussion of how this can be most effectively implemented within your organization. Like many aspects of threat management, there are few hard-and-fast formulas or recipes. It's the process that is most critical.
- This process absolutely has to be multi-disciplinary. That does not mean that a member from every discipline is called upon on every incident that gets reported. But, it does mean that the primary responder on each team, or the team leader, needs to be able to pull in critical decision-makers who understand this process and understand what their fundamental responsibility will be in the process, from any critical discipline within the organization. (And the various team members have to be able to trust that they will be called in when necessary and not left in the dark when important decisions have to be made.) In most cases in most organizations, Security and Human Resources will be on most every call.
- It is absolutely critical that this be truly a team effort. The use of the term "team" is not by accident. None of us (myself included) can effectively address these kinds of issues and make these kind of critical decisions by ourselves. When that happens, mistakes are made. The input of Human Resources, Legal, Security, and often many others is often crucial for success. As a team, we make better decisions than any of us do alone; we see this happen on a regular basis. Whenever we get called into a situation by a company, my first question is "who is the team?" and the second question is "who is the designated coordinator", meaning who is responsible for getting the team together, sharing information, etc.
- Determine early in the case management process who the team members need to be for that particular case, in order to address the critical issues for that particular response. Calling in someone late in on ongoing decision-making process (such as legal counsel, for example), can cause a great deal of frustration if they object to the course of action that the team has been working on, based on their expertise.
- This is not about turf. But unfortunately, our first obstacle in establishing and training threat management teams is sometimes dealing with reluctant members. There has to be a buy-in from all parts of the organization that this has to be a shared effort, and that all of the team members have something to contribute. That being said, there are often situations when one discipline has to take on a more central role due to the demands of the situation, and there has to be a recognition of that by the other team members, and sufficient trust and communication among the team members, to help that proceed more efficiently.
- Team membership will not be the same in each case, mainly because the core team will often need to pull in "ad hoc" members, depending on the demands of each situation. These ad hoc members may be local managers, outside professionals, benefits coordinators, or other members within the organization. The team has to be flexible enough to understand when they need to expand or alter the composition of the team, in order to address the issue most effectively.
- To be effective, the team must be prepared to respond to a broad range of behaviors. Most of us are gravitating away from emphasizing the words "workplace violence" or even "threat" in describing the team's scope. This is because of the overly narrow connotation attached to these terms. The Threat Management Team, to be truly effective, needs to be able to address any type of situation that could present a risk to the organization, even if it does not appear to be a "threat" as commonly considered or yet include actual violence. Ideally, teams should often have the opportunity to address potential risks before they get to a "violence" or a "threat" level.
- Educating the organization. Once this Threat Management Team is created and trained, the work is not done. The team will not be able to effectively address critical issues if these issues are not routed to them. Sometimes, the first job for the team and its members is to make sure that members of the organization are aware of the team's existence and purpose, know how and when to report issues - and most importantly, have the confidence that their reports will be handled in a considered and professional manner. This will require other training and awareness programs throughout the organization - aimed at critical personnel (such as HR managers), managers and eventually, the general employee population.
I hope this is helpful. As always, we welcome your comments and questions - or any suggestions for future newsletter subjects.
All the best,
Marc McElhaney, Ph.D.
Critical Response Associates, LLC
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