Dealing Effectively with Confrontations

I was filing papers yesterday when I came upon a little piece of paper upon which I had written five very important lines. Seeing that paper took me back in time.

Years ago, when I first became a supervisor, I had the opportunity to receive one hour of coaching on the topic of supervising. What a boon that was! Before the session, the coach had asked that I think about an area of concern I wanted to discuss. My real dilemma at that time was how to deal effectively with confrontations.

I am by nature a very non-confrontational person. I dislike negativity. I dislike loud or angry discussions. I dislike being at odds with others. But I knew, as a supervisor, I would be faced with confrontations. The confrontation might be inbound -- a disgruntled employee who felt treated unfairly -- or it might be outbound -- my need to address an employee on unacceptable behavior. Either way, I knew that stress for me loomed on the horizon.

That day, I learned five things that have helped me deal effectively with confrontations for many years.

Assume Benign Intent
Drop Your Breath
Deflect The Aggression
Diffuse The Emotion
Address The Issue

The first step is critical. In order to work effectively through a confrontational situation you must be calm. It is hard to be calm if you go into the confrontation feeling the other is acting maliciously. Start off in as neutral a manner as possible. Assume Benign Intent.

When stress levels are rising, our breath becomes quicker and more shallow. This response in turn makes you feel more tense. Take three or four deep breaths. You will immediately feel calmer and be better prepared for the next steps. Drop Your Breath.

Oftentimes confrontation seems like it is coming right at you, even if the confrontation isn't about you at all. In order to proceed to the next steps, you must move past this. The visual I use for this step is literally moving my hand to shield against the confrontation and flick it away. Deflect The Aggression.

A joke can take the heat right out of a contentious situation, but if joking is not your strength or if it seems inappropriate to joke at this point in the confrontation, don't do it. Openly acknowledging that the other has a valid reason to be concerned can also take the heat out. Either way, take steps to Diffuse The Emotion.

Now that the situation has been calmed, you can get down to the real heart of the confrontation itself without stress or fear. At this point, it is critical that you try to assess the true nature of the confrontation and Address The Issue.

As Winston Churchill said, "It is wonderful what great strides can be made when there is a resolute purpose behind them." Resolve today to practice dealing effectively with confrontations. It is a skill that won't let you down.

 -- Lynn Thompson Baca

Important Anthropological Research

Carolyn Nordstrom is an anthropological rock star. Nordstrom studies wars, the illegal drug trade, gender relationships, and war profiteering. Yet, she is one of the most cheerful and positive people I know. It is amazing.  Nordstrom proves to me that knowledge is power and that one person really can change the world for the better.

Check out these titles available on Amazon 

Nordstrom titles

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​​_____Lynn Thompson Baca

Fascinating statistics from a recent USA Today article

There are 30 million business in the U.S., 99% of which are small businesses. Of those, only about two-thirds have a website. And fewer than half have a business social media presence. But, that said, where do new customers come from? You bet, a lot these days come from online searches and interactions. Indeed, roughly a third of all customers now find businesses online, and 25% of Millennials find new businesses primarily via social channels. – Steve Strauss, for USA Today

Click here for the whole story

What is your marketing strategy for your website? What is your marketing strategy for social media? If you are looking for new customers – and who isn’t – it is definitely worth putting a LOT of time into your planning and implementation of an effective web presence and ensuring the consistency and reach of your messages through social channels.

____Lynn Thompson Baca

Fundraising Ideas

Working with schools we've learned a thing or two about fundraising ideas for groups. The following are two of our favorites -- both have big potential, both capitalize on including community into students' education, both are easy activities to pull off in communities of any size. 

BOOKS! Students from Wilson Middle School in Albuquerque, New Mexico worked with a local Barnes & Noble Bookstore to fundraise an educational trip. Students handed out coupons that, when presented at checkout, enabled the group to receive a percentage of the sale. It was that simple! Customers bought great books and supported education and archaeology in their community. PARTICIPANTS: Barnes & Noble, Coronado Center · 6600 Menaul Blvd. NE and Wilson Middle School, 1138 Cardenas Dr. SE Albuquerque, NM

RAFFLE! The Archaeology Club at Capital High School in Santa Fe sold $5 raffle tickets (all proceeds going to the club) for an opportunity to Punt, Pass & Kick to win a new truck! The 2015 GMC Crew Cab 1500 Sierra truck was donated by Garcia Buick GMC of Santa Fe. Now THAT'S community support! PARTICIPANTS; Garcia Buick GMC, 2721 Cerrillos Road, Santa Fe, NM and Capital High School, 4851 Paseo del Sol, Santa Fe, NM

​Here are some more ideas from the Enrollment Manager at an experiential education center - she has seen great success with these fundraising activities!​ ​   * Host a school dance; these could be themed-Sock Hop, 1980’s, Disco, etc and charge entrance fee. You'll want to get a band or DJ to donate their time and effort for a good cause! * Sponsor and run the concession stand at some of your school's games, rallies, etc. You can provide just one item (like nachos) or the whole shebang. * Host a car wash. Easy, clean, fun! * Restaurant Match. This can be a terrific fund raiser. Work with a local restaurant; on a certain date anyone who goes into the restaurant and identifies that they are with your school will ensure that a certain portion of their meal purchase goes towards your fundraiser. * Glow Bowling. This is similar to the Restaurant Match. Work with a local bowling alley. On a particular day a percentage of proceeds from entry fees will go towards your school's fundraising efforts.

____Lynn Thompson Baca

Why should you have a marketing plan for your organization?

"Why should I have a marketing plan for my company? I'm a small shop! I don't have time to do marketing anyway." Do you find yourself thinking those thoughts? Well, let me tell you -- if you don't have a marketing plan you are missing an opportunity to position your company for success. 

A good marketing plan is much like a good strategic plan. Both look at strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to an organization. Both help identify where an organization wants to be in the next year, three years, five years. Both can help an organization identify its internal and external customers -- especially those all-important ideal customers!

A good marketing plan will then focus on the product, pricing, and promotion. Finally, a good marketing plan will clearly identify where the organization needs to be visible. Marketing efforts might be recommended via print ads in expensive magazines. Or maybe a very low-key social media campaign will be recommended. The best marketing plans are ones that work FOR an organization . . . not the other way around!   

____Lynn Thompson Baca

The Importance of School Morale

Effective learning requires a heavy dose of teacher enthusiasm! When hiring teachers, schools look for enthusiasm as an important – maybe imperative – characteristic in the applicants. Without an enthusiastic leader in the classroom, learning will be poor to average at best.

Successful grade level or content teams do not happen by accident. These teams become successful because of their contagious high levels of enthusiasm. When given a choice, an educator who truly cares about their performance and wants to perform at a high level of professionalism will choose to be an engaged participant of an enthusiastic team. The educator makes this choice because they know that when a high level of enthusiasm is combined with optimum performance the result is improvement in their trade.

When a teacher performs better (this is evidenced by learning occurring in the classroom at a high rate), that teacher experiences less stress, better health, and better attendance. On a school-wide level, all of these factors contribute to high staff retention and maintaining focus on specific school goals.

When a school experiences the aforementioned high level of morale, the school becomes easier to manage for the instructional leader and more productive overall. That school becomes a place where students, parents, and teachers want to be and a place all are proud to claim as their own.

_____Phil Baca

First Day of School

The start of a new school year places a positive and strong grip on young learners. At their command, young learners have a tremendous opportunity when a new school year begins. The opportunity to start fresh, meet new classmates, learn with new teachers, develop new friendships, rekindle friendships with old classmates, study challenging books, use exciting learning materials, and grow from the experiences to come creates excitement and enthusiasm in young learners, as well it should.

Young learners have a serious responsibility to themselves, their families, and their learning community; success will require patience, determination, good listening skills, appropriate questioning techniques, engagement, and the desire to learn. Learning does not occur by accident (although they can be learnable moments), learning occurs when opportunity and preparation meet in a safe and trusting environment. When a young person experiences learning they experience one of the greatest thrills of life; because nothing is as fun as learning something new.

To young learners everywhere – capitalize on your excitement to learn, make your enthusiasm to learn contagious, and have fun learning.   

---- Phil Baca

Experiential Learning Makes Learning Fun!

Do you want young learners to have fun learning? As School Board Members, Superintendents, Principals, Teachers, and Parents – don’t we all!

How do we maximize the potential for young learners to enjoy their learning? The answer is: we expose them to experiential learning environments. In experiential learning environments, young learners have the opportunity to hold their learning in their hands. By allowing young learners to touch and feel their learning we allow them to greatly increase their level of engagement. We can all agree that an engaged young learner has a greater opportunity to succeed.

Too often young learners are asked to learn in a theory only environment. When we connect practice to theory in the learning environment we greatly increase the potential for success. Why is that? The answer is: when exposed to learning by doing, young learners are placed in a setting that spawns critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making. Not only are these skills immensely important life skills, they are the foundation of learning in the Common Core State Standards.

When exposed to experiential learning environments, young learners are afforded the opportunity to practice and hone these great skills. As the abilities to think critically, solve real problems, and make decisions improve, so does retention and learning. Make learning fun and at the same time position young learners for success – place young learners in experiential learning environments. 

-- Phil Baca, educational consultant, MEREA Consulting, LLC