Expert Insights
From a Senior Trainer
Transitioning from running his own successful business to having a pivotal role at Resolution Education as a Senior Trainer, Shane brings a wealth of experience and a passion for making a difference in workplace safety. Reflecting on his journey, Shane emphasises that he ‘absolutely loves it’ and finds it ‘very rewarding.’
With over two decades of experience across diverse customer-facing roles and workplace safety interventions, Shane’s dedication has propelled his rapid growth within the team. Now, he collaborates with prominent organisations on a range of training programs, from Train the Trainer to Restraints and Code Black Training.
In this interview, we delve into Shane’s passion for helping others and his ability to craft tailored and practical training solutions. Furthermore, we gain valuable insight into his understanding of triggers, baseline behaviour, and disengagement strategies.
1. Empowering Employees with Practical Training Solutions
We asked Shane what he enjoys about training and if he favours a particular training program.
‘I really enjoy the Code Black and Restraints Training. The practical side of it is very engaging and fun, especially when you teach new participants who have no idea how to protect themselves or how to use restraints. I can show them how they can formulate a restraint without using strength or size.
It’s really empowering, and you see the difference as it plays out, especially from the point of view of a smaller-framed person who may think, “Well, how am I going to be able to restrain someone a lot bigger and stronger than me?” So, we break it down and realise that it’s not about strength or size. It’s all about the way you position yourself, the movement, and the physics of the body. They have this lightbulb moment where they think, “Wow, this is so empowering.”’
2. Understanding Baseline Behaviour & When to Disengage
The Resolution Education training programs are based on the ADP Framework which stands for Awareness, De-escalation, and Protection. Each of these three modules is critical to enhancing workplace safety.
We asked Shane what aspect of the framework he believes is the most important.
‘Understanding baseline behaviour and what has happened to someone who may have become heightened. Why have they become triggered, and what has contributed to their emotional response?’
Learning about emotions, baseline behaviour, and triggers are foundational aspects of the Awareness and De-escalation modules. By helping participants recognise how their own emotions and triggers influence a situation, they strengthen their understanding and empathy of others.
‘If you are calm and relaxed, and you become triggered, your reaction time to come back down to baseline is a lot quicker than if you were already heightened. But if you’re coming home from a hard day and you’ve had some challenging situations, you’re already off baseline and you’re going to have a different reaction or response because of that.
Understanding the behaviour and intensity level of the emotion helps you decide the outcome and your response. It can indicate whether someone is at a point where your words can make a difference. Are you going to be able to talk them down, or are they in a state where they are so heightened and on the brink of becoming physical?’
Shane explains that if you get to a point where the situation is calming and the person is more rational, you can approach the situation.
‘Now we can think about how we can empathise and build that connection to bring them back down so we can provide a solution for that person.’
Shane further reiterates the importance of our own emotions in a heightened situation. He explains that if we cannot control our own emotions then it is a good idea to disengage from the situation before it ends badly.
‘Disengaging doesn’t necessarily mean walking away from a situation. You can disengage by creating time and space and pausing in the conversation, just by saying, “That’s a great question. Give me a moment to think about that,” and creating some distance.
Have a strategy of creating time for [the heightened individual] to have a breather and process what’s going on, then see if that person can calm down.
They are more likely to be reasoned with and able to accept your solution once they’ve calmed down rather than when they’re at a heightened intensity level.’
3. The Importance of Tailored Solutions & Scenario-Based Training
As a Senior Trainer at Resolution Education, Shane trains organisations on several programs, including Code Black, Restraints, and a Train the Trainer approach.
Shane gave us some insight into the Train the Trainer program and who it may be useful for.
‘With Train the Trainer, we teach participants how to deliver the training so it’s even more in-depth [than the standard sessions] and done over multiple days. The trainees will learn the whole program, including how to deliver the slides and what questions to ask for the best engagement.
Once certified as a trainer, there are also support networks afterwards. So, we’ll give the team access to monthly videos and resources. They can email the trainers at any time, so if they have any problems when delivering the content down the track, we can help guide them and help them customise their training slides to suit their team’s needs.
We like to collaborate with the organisation to make sure that the framework we are delivering, and the training methodology being incorporated into the organisation is in line with their expectations and goals. We work very closely with clients.’
We asked Shane how he is able to create such customised solutions every time.
‘We have an Outcomes Meeting prior [to the training] where we’ll talk to the organisation. We like to receive incident reports (five or six incidents) and we will use them to customise the scenarios. We also ask organisations for their policies and procedures so that when we do the training, it is aligned with the organisation and does not go outside their scope and parameters. So, it’s very much customised to suit the organisational requirements but is still within our framework.’
4. Why Organisational Boundaries & Management Involvement is Crucial
Lastly, Shane highlighted one of the main causes of concern in the many organisations he works with.
‘The biggest thing that I find with a lot of the training and a lot of the organisations is that teams aren’t aware of where that line in the sand is when it comes to organisational boundaries and defining behaviour.
Too often, teams don’t know that certain behaviours are unacceptable, and there isn’t a clear process or policy on how to address the behaviour. If organisations condone [unwanted] behaviour and allow it to happen, the behaviour escalates.
A lot of organisations are so fixated on customer care that when someone crosses a boundary, goes too far, and becomes inappropriate, they are still focused on customer care rather than addressing poor behaviour first.’
Shane emphasises, ‘It’s all about consistency,’ and concludes with a recommendation for all organisations, ‘Leadership and management [would benefit from] attending the training to get a better understanding of what is going on within the organisation.’
Key Takeaways
Shane’s Senior Trainer insight is extremely valuable to anyone dealing with heightened people in the workplace.
In summary, organisations would benefit from:
- Empowering their team members with practical strategies that are easily applied to real-life situations.
- Understanding baseline behaviour, including what triggers someone and recognising one’s own emotions and triggers.
- Collaborating with experts in the field of OVA to ensure a comprehensive and effective approach.
- Establishing consistent organisational boundaries for safety and productivity.
If you would like to organise training for your team, whether it is standard De-escalation & OVA, Train the Trainer, Code Black, Restraints, or one of our other successful programs, then reach out today. We would be happy to collaborate with you and find a solution that meets your team’s needs.
