Navigating difficult conversations and recognizing persons of concerns: Confrontation, de-escalation, and threat awareness
Location
SB-154
Start Date
21-5-2025 12:30 PM
End Date
21-5-2025 3:00 PM
Description
A student angry about their grade, a peer not pulling their weight, a supervisor sharing criticism; all can trigger anxiety and stress. Human beings experience physiological responses to stressful encounters that inhibit our ability to communicate, problem solve and listen when it’s most important to do so. Targeted attacks, like active shooters incidents, are not spontaneous, sudden events which occur without warning. They are predictable and, consequently, preventable. Students, co-workers or others may exhibit risk factors or observable behaviors that would indicate they may be on the “pathway to violence.”
In this interactive presentation, participants will be introduced to methods to manage stress during a confrontation to remain intellectually competent to manage the encounter without succumbing to the instinctive visceral reactions that derail our rational responses. Several tools will be introduced for managing difficult conversations and confrontations. Participants will discover, through a self-assessment, their own personal conflict management style and understand how it affects their ability to collaborate toward reaching mutually positive outcomes.
Additionally, this program will provide a basic understanding of the behavioral evolution of an attacker and help participants to recognize and respond to potential signs or cues that may indicate an individual is in distress, in need of help, or may be planning violence, and what interventions might help prevent an attack.
Learning Objectives:
- Participants will gain insight into the natural physiological stress responses that affect cognitive capacity.
- Participants will learn skills to mitigate visceral responses to confrontation that inhibit problem solving.
- Participants will complete a self-assessment to determine their dominant conflict management style.
- Participants will learn and practice tools for effective de-escalation and confrontation.
- Participants will gain an understanding of basic threat assessment principles.
Recommended Citation
Zegadlo, Mike, "Navigating difficult conversations and recognizing persons of concerns: Confrontation, de-escalation, and threat awareness" (2025). May Institute. 2.
https://digitalcommons.lewisu.edu/may-institute/2025/day_2/2
Navigating difficult conversations and recognizing persons of concerns: Confrontation, de-escalation, and threat awareness
SB-154
A student angry about their grade, a peer not pulling their weight, a supervisor sharing criticism; all can trigger anxiety and stress. Human beings experience physiological responses to stressful encounters that inhibit our ability to communicate, problem solve and listen when it’s most important to do so. Targeted attacks, like active shooters incidents, are not spontaneous, sudden events which occur without warning. They are predictable and, consequently, preventable. Students, co-workers or others may exhibit risk factors or observable behaviors that would indicate they may be on the “pathway to violence.”
In this interactive presentation, participants will be introduced to methods to manage stress during a confrontation to remain intellectually competent to manage the encounter without succumbing to the instinctive visceral reactions that derail our rational responses. Several tools will be introduced for managing difficult conversations and confrontations. Participants will discover, through a self-assessment, their own personal conflict management style and understand how it affects their ability to collaborate toward reaching mutually positive outcomes.
Additionally, this program will provide a basic understanding of the behavioral evolution of an attacker and help participants to recognize and respond to potential signs or cues that may indicate an individual is in distress, in need of help, or may be planning violence, and what interventions might help prevent an attack.
Learning Objectives:
- Participants will gain insight into the natural physiological stress responses that affect cognitive capacity.
- Participants will learn skills to mitigate visceral responses to confrontation that inhibit problem solving.
- Participants will complete a self-assessment to determine their dominant conflict management style.
- Participants will learn and practice tools for effective de-escalation and confrontation.
- Participants will gain an understanding of basic threat assessment principles.
