That's what my son says. We have two rules in the house. We take a breath before we're going to say something that we're going to regret, and if it gets really bad, we put the microwave timer on for 20 minutes and walk away until we're okay to come back and talk about it rationally.
Ad hoc incident review is another leadership tool that DND uses. It's to reduce the stress in your team. It is not to replace a debriefing. It is a very quick check in, especially with managers, if you've had a crisis or a negative situation in your workplace. You want to check in with your employees to see how they're doing. Quite simply put, it is “How are you doing”, to acknowledge that it was a tough situation or to say “I'm struggling too.” It gives them the opportunity to feel that they're in a safe environment and are able to reflect on how they're reacting, and if they are reacting over a longer period of time and they're not getting back to their normal, then obviously they can self-manage and get the help they need.
In terms of scenarios, I worked with Suzanne Bailey, who was instrumental with the Department of National Defence in this program. She by far says that in order for this to be successful you need this piece. In the leadership package, you have eight examples for leaders. The primary package...and the only difference, why there's less in one than the other is that your primary package is four hours, and your leadership package is eight.
We're going to give you a scenario, and I'd like to take a look at it. If you'd like to discuss it with the people beside you or as a group, we can certainly do this. It will give you an idea of.... When we talk about scenarios, you can say, “Oh, okay, that's what they're talking about.”
In the setting of the R2MR workshop, we divide the groups into four or five people, and they're each given a scenario. For the questions that are going to follow this, we're not looking at the team; we're looking at Elizabeth. You learn that the daughter of your subordinate Elizabeth has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. You've noticed that Elizabeth is distracted at work, and tearful at times. Her work is beginning to suffer, and you are concerned. She has been making errors, missing a lot of work, been rude to her co-workers, and refuses to take on any new work assignments.
Those who are working with her are obviously very frustrated, but they don't really know how to approach her. They're also concerned and want to help, but they don't know how.
I'm going to give you a couple of minutes to discuss it. You have your—