The Lady Was A Cop: Safety, Security and Survival
Program Titles
- Keeping Your Family Out of Harm’s Way
- Safety, security and survival: Out of Harms Way
- Successful Negotiation and Persuasion – Increasing Your Return on Investment
- Most Important Secret to fight that overwhelming sense of panic: You’re okay right this minute.
- Sharing some of the important secrets of successful negotiators, arbitrators and mediators
- Your Challenge: Keeping The Other Person In The Game!
- Closeness without conflict exists only in the cemetery
- Conflict management – workplace violence
Resilience – Rebounding During Turbulent Times and Meeting the Challenges of Change. Resilience is an essential life skill for dealing with the business environment of the 21st century. RESILIENCE CAN BE LEARNED All of us face reversals in fortune. What are the secrets for getting back in the game as quickly as possible? How does one “hang on” until either the situation changes or a solution has time to take effect? Resilient individuals and organizations spend as little time as possible in chaos, worry and upset. After a loss or missed opportunity, they quickly move into the problem-solving mode. Since challenges seem to arrive on our doorsteps not singly, but in groups, bouncing back quickly is both more difficult – and more important.
What follows is the first secret in a series of tips to help you quickly regain that equilibrium in your life and your organization – whether the challenge comes to a business, school, house of worship or, on a more personal level, a friendship or within your family. Once you’ve regained your balanced outlook, you can successfully search for and evaluate solutions. Most Important Secret to fight that overwhelming sense of panic: You’re okay right this minute. During World War II, my Dad was captured on Bataan and survived the Bataan Death March in April 1942.
Dad survived more than three years as a POW. He was transported to Japan and, because of his background at KMOX radio, he was assigned to the same radio station as the infamous Tokyo Rose. Dad was given reports of the war activities and told to rewrite them so that the stories reflected American defeats and other information which would be demoralizing to the Allied troops.
He was then told to broadcast the propaganda to the Allies – which, of course, Dad did; and did with enthusiasm…much to the surprise and pleasure of the guards. After the most-valuable-to- the-Allies “doctored” information, Dad would interject his own comment: ȁGo tell THAT to the Marines!” Dad’s enthusiasm for his job persuaded the guards to give him even more freedom in the writing and broadcasting of his announcements.
What his captors failed to realize was “Go tell that to the Marines” was American slang for “That’s a bunch of baloney.” By the enthusiastic and judicious use of the that phrase, Dad was able to slip a great deal of information to the Allies…until the day an America-educated Japanese officer figured it out – and the gig was up.
Dad was sentenced to be executed. Remember the secret: Stay Calm!
You’re okay right this moment… The man responsible for the six American POW broadcasters was an Eagle Scout…as was my Dad. He interceded with an emissary of the emperor, and Dad’s life was spared – but just barely. Dad was sent to a POW camp so well hidden that the war was over for four days before the camp was even located. In addition, Dad had dysentery and was sent to a camp of non-English speaking Allies. This was, in effect, a death sentence – just one that would be carried out more slowly.
As Everyday Heroes are wont to do everywhere, the Afrikaners shared their meager rations with Dad and, though he wasn’t the picture of health when he was shipped home in 1945, he did come home. He met my Mom, is the father of six children and contributed his wise, witty everyday heroism to those of us who knew and loved him.
Resilience has been woven into my psyche since I was a young child when Dad starting telling the stories of the heroes he had known. One of the “gifts” of my 9 years as a police officer and detective was the opportunity to be placed in very real life-or-death situations. Law enforcement has been described as “hours and hours of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer, exhilarating terror.”
In many ways, it’s easier to face imminent and terrifying danger for moments, or even hours, than the wear-you-down-down grinding fears that accompany a tough economy, a health challenge or a family or personal crisis which can go on for months or even years.
Most of us will not face life-or-death situations but, in many ways, the day-to-day challenges are every bit as stressful and demand as much wisdom and courage as the choices men and women make in wartime.
To learn how to apply the secrets of resilience in the face of adversity,
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