DO YOU WORK WITH PEOPLE LIKE THESE? Are they costing YOUR business money?
Bullies
Rebels
Control Freaks
Job Hoppers
Complainers
Gossips
Victims
Drama Queens/Kings
Burnouts
Users and Losers
Their work may be valuable to the company. You may not want to lose them. But they create stress, upset, staff turnover and commotion — and hurt your company’s bottom line!
Could you use some expert advice to handle seemingly no-win situations like these before it’s too late? What if there were straightforward tools to deal with productivity-sucking, time-wasting, revenue-draining emotional detours while taking care of your employees?
This groundbreaking new book, written in business-friendly language by a Ph.D. in mental health, provides all of the tools you need right now to keep your team, department, division, or company on course.
Offers tools to calculate bottom-line costs of ignored or mismanaged emotions to your company.
Provides you with a tested system to observe, predict, prepare, and write policy to manage the full range of workplace emotions productively — so you can stop workplace problems before they start!
Guides you step-by-step through evaluating the actions of difficult employees to determine which behaviors are warning signs of serious trouble and which will respond to company guidance and support.
Equips you with proven methods to effectively handle emotionally charged situations safely at every level from a cranky individual to mass hysteria.
Is authored by a Certified Traumatologist, a business consultant, educator, and counselor, who has worked with military vets returning to the workplace and victims of major disasters, including 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and the Indonesian Tsunami.
Includes thought-provoking discussion questions, extensive real-life examples, glossary, and index to facilitate college and professional development and classroom use.
BEWARE: Ignoring Emotions in the Workplace Is High Risk Behavior
Many of us have witnessed — sometimes in helpless horror — how a simple problem can spin into a corporate crisis as people take sides, outside professionals are brought in, and company reputations suffer…
Everything was exposed and raw as if a common energy had stripped away the veneer of civilized behaviors…People took sides, hid, ran, quit, overworked, underworked, ate too much, drank more, complained more, went silent, changed jobs, exited. They reacted as if all their system had been tossed into the air and was never going to land again.
This wasn’t the scene of a criminal act, earthquake, or terrorist attack. Rather, it was the disruptive and costly outcome of months of escalating workplace tension in the wake of changed management policies. Like a tornado, two violent co-workers had left 600 others in emotional rubble.
That company could have been prepared with corporate policies and procedures to defuse such emotionally charged situations – long before alarming human and financial costs hit its bottom line. Managers could have learned to recognize and stop “emotional spinning” from gathering destructive force. The old paradigm of separating humans from humanity during work hours is not only antiquated thinking, it’s high risk corporate behavior!
“Dr. Vali” calls her ground-breaking solution Emotional Continuity Management. She provides tools you can use right now to avoid costs in decreased productivity, injured goodwill, employee turnover, plummeting employee engagement, and severed business relationships.
In this practical book, Dr. Vali gives you:
Real-life case studies that show you how to calculate bottom line, dollars and cents costs of disruptive employees and managers and emotionally charged incidents.
Proven techniques to help you identify variations in behavior that are early warning signs of trouble. She compares them to “tornado warnings” and provides a 5-point scale.
An understanding of the psychology driving “emotional terrorists,” who stage themselves as victims and gather an army of acolytes to assist in their campaigns of emotional disruption, and a game-plan for managing such attacks before, during and after an event.
Practical tools for managing workplace emotions before, during and after an emergency, based on the author’s extensive on-the-ground experience in counseling first responders and victims during major national and international disasters.
Policies and procedures for working with military veterans returning to the workplace – and the need to deal with PTSD.
Techniques for containing and mitigating the damage created by workplace bullies – and when to decide if an “amputation” is required or a less-extreme strategy is needed.
Sample policies and plans, and detailed instructions for company-wide training programs, up and down the organization.
Demonstrates that Emotional Continuity Management is not a “soft” issue and makes a compelling case that it relates directly to cost and increased risk – which should definitely take human emotions much higher up the Board agenda. ECM definitely ranks high as a new topic for Business Continuity practitioners to master.”
~ Lyndon Bird, FBCI, Technical Director, Business Continuity Institute
Provides concepts, theories, and real life examples that put much of the behavior I’ve seen as a corporate leader into context. Compels us to accept that people have emotions, and to consider that those emotions — when out of control and unmanaged – have real, measureable impacts on an organization.”
~ Martin Greenwood, Former Executive Director, Verizon
You’ll look with new eyes at the enormous role played by human emotions in today’s business. I endorse this new book as a guide for the 21st century global workforce.”
~ James J.Cappola, MD, Ph.D., Medical Director, Medical Affairs, Harvard Clinical Research Institute
Vali Hawkins Mitchell, Ph.D., LMHC., holds a Doctorate in Health Education and Masters degree in Applied Psychology. As a Certified Traumatologist, her critical insights on the real human factors of disaster and emergency planning have been shaped by her experiences with major events such as the World Trade Center, Hurricane Katrina, Samoan earthquakes, Indonesian tsunami, and Pacific Northwest Wildfires. She is considered a leading authority in the growing field of Emotional Continuity Management and a highly regarded public speaker and trainer, author, consultant, and educator.
0.1 What Does it Mean, What Does it Matter? 0.2 The Cost of Emotions Spinning out of Control 0.2.1 Fiscal 0.2.2 Goodwill 0.2.3 Liability 0.2.4 Other Costs 0.3 Protecting Your Bottom Line 0.3.1 How Emotional Continuity Planning Can Help Questions for Further Thought and Discussion
1.1 Emotions Are a Part of Work 1.1.1 Sometimes Emotions Get Things Spinning 1.1.2 Thinking about Emotions 1.2 Sometimes Spinning Starts to Pick Up Speed 1.2.1 Some Spinning is Contagious 1.2.2 Some People Exploit the Emotional Situation 1.2.3 Emotional Spinning is More than Experiencing Our Feelings 1.2.4 Sometimes Spinning Leads to Violence Questions for Further Thought & Discussion
2.1 Defining Emotional Tornadoes 2.1.1 Quantifying Emotional Tornadoes 2.1.2 Dr. Vali’s Enhanced Emotional Tornado Chart 2.1.3 Calculating the Costs of Emotional Tornadoes 2.1.4 Attributes of Emotional Tornadoes 2.2 How to Recognize a Spin 2.2.1 What to Look For 2.2.2 Early Warning Signs of Spin Risk 2.2.3 Pay Attention to the Early Warning Signs Questions for Further Thought & Discussion
3.1 Life Consists of Change 3.1.1 Spinning is Always a Reaction to Something Else 3.1.2 Change, Loss, and Grief 3.1.3 Business Change 3.2 Main Causes of Emotional Spinning 3.2.1 Stress 3.2.2 Burnout 3.2.3 Annoyances 3.2.4 Violence 3.2.5 Trauma 3.3 Examples of Spinning: Spin Stories 3.4 Other Emotional Responses May Look Like Spinning 3.5 Healthy, Dysfunctional, and Pathological People 3.5.1 Levels of Functioning in People 3.5.2 Recognizing Levels of Functioning 3.5.3 The “What’s Up?” Checklist Questions for Further Thought & Discussion
4.1 Emotional Terrorists: Extreme Bullies 4.1.1 Emotional Terrorists and Bullies 4.1.2 Emotional Terrorism 4.1.3 Emotional Terrorism at Work 4.2 Attributes and Behaviors of the Emotional Terrorist 4.2.1 Warning Signs 4.2.2 Mis-informants/Liars 4.2.3 Time Bullies 4.2.4 Bullies Resist Questions for Further Thought & Discussion
5.1 Starting Out: Preparing to Deal With a Bully 5.2 Understanding Feelings 5.2.1 Tension 5.2.2 Boundaries 5.2.3 Acute Stress Reactions 5.2.4 Grief 5.2.5 Avoidance 5.2.6 Inflexibility 5.2.7 Neutrality and Groundedness 5.2.8 Conflict 5.3 Managing Emotions at Work 5.3.1 Guidelines for Managing Emotions at Work 5.3.2 Learn How to Be in The Presence of Emotions 5.4 Become Fluent in a New Way of Communicating 5.4.1 Karpman Drama Triangle 5.4.2 When is it a Game and When is it for Real? 5.5 Understand What it Takes to Manage or Deal with a Bully 5.5.1 Managing an Emotional Terrorist: Snakes in the Schoolyard 5.5.2 Applying the Snakes in the Schoolyard Model to a Business 5.5.3 Tips for Dealing with Bullies and Emotional Terrorists 5.5.4 Conducting a Meeting or Interview with a Bully or Emotional Terrorist 5.6 Becoming an Excellent Manager in a World of Challenges 5.6.1 Step 1: Decide 5.6.2 Step 2: Prepare Yourself 5.6.3 Step 3: Establish Your Own Support System 5.6.4 Step 4: Prepare the System 5.6.5 Step 5: Go for it 5.6.6 Step 6: Design Your Management Style and Your Emotional Continuity Program 5.7 Emotional Continuity for Employees Transitioning from Armed Services 5.7.1 Transition to Civilian Life — A Career Change, Not a Crisis 5.7.2 Understanding the Background of Military Personnel 5.7.3 Know the Resources Available to Returning Military 5.7.4 Avoid Damaging Assumptions Questions for Further Thought & Discussion
6.1 Starting the System-wide Approach 6.1.1 Getting Buy-in From the Top Down 6.1.2 Advantages of the Process 6.2 Making a Bullying Policy 6.2.1 Examples of Policies about Workplace Bullying 6.3 Creating System-wide Emotional Continuity Management 6.3.1 How Some Companies Have Approached Creating System-wide Emotional Continuity Management 6.3.2 What a System-wide Emotional Continuity Plan Should Start to Address 6.3.3 Ask These Questions for the System-wide Buy-in Process 6.3.4 Steps for Writing an Emotional Continuity Management Plan 6.3.5 System-wide Emotional Continuity Management Checklist 6.4 A Five-Step Spin-Free Workplace Training Model for System-wide Emotional Continuity Management 6.4.1 Preparation 6.4.2 The Wake-up Call 6.4.3 The Invitation 6.4.4 Clarity and Re-Commitment 6.4.5 Remediation 6.5 Review Resistance to Training Programs 6.5.1 Responses from Different Types of Employees 6.5.2 Track the Contagion 6.5.3 Rehearse 6.6 Starting an Emotional Continuity Management Team 6.6.1 Constructing Your Team 6.6.2 Constructing a “Team Notebook” 6.7 How to Make Hard Technical Data and Soft Technical Data Assessments 6.7.1 Part One: The Hard Technicals 6.7.2 Part Two: The Soft Technicals 6.8 How to Write New Policies 6.8.1 Policy Writing Guidelines 6.8.2 How to Write an Anti-emotional Terrorism Policy 6.9 Drills for Emotional Incidents 6.9.1 Preparing for Drills 6.9.2 Create an Emotional Continuity Management Event Hot Sheet 6.9.3 Drill and Rehearsal Form Checklist 6.9.4 Setting up a Drill 6.9.5 Tips for Success of Drills 6.10 How to Set up a Drill for Continuity Management 6.10.1 Creating a Space for Emergency Emotions 6.10.2 Emotional Continuity Management Drill Scenarios Questions for Further Thought and Discussion
7.1 Phases of Disaster Planning to Consider 7.1.1 Planning Phase 7.1.2 Implementation Phase 7.1.3 Recovery Phase 7.2 Increasing Competency of Emotional Continuity Management 7.2.1 Questions to Ask with Every Incident 7.2.2 Preparation is Just Good Thinking 7.3 The Real Deal 7.3.1 Understanding the Need for Planning 7.3.2 What Managers Need to Provide in a Disaster 7.4 Changes Occurring with Disaster 7.4.1 Power 7.4.2 Work 7.4.3 Authority 7.4.4 Perceptions 7.4.5 If and When 7.5 Managing Before, During, and After a Disaster 7.5.1 Before the Disaster 7.5.2 During the Disaster 7.5.3 After the Disaster 7.6 Managing Disaster Anniversaries 7.6.1 Grief May Take Months to Resolve 7.6.2 Managers Need to Do the Compassionate Thing Questions for Further Thought and Discussion
Chapter 8: Where Are We Going?
8.1 To Be or Not to Be… a Victim 8.2 The Future Holds Choices for Solutions 8.3 Changing Attitudes, One Meeting at a Time 8.4 Keep the Old Foundations While Building the New 8.5 Signs of Hope 8.6 Not the Last Word
Below are links to PDFs of excerpts from chapters and appendices to provide a sense of the book content and style. Each is copyrighted and permission is granted to use this material for textbook adoption evaluation only.
Ph.D. in health education, business consultant, and leading authority on Emotional Continuity ManagementTrainer of emergency first responders, Certified Traumatologist, counselor for disaster victims
Vali Hawkins Mitchell, Ph.D., LMHC, jokes that she made a career choice at birth: she was born in the middle of an earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale!
“Call it fate, call it divine intervention or simply the result of a very impressionistic and inquisitive mind,” she says, “but I’ve made a career of studying how individuals, organizations, and communities deal with the emotional reactions that come during and following crises or catastrophic disasters.”
“Call it fate, call it divine intervention or simply the result of a very impressionistic and inquisitive mind,” she says, “but I’ve made a career of studying how individuals, organizations, and communities deal with the emotional reactions that come during and following crises or catastrophic disasters.”
Dr. Vali, as she is well known, holds a Doctorate in Health Education and Masters degrees in Applied Psychology and Expressive Arts Therapy. She is a highly regarded public speaker, trainer, author, consultant, and educator.
A valued mentor and keynote speaker, she offers critical insights on the real human factors of disaster and emergency planning based on her experiences with major events such as the World Trade Center, Hurricane Katrina, Samoan earthquakes, the Indonesian tsunami, and Pacific Northwest Wildfires. She is considered by many as the leading authority in the growing field of Emotional Continuity Management.
US Department of Defense counselor serving returning military veterans and their families
Academically, Dr. Vali has been adjunct faculty member and guest lecturer at a number of universities and colleges, including Washington State University, the World Medicine Institute, and Lane Community College. She has contributed original research in the area of Psychosocial Dynamics of Families with Pediatric Illness, Tools of Trauma Management for Emergency Care and Health Care Delivery Professionals, and the Use of Quantum Poetry for Trauma Management.
As a counselor, she has been trained by the American Red Cross as a Disaster Mental Health provider and National Diversity Instructor, and has been engaged by the US Department of Defense to consult directly with military families, veterans, and service members in all branches since 2009.
As a business consultant and educator, Dr. Vali travels extensively, providing custom-designed trainings for individuals and teams, private and government agencies and businesses from mom-and-pop companies to large corporations.
Dr. Vali is the author of Emotional Terrors in the Workplace Protecting Your Bottom Line; Dr. Vali’s Survival Guide: Tips for the Journey; Preparing a Go-Bag; and a number of plays, musicals, and children’s titles. She is a performance musician and award-winning artist. She is a Registered Expressive Arts Therapist (REAT) and is based in Seattle, Washington.
Not since the groundbreaking group dynamics programs of the first half of the 20th century have we seen such a new approach for guiding us through the complex and dynamic world of the workplace. Dr. Mitchell provides a clear roadmap for navigating the pitfalls of human interactions in today’s organization. She guides owners, executives, managers, team leaders, workers, and consultants in how to create an emotional culture in which everyone can refocus strengths and channel emotions to maintain full productivity and protect the bottom line. You will look with new eyes at the enormous role played by human emotions in today’s business. I endorse it as a guide for the 21st century global workforce. “
~ James J.Cappola, MD, Ph.D., Medical Director, Medical Affairs Harvard Clinical Research Institute
Traditionally, in the world of BCM we talk about risks and threats to our organizations, such as computer failures, natural disasters, supply chain disruption, or a pandemic. This book examines the risk and threats that people can pose to a business, such as brand and reputational damage, litigation, employee turnover, and even criminal behavior.
Although people are always considered in BCM plans, they are often treated as a recoverable resource numbers to be counted and skills to be replaced. However, actual human behavior in BCM is rarely thought about in the planning, response, or recovery phases, and where it is mentioned, it is usually at the bottom of the priority list. This book effectively debunks that point of view, systematically producing evidence and arguing a compelling case. Dr. Vali connects human emotions directly to cost and increased risk, which should definitely take human emotions much higher up the board agenda. Maybe after reading this book, organizations will be persuaded to look more closely at this commonly overlooked subject and begin to see the benefit of emotional continuity management.
Emotional continuity is not a soft subject; rather, it is about emotional readiness and paying attention to the way business and humans interact. In this book, the chapter on Emotional Continuity Management for Disasters is particularly fascinating for BCM professionals, as it talks about how to plan for the emotional consequences of disasters.
You will find Dr. Vali s book to be both an excellent read and a great catalyst for generating new ideas about how these concepts could be incorporated in your mission statement. If you are open-minded about BCM, I suggest you read this book now and start applying its principles well before the next major incident impacts your organization. Emotional continuity management is definitely high on the list of new topics for BCM practitioners to master.”
~ Lyndon Bird FBCI, Technical Director, Business Continuity Institute
Dr. Mitchell provides the concepts, theories, and real life examples that put much of the behavior I’ve seen as a corporate leader into context. Her book compels us to accept that people have emotions and to consider that those emotions, when out of control and unmanaged, have real measurable impacts on an organization. While most people will accept these propositions in theory, very few companies currently provide training for their managers in what Dr. Mitchell calls Emotional Continuity Management.
I recall a manager who was smart and talented and whose team was well respected. From the outside, it looked like a well- functioning team and he appeared to be dedicated, hardworking, and demanding. What people didn’t know was that when he was alone with his staff, he would ridicule and berate people in front of their peers. He was a perfect fit for what Dr. Mitchell describes as a workplace bully or even an emotional terrorist. Eventually, a member of his group brought his behavior to the attention of HR. Looking back at that situation, I can only speculate how months of that treatment impacted the morale and productivity of his group. After reading Dr. Mitchell s book, I wonder if only he, his people, and his superiors had been trained in emotional continuity management, would his behavior have been identified and addressed sooner and more effectively for his group and for the corporation?
Dr. Mitchell explains the need to understand human emotions in the workplace, helping the reader to understand the difference between normal emotions and reactions and destructive behaviors, providing a context for identifying warning signs of problematic behaviors and situations. She approaches the subject not from a purely theoretical view, but through a wealth of real life examples of organizations that ignored situations until they became toxic to the bottom line.
This book will cause you to think about a subject that many in the world of business choose to ignore until they run smack into it. Dr. Mitchell makes a strong argument that everyone in an organization needs the tools and training to manage emotions, and that emotional continuity management will be effective only when there is buy-in from the most senior management.”
~ Martin Greenwood, Former Executive Director, Verizon Communications
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