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It was the most terrifying twenty minutes of his life. He was confronted by three people with incessant questions. They probed his mind, issued uncomfortable silences, and bore holes through him with unblinking eyes. They held the power and simply would not relent.
Flop sweat cascaded from his forehead, an aqueous tribute to his trepidation. Conversely, his throat was dry, leaving him inarticulate. He felt immobile, caught helpless like a deer in headlights.
It was his first job interview and he remembers it like it was only a meal ago. Read more… |
joebouchard Assessing the organization, Self Scrutiny
Quivering with disdain, she cleared her throat and articulated her opinion to all within earshot. “Brad may have book smarts, but he has no horse sense!” She fixed me with an unwavering stare as she made her announcement. The statement was laden with contempt, literally dripping like snow melting off a metal roof in March.
My immediate question was, “What is horse sense?”
I had heard this expression before, but it still puzzled me. Read more…
joebouchard Self Scrutiny, Staff relations
One of the most powerful actions to evoke surprise and bitterness is the act of betrayal. Disloyalty in any area is particularly crushing when it is unexpected. That is the point at which the betrayed party is most vulnerable. Trust broken, quite simply, is hard to regain.
In corrections, we have many trust relationships. To fully cultivate trust, we must develop and maintain loyalty towards these parties: Self, Prisoners, Coworkers, and Society. Read more…
joebouchard Self Scrutiny, Staff relations
One little rumor is like an acorn. Before you know it, the rumor grows into a huge tree with tangled roots. And like Frankenstein’s Monster, conspiracy theories come to life and rampage.
Can rumors and tabloid talk bring danger to an institution? Do those who subscribe to less reputable entertainment reports make themselves potential targets for manipulation? The answers to these questions can be quite easy to discover. It is a simple matter of observing and listening to others at work in the wake of a celebrity scandal. Read more…
joebouchard Assessing the organization, Inside Out, Self Scrutiny, Staff relations
How often does the average person think about the motor in their car? The engine, though essential, is forgotten when it works well and without strange noises. However, when the oil light comes on in the dash board, there is a sudden sense of alarm.
Read more…
joebouchard Self Scrutiny, Staff relations
egrity
Imagine two dozen freshly baked chocolate chip cookies slowly cooling in your kitchen. Their alluring aroma floats through the house. The delicious scent is absolutely enticing. It invites the notion that just one out of 24 would not be missed.
The cookies seem to call to you. You discover that you feel hungrier than you actually are. Clearly, you are tempted. Intellectually, though, you know that you promised to deliver a certain number of those cookies. Yet, the rest of you implores your conscience to allow for a deviation of principle. What’s one cookie, more or less?
What do you do? Read more…
joebouchard Self Scrutiny
She had been called to duty. She sat in the front row of the jury box. Never before had she faced such weighty decisions.
There was more on her mind, though, than the verdict. It seemed to her that the prosecution, defense, and the judge were gauging her expression through the trial. Every time she looked up, at least one of those three were reading their effectiveness by looking at her eyes. She was the barometer, and she did not like it.
Like it or not, there are those among us who reveal our innermost thoughts through expressions. Non-verbal communication, as conventional wisdom has it, accounts for over 90% of all communications. Read more…
joebouchard Self Scrutiny, Uncategorized
Moderation is not always practiced in the work world. The field of corrections is no exception to this rule. This is true in how we perform our jobs. There are really three kinds of performances. The ideal is a high performer. The high performer is neither a slovenly slacker nor an obsessive overachiever. Read more…
joebouchard Self Scrutiny, Staff relations
You can take the person out of the corrections. But can you keep corrections out of the person? Can professionals clock out and leave all deeply ingrained corrections habits behind the walls? Or are we doomed to perpetually monitor and observe even when we are in our relatively safe place away from the institution? Read more…
joebouchard Inside Out, Self Scrutiny, Uncategorized
Last week, a corrections training colleague from a North East state contacted me regarding contraband control. He wanted to converse about about an article that I published in 2006. The article was called “A big Deal About a Little Contraband”. His main goal was to expand his agency’s contraband control training module. Read more…
joebouchard Contraband Control, Self Scrutiny
