Building Interpersonal Communication Skills: The 3-Day Intensive

The core competency of emergency telecommunicators is effective communication. Virtually every aspect of the job is directly influenced by the ability of the telecommunicator to choose and deliver the most appropriate forms and manner of communication. These include correctly understanding callers and the subtext, interactions with colleagues during difficult calls, the nature of sending and receiving messages within a government bureaucracy, and of no little importance is how they communicate with themselves. Effective call handling through high-performance communication also serves to reduce the likelihood of lawsuits. The tragic rape and murder of Denise Amber Lee is but one of the countless stories where basic communication among 911 telecommunicators and with their callers utterly failed.

The fears, resistance, emotional intelligence, habits, moods, and attitudes of 911 dispatchers directly impact how they show up to serve callers and each other. This three-day intensive program covers understanding fear and resistance, improving emotional intelligence, understanding basic trauma and fight/flight/freeze responses, identifying communication styles in callers and colleagues and using that information for more effective outcomes, learning how to read people and move them toward desired behaviors and outcomes, and more.

Participants in this program will receive the following books: Overcoming Fear: 50 Lessons on Being Bold and Living the Dream; Emotional Intelligence: 50 Lessons on Knowing Who You’re Dealing With; and Public Speaking: 50 Lessons on Presenting Without Losing Your Cool.

Instructor

Dr. Joe Serio has trained thousands of 9-1-1 dispatchers across the United States and Canada on topics such as Positive Interaction with Difficult People, Leadership and Your Legacy, Effective Supervision, and Time Management.

He regularly visits comm centers around the country listening to calls, interviewing supervisors, and talking with call-takers and dispatchers.

Joe is the founding publisher of the Get the Nerve series of books and was co-founder of The Healthy Dispatcher. He is the author of more than 10 books on personal development, leadership, and wellness, and co-author of Dispatcher Stress: 50 Lessons on Beating the Burnout.

Joe holds a Ph.D. in Criminal Justice with a focus on Leadership and Organizational Behavior from one of the leading programs in the country.

In his former life, Joe was the only American to work in the Organized Crime Control Department of the Soviet National Police and was director of the Moscow office of the world’s leading corporate investigation and business development firm. He is the author of the critically acclaimed book, Investigating the Russian Mafia, and is author of Vodka, Hookers, and the Russian Mafia: My Life in Moscow.

Special Instructions

Dress Code: To promote a professional training environment, CAPCOG requires proper professional attire. T-shirts, shorts, leggings, and flip-flops are prohibited.

Attendee must provide their PID # to receive TCOLE credit for courses taken through CAPCOG.

CAPCOG provides training for the Emergency Communication Centers (ECC) in our region at no cost to 9-1-1 telecommunicators and their departments.

When space is reserved for a 9-1-1 training class offered by CAPCOG, students or the supervisor who made the reservation must cancel such reservation at least two business days prior to start of the class. If not, payment for the class will be invoiced to the appropriate agency for the “no show”.

For Questions

Contact Pamela Frisk, 9-1-1 Senior Training & Public Education Specialist.