For criminal justice agencies, challenges are more of the status quo than the extra-ordinary circumstance. These become even more challenging when people must be steered into an intended path, but they are resistant to the decisions and changes required to resolve the existing concerns. Al Cobos leads this session to unpack how motivational conversations can help address such challenges.
Al Cobos is the primary consultant and owner of Dychelon LLC, a Human Resources training provider. Al is a retired law enforcement professional with more than 3 decades of experience with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD), particularly its Training Bureau’s Education-Based Discipline/Leadership Unit.
Specifics of this discussion include:
- How Motivational Interviewing has the potential to address issues in the work environment.
- How having good working relationships result in influence necessary for leaders to motivate people.
- Factors to consider in our daily conversations that can facilitate motivation for the people we work with and the accomplishment of the individual, team, or organizational goals.
- How motivational conversations offer a more sophisticated approach to getting people to do something without simply resorting to positive (rewards) and negative (punishment) consequences.
- What motivational conversation is, the importance of motive and commitment in its effectiveness, and how it leads people to our intended outcomes.
- An example of a situation where motivational conversations could have improved the outcomes.
- How asking versus telling in goal setting enhances work relationships, develops influence, and achieves desired results.
- The benefits of an asking approach when it becomes our default when communicating as it relates to building relationships, improving our ability to connect with others, and accomplishing goals.
- How asking questions is empowering and not coming from a position of weakness as it encourages learning for others.
- The four-step process when creating questions that looks into the intent, the conversation, the relationships, and the results.
- Guidelines on how to craft better questions as part of motivational conversations and an example of how applying this framework to criminal justice concerns encourages learning and analysis.
- Exercises were provided to reflect on:
- Common criminal justice issues and what possible questions can be asked to move a person or group of people into a specific path.
- What types of questions can be asked related to your organization’s issues.
- How to get better at crafting and asking questions.
- Using motivational conversations and questions to foster an organizational culture that is cohesive to the mission of the organization and where people are involved in the process.
- Reinforcing the organizational mission by getting employees to reflect on what they can contribute and bring to the table towards that goal.
- The ways to influence the people in your workplace by serving as an inspiration, practicing authenticity, promoting lifelong learning, and nurturing an environment of analysis.
- The value of leading with questions and interacting with people through motivational conversations in one’s professional at personal life.
Questions raised by the webinar attendees are about:
- The relationship between motivational conversations and motivational interviewing.
- Keeping appropriate boundaries while building a working relationship at the same time.
- Having motivational conversations with overburdened and low-morale employees.
- Alternatives to the question why.
- Using motivational conversation to address attitude issues with an employee.
Other Webinars with this Presenter
- Jan 26: Decision Making: Influences, Emotions and “Facts” that Direct Our Decisions
- April 5: Alternative Discipline: How to Keep Your Employees Viable after They Have Gone through the Discipline Process
- June 7: Motivational Conversation: Creating Questions to Move People Along an Intended Path While Building Relationships (this webinar)
- Sept 15: Maslow in the Workplace: Creating Employees that Contribute and Are Engaged
- Feb 2, 2023: Psychological Safety
- May 9, 2023: Selling Your Ideas Up the Chain of Command
Audience Comments
- “The most valuable thing learned today was learning that you must be creative in your conversations. Do not try and force your opinions on your staff. Ask questions and get feedback. Be sincere and your conversations will initiate engagement and lead to getting what is needed done.” — Wendy
- “I work with Juvenile probation officers and one of the skills we work on is motivation for change, change peers, attitudes, etc. The way Al described asking questions and not using “why” I think can be transferred to the officers who work with clients.” — Teressa
- “Ideas of how to present topics to motivate people and engage them in the process of change and decision making. — Robert
- “Asking questions versus telling, while maintaining relationships.” — Rouel
- “Great informative webinar will definitely apply what I learned to my workplace.” — Santos
- “Learning new ways to ask questions that get others involved in what you are wanting to accomplish for your team, unit, or department. Thank you for another excellent webinar!” — Kathy
- “I have taken several classes on Motivational Interviewing for the purpose of work. However, I never thought to apply the technique to managing my subordinates. I am interested in using this in the future to develop as a supervisor.” — Liza
- “This was more of a reinforcement of acquired skills. The presenter was well-spoken, had relatable experience and useful examples.” — Laura
