OVERVIEW

GOALS OF THE COURSE

WHAT IS VERBAL JUDO?

VERBAL JUDO is a tactical communication-training course. Dr. George Thompson Ph.D. is the President and Founder of the Verbal Judo Institute. He has applied his diverse experience, including ten years as an English Professor, as well as five years as a Police Officer, to create an internationally recognized training program in Tactical Communication.

VERBAL JUDO is offered as a 2-day or 1-day training program. The principles and tactics taught enable graduates to use "Presence and Words" to calm difficult people who may be under severe emotional or other influences, redirect the behavior of hostile people, diffuse potentially dangerous situations, perform professionally under all conditions and achieve the desired outcome in the encounter.

Healthcare Professionals know they must be mentally flexible to handle all the situations that come up in a typical day. They understand how to use words as a tool rather than as a weapon. And they keep focused on the goal of each encounter.

To be successful we must be able to read people and situations as opportunities for progress, taking appropriate action for each event without letting our personal feelings sabotage the results we are looking for.

Verbal Judo teaches the skills necessary to remain centered and focused during any verbal circumstance. You will learn to redirect behavior, diffuse difficult situations, and generate voluntary compliance from people not on their best behavior. Although people may not always like what they have to do, they will understand the need to be cooperative.

With patients, family members, peers, strangers or even doctors, Verbal Judo will give you the edge in any encounter, increasing the value of the Healthcare experience and the quality of your life.

Welcome to Verbal Judo, where work doesn't have to be another four-letter word.

Verbal Judo, or Tactical Communication, enables healthcare employees to focus on the behavior of other's while maintaining their own and others safety and then use Appropriate Presence and Words to achieve a professional purpose.

Verbal Judo, like Judo itself, uses the energy of others to master situations. It contains a set of communication principles and tactics that enable the user to generate cooperation and gain voluntary compliance from others under stressful conditions. These tactics are especially useful when dealing with hostile, angry, upset, frustrated or disgruntled people.

Verbal Judo teaches a philosophy of how to look creatively at conflict, offering specific, powerful, and usable strategies to resolve tense situations. Healthcare professionals will learn to respond to situations rather than react to personal feelings. Additionally employees will come to understand how to deal with difficult people and how to use conflict management tactics to diffuse confrontational encounters.

The course has precisely defined training goals that address concerns important to both the organization and its individual employees. They are:

SAFETY: Employees use words to prevent confrontations from becoming violent situations, reducing the potential injury to employees and those with whom they interact.

ENHANCED PROFESSIONALISM: Employees recognize the impact their words have on others and use language appropriate to each encounter. Employees perform professionally, thus creating a positive organizational attitude.

REDUCED VICARIOUS LIABILITY: Employees who handle encounters skillfully and professionally are less likely to generate complaints and lawsuits. Employees trained in Verbal Judo will be able to describe their reasoning and explain their actions according to professional principles.

This program is designed for employees whose duties require them to resolve tense confrontations peacefully and safely. Verbal Judo is the top rated communication course in the country with over 600,000 graduates.

Verbal Judo teaches a philosophy of how to look creatively at conflict and then use specific strategies and tactics to find peaceful resolutions. Verbal Judo teaches a means of creatively examining problems and reaching solutions while preserving individual dignity and organizational integrity. Maintaining a "Professional Face" is crucial if employees are to remain under emotional control during disagreements or conflicts and be able to effectively find solutions to these potentially violent encounters. Performance must always be part of the professional process; it ensures true professionalism in all working environments: with our peers, and supervisors, with other departments in our organization, and most importantly - with our primary contacts - patients.

Healthcare organizations can expect that once their staff are trained in Verbal Judo, they will know the following:

There are five primary goals for teaching Verbal Judo: 1. - PERSONAL SAFETY, 2. - ENHANCED PROFESSIONALISM, 3. - LESS COMPLAINTS, 4. - LESS VICARIOUS LIABILITY and 5. - LESS PERSONAL STRESS. Employees are safer when they use their words to achieve a professional purpose rather than express their personal feelings. The most dangerous weapon an Employee carries is the "Cocked Tongue." He must use words as tools not weapons. Mind and mouth disharmony causes violence. Everything we teach in Verbal Judo can markedly enhance the Healthcare Professional’s ability to look good and sound good, as well as be good. The way we do what we do is often the difference between success and failure. This "Art of Delivery" results in employees generating fewer complaints and hence generating fewer lawsuits from their actions. Organizations trained in Verbal Judo have seen reductions of up to 80% in complaints and an untold amount of dollars saved in lawsuits. All of this results in less stress for the Employee and the Organization.

In this module, we define and show how to become the consummate Professional. Presented is an in depth definition of Professionalism, defining its central goal: Generating Voluntary Compliance. The tools available to the professional are listed, with detailed emphasis on Professional Presence and Words. We present the philosophy of ‘mushin’ and show the employee how to become "The Contact Professional," the ultimate artist in representing the goals of the organization.

The Employee works in an arena of verbal assault. In this section, we teach them the skills necessary to present a "Professional Face" at all times. Knowing more about communication than the people with whom they interact enables them to become who they have to be to handle difficult situations. The module stresses that 93% of a Professional’s effectiveness lies not in his message but in his "Delivery Style." We teach not only what the delivery style is but also how to use it more effectively.

Here we show employees the difference between an offensive attacking style of language, Verbal Karate, and the professional re-directive power of Verbal Judo. We define our terms and demonstrate technique over brute power. We illustrate Verbal Judo in action through the "Five-Step" style of persuasion using real examples. If the Professional uses the five-step discipline, he CANNOT LOSE. We teach the limits of words and how to reach their maximum power.

Module 4

NO EMPLOYEE IS SAFE IF HE IS TALKING WHEN HE SHOULD BE ACTING. Hence, we teach the five times when words fail -- summed up by the acronym S.A.F.E.R. -- and show how to evaluate the threat and move to other appropriate options.

Contact Professionals are the great PERSUADERS in America. Here we teach the three arts necessary to change the way people may want to behave when they are under the influence of liquor, drugs, rage, stupidity or greed. How to influence difficult people to think better for themselves than they may naturally desire is the sum of the three arts.

To show Employees how to verbally "hook people up" for their own good, we teach the four basic appeals of Persuasion and arm them with 46 or more principles of disinterest or flexibility taken directly from cops on the streets. Knowing the four appeals enables Professionals to remain flexible in their approaches to persuasion and more efficient in their use of words. Knowing the ethical and verbal principles helps Employees stay centered and focused on the goal of generating voluntary compliance rather than reacting to personal feelings.