“
...should a person be deemed to have horns, if a mistake is made it is obviously their doing...”
many complex restraint procedures. The training nowadays is simple; if you are faced with someone you think is going to hit you, take a step back; if they remain at the same distance fine, if they come forward they have proved your hypothesis, and act. In fact a lot of current research states that you should, where risk is concerned, trust your instinct and more importantly act on it.
Listening Skills Having prepared, maintained or manipulated the context to put yourself in the best position to understand why someone may be antagonistic, the next stage is to listen. The reason to listen is that many words are spoken but only the speaker knows what they mean by what they say. To give an example, when a passenger states they are ‘uncomfortable’, how many meanings can this one word have? Looking at them may give a clue, how they say the word may assist, but the only person who can articulate the meaning is the passenger. Any assumption made by the crew may be right, but, if wrong, can exacerbate a problem.
The
skill of listening comes in three parts, focussing, responding and encouraging. Focussing
means preparing the
environment and yourself to listen. Is the area where the conversation is taking place conducive to hearing what the passenger is saying? Are you ready to listen? A colleague made all
their negotiators take a deep breath and reflect for a moment before engaging in a conversation. This was aimed at clearing the mind; with lots of other tasks are you ready to just listen to the passenger? If you are not, will this have an impact on the conversation? Are you showing the passenger, through your behaviour and responses, that you are listening? Responsive listening is aimed at turn taking. By the use of minimal encouragers - ums, ahs, OKs, etc - at the right time during a narrative, one can ensure that the passenger believes you are listening and, by taking your turn in the conversation, the passenger should carry on talking. Similarly repeating the last word or phrase or repeating the passion within a statement can infer you are interested in the story and ensure that the ‘talker’ carries on. You will then be in a better position to understand what they are saying and more importantly what they mean by the words they are using. Encouraging a person to continue to talk may diffuse the aggression; a means of doing this is by summarising what the passenger is saying. It is important not to use profanities, but otherwise try to use their words or phrases. This on its own may not completely calm the situation but it has been shown to significantly assist in the process of reducing antagonism.
Following
on from a summary may be a label of emotions being shown. No person likes being judged, so try to avoid saying things like “you are angry or upset”, instead try “it seems to me you sound angry”. In short, explain what you see, feel or hear when the person acts in the way they do, thus putting the judgement on you not them. All of the listening skills should allow you to
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better understand not only what the person is saying, but also what they may mean and perhaps even the motivation for their behaviour. Once you are in a position to infer what their motivation may be, you may be able to influence the person.
Influence Skills Many people are aware of the key influencers between people. They are listed as: Reciprocity: The natural inclination
is to return a favour once you are in receipt of a gift.
This can also work
with language; once you have listened to someone there is a social obligation to return the favour and to listen to the other person. Further a person in receipt of a gift is obliged to reciprocate even if they do not like the giver and did not even ask for the gift in the first place. If we consider the power of reciprocity in terms of the airline industry, the methods of using this social rule are endless. On many flights, I have been in receipt of something given with the quote, ”I should not really give this but…” I am then completely in the aircrew’s debt and will be for the rest of the flight and beyond.
Commitment and Consistency: All people want to be seen as consistent in behaviour and values. If we want to be considered helpful, knowledgeable etc and do not act that way, we feel uncomfortable. Similarly if we have committed ourselves to a course of action we are likely to follow this through. For example one experiment looked at betting on horse racing; the results showed that people were more convinced that their horse would win after they had placed their bet than before. Once they have paid the money many customers will see the airline in a more favourable light.
February 2013 Aviationsecurityinternational
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