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Managing with "PEOPLE"

“Life is like a box of chocolates.  You never know what you are going to get.”  While it would be a stretch to consider Forrest Gump a management consultant, I have discovered this bit of wisdom applies to offender and employee management.

I’ve found that because both staff and clients have the whole “being a human” thing in common, the relationship style, strategy and techniques that are helpful with offender management are also effective with staff management.   Of course, we have to adjust our management style to connect and manage different types of personalities. I’ve found that using the PEOPLE method has helped me in my management efforts:

• Personable

• Empathetic

• Objective

• Professional

• Lead

• Example 

The Tender Topic of Relapse in Community Corrections

While doing Motivational Interviewing training with community corrections staff, we began discussing the stages of change and specifically the topic of relapse. The stage of relapse brought up an interesting discussion with the group about which clients should get second chances.  

John: “I can see giving the direct sentence clients a second chance but I don’t think the clients coming from prison should get any chances, if they relapse, they are gone.  They should be grateful they even got a chance to get out of prison.”

Lisa: “What do other people think about that?”

Susie: “I think that this is a treatment program and we need to provide the client with treatment, terminating them isn’t going to do anything.”

Josie: “It depends on the client, does he want help?”

Jim: “A lot of times these clients who relapse act like they want help around admin and case management staff but we hear what they really say.  They know they can get away with using and just ask for help.”

The conversation went back and forth with valid points in each direction.