Improving operations by managing anger

By Sarah Etter, News Reporter Published: 10/09/2006

Article: Anger management is usually a hot topic for inmates who spend hours in classes learning to deal with their emotions. But when anger creeps through CO ranks, officials can find themselves confronted with unruly staff and unmanageable relationships between DOC departments.

That’s where John Shuford and George Anderson step in. Shuford, President of Conflict Resolution Services, Inc. spends his days working with CO’s in conflict. Meanwhile, Anderson offers his services as president of Anderson & Anderson, the world’s largest provider of Certified Anger Management Facilitator training.
These experts have different models when it comes to teaching anger management, but both Shuford and Anderson know how crucial it is to control emotions in a corrections setting.

Corrections.com: How did you get into anger management?

Shuford: I started out as a mental health therapist and healthcare administrator. Then I did social work for a home health agency. While I was doing that, I got involved with the Alternatives to Violence Project which works with inmates. That project has been going on since 1975 and it’s a very effective program at reducing recidivism and changing attitudes about anger for inmates. One of our studies showed that education about anger management reduced recidivism and behavioral write-ups dramatically for inmates. So I took that basic model and modified it to work with staff.

Whether you’re dealing with corrections staff, business employees, government agencies or inmates, people are basically people and anger management affects them. I have been doing that since 1994 as a full time profession and I’ve seen some pretty remarkable results.

Anderson: I’m trained in mental health. I have a license in clinical social work. My first interest has been, for forty years, in psychotherapy. About fifteen years ago, I wrote a book on domestic violence called A Ray of Hope and I quickly came to the conclusion that anger management and domestic violence were very different so I wrote a separate book on anger management.

The initial research that impressed me the most came from the Canadian Bureau of Prisons. They did a ten year study on incarcerated defendants who have anger management issues. I borrowed as much as I could from the Canadians. One of the things they touched on was that in order for anger management to be successful was that clients must have a workbook, so I use that in my model. They also said the goals must be clear, and the content must be clear so I focused on that in my model as well.

CC: How do CO’s respond to your classes and training?

Shuford: I’ve seen some pretty remarkable results with corrections staff in terms of changing attitudes. People with anger management problems really just need that attention. I’ve taken someone with anger management problems and turned them into the Employee of the Year.

The thing about my model is not so much that it comes in and does the changing for you, because it doesn’t. But it allows people to develop trust and respect among themselves, as a staff. When CO’s do that, they can stop looking at things defensively and start looking at solutions. On the outside, I don’t know what the specific problems are, so I’d be fooling myself to try and change a system. What I do change is people’s attitudes and how they approach each other and that’s a permanent change.

With this training, CO’s begin to see each other as human beings. They develop empathy for each other; that’s something corrections staff don’t typically develop well. They often don’t have it because they think they have to protect themselves all the time because they are in a high risk profession. But they need to protect themselves from the inmates, not each other. When they connect with each other, they begin to understand they are on the same page. They want to resolve conflict. They want a better atmosphere in the work place among the staff and they work towards changing that.

The thing with the anger training, particularly, I’ve developed a model that literally changes how people relate to their own anger and other people’s anger. Anger doesn’t become a weapon to be used. It doesn’t become something that uses you. You can use your anger to better the work place.

Anderson: When I developed my model, I did it with an assessment component and a workbook. We started off with an assessment to determine how someone works in: managing anger, managing stress, communication and emotional intelligence, and their ability to change. Most researchers will agree that it does not matter what the program is. If the person doesn’t want to change, nothing will happen. There is no success if there is no motivation to change.
In a setting in which people are obligated to take an anger management class, like corrections, you provide the service but you have to back up and spend a good deal of time on motivational interviewing. That means getting CO’s to buy-in to whatever the intervention is. You have to get them to agree they want to change. When you get past that hurdle, you can really start to see a difference in their attitudes.

CC: How does anger affect the workplace?

Shuford: Anger is to us emotionally as physical pain is to us physically, as conflict is to us interpersonally. Anger, if used positively, gives us the awareness and motivation to change something. Often the thing that needs to change is us, how we see things and react. When you have empathy, you develop compassion for other people. Empathy is a crucial part of managing anger, especially in corrections.

On the negative side, anger causes breaches between departments and horrible communication among staff. It adds stress to the daily operation of a facility and takes a huge toll on COs.

CC: What are your anger management models like?

Shuford: It’s a pretty simple model. We use a number of content areas. But it’s not just about paperwork for us. It’s how to motivate, how to get employees to work as a team. We offer anger management, stress management, conflict resolution, and mediation skills in the work place.

But our model stands out because it creates a sense of community and trust among the participants. It does that in a morning and part of an afternoon and it’s always worked. I’ve never ran a session where this model hasn’t worked.
One thing we talk about is transforming power. We have the power to transform these hostile situations into more healthy interactions. One of the things about transforming power is that before you look at the other person you have to look at yourself. We look at ourselves first and see how we are contributing to daily situations. When that happens, people are more likely to work together and collaborate. They are more likely to contribute to a positive culture.
We also have games. Sometimes they are games with lessons, sometimes they are just for fun. They keep the energy up because the mind can only absorb what the butt can endure. Traditional training is a lecture model, but it only works for left brain thinkers. If someone is a right brain thinker, you’re speaking a foreign language to them. This presents material and experiences in a way that addresses all learning types. This training uses all different modalities of learning. We keep the energy up, the sense of community.

Anderson: We are a little bit different because we are a large organization. We train anger management facilitators all over the country. We start with the assumption that anger is a secondary emotion and a learned behavior.
Since these behaviors are learned, they can be unlearned. The goal is to teach alternatives to violence. We do that by first having an assessment. You don’t want to offer an intervention if it’s not needed. This would determine the level of functioning. This is a book and it teaches skills in those areas. It’s very based on the involvement of participants. When you discuss this skill, you show it on a video so they can see it. You show another video, and point out its aggressive communication. Surprisingly, most people think passive communication is a good thing but it’s not. If the passive communicator is attempting to get something for himself and the other person doesn’t know this, it’s useless. Then, we have these individuals who keep a log outside of the class. They spend their free time working on assignments and then review to what extent they did them. There are quizzes throughout. Since we started out with a formal assessment, we do post-testing to track the results.

CC: What kind of results have you seen?

Shuford: When you change someone’s attitude, or when they change their attitude, the world is totally different for them. They see things in a different way. We’ve trained the Philadelphia prison system staff, seventy percent of them. Probably seventy-five percent didn’t want to be in the training and twenty-five percent were openly hostile when we started the session. They were mandated to take this training. They came in with attitudes.
But at the end of the three-day training, seventy percent said it was excellent and twenty percent said it was good. Only one percent said it was poor.

But what happens later? What happens in six months? Are they using the skills?

We did a six month follow-up in Philadelphia. Seventy-nine percent of CO’s said they were using anger management with inmates. Eighty-two percent said they were using it with co-workers and eight-four said they were using it off the job. When you consider that the life expectancy in corrections is 59 years, I don’t think that is because of problems with just inmates. It’s because of stress on the job, stress with coworkers and supervisors. But we can change that if we give CO’s the tools they need to handle their emotions.

Anderson: I have absolutely not experienced anyone who was not pleased. You don’t have disappointed people. If we see in the first or second week that you aren’t changing, we take you aside and ask if you really want to change, because that’s the only thing holding you back. Other than that, anger management tools can really make a difference in staff relationships, efficient departments and healthy lifestyles.

Note: For more on Anderson’s book, go to the Anderson & Anderson website.