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Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Steps to Surviving with Others (self discovery03)



In my last Self Discovery entry we touched upon figuring out who we are as far as our reactions to stressful situations are concerned. By now some you may be thinking "what the hell does it matter. I didn't visit this dam site for a counseling session. Well there is a point and that is achieving our goals as efficiently and safely as possible.

Here's the facts: trying to change other people can be a waist of time and precious energy and 99% of the time ends up in failure. Adapting our self to a situation and to other people will produce a much higher success rate. A large portion of society has serious control issues and feels threatened when their control is put in the line of fire. Someone who feels threatened can quickly turn from an ally to a possible vengeful enemy. Knowing were you fit in and the limitations of your abilities is more productive for you and the rest of your group and in turn my gain valuable allies or friendships.

In self discover part two we went over a simple math approach to figuring out what our average response is to stress. Now we have to learn when to engage and when to step back or adapt based upon this discovery.

Cool, now I get to tell a story..

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Once upon a time a long time ago when I was just a young lad, lol, ok sorry I wont tell it fairy-tail style. I'm pretty confident your not my 7 year old son.

In the late 90's a friend and I started a private security company called shawnesee Security. Our company consisted of around 30 people: military, gang members, yes I said gang members and professional and non-professional martial artist. All different races, upbringings and financial statuses. Let me tell you we were a very non typical group of people back then.

Our company was for hire for anything from individual home protection to working riot and crowd control. So maybe your thinking were does the riot part come in. A large amount of our customers were and still are in the hardcore music venue, so pit control sometimes with very large crowds. For those of you who have never seen a mosh pit. Imagine a circle of a few hundred hyper and pissed off pre-adults. Some juiced up on alcohol, energy drinks and often many other drugs to top it off. Dancing full contact and throwing kicks and punches at the same time.To add to this ticking time bomb there were often groups / clicks and gangs present. Dealing with a bunch of hardened criminals was easier and considerably safer, trust me I've dealt with both.

Believe it or not there is a kind of respect of unwritten rules within these pits. Minor or unintentional injury is common place and totally acceptable. Intentional injury or major damage infliction however, is cause for a fight or worse. Sometimes bad people that know the rules are there deliberately to take an opportunity to inflict harm in the mist of chaos. This event just happens to be one of those times. Two guys both with groups of friend who had previous conflicts decided this would be a great time to do each other in.

Having such a variety of different skills and personality's seems like it would be a very problematic management issue.The training procedures for a new security member of our group lasted around 2 months. Sixty percent of which consisted of self awareness training. The other 30% was learning group awareness skills. Group awareness training pretty much consisted of us beating the crap out of each other. This was done respectfully after dinner and a few beers. That may sound bad but learning each others abilities is key to the success of this type of organised security.

Within the group of assigned personal there was a hierarchy of command. This is common place in the security business. This one however differed in that it was a rotating chain of command or tap out as we called it. Every one of our security personal was taught leadership skills. yet at any given event only one lead officer was calling the shots for any active confrontation or problem.

Here is an example of how this system worked.  Our team is hired to work a hardcore show. Its a good size crowd and the Pit or mosh pit has formed. We have eight officers assigned to the pit. Four in uniform on the outside (inactive) watching and listening for problems. Another four (active) in plain clothing within the pit itself. This group is what we call Leads. Their purpose is to help maintain stability of the pit area by action and distraction. The four inactive officers are the evac / safety group. Their job is to disperse the crowd and prevent unwanted exterior intervention.

 The four gentlemen that we had as pit leads were: Rob a former Skin Head, Jim a martial arts instructor and certified nut case, Dusty (USMC) and myself  at the time acting floor boss. Initially Rob spotted the two groups standing off (like a 12 o'clock showdown) and signaled to the the rest of us. In many security scenarios this signal would activate a group rush or show of force and intimidation. Not for us, Robs signal simply meant that he was going to intervene. At this point Rob became the acting lead officer. He calls the shots and just needs to find a distraction method to gain a point of entry. He has already sized up the two groups involved and is ready to make his move.

To be Continued.....Ah isn't that irritating.
If I finish the story and cover everything at once it will be a very long read. The average attention span on an individual internet site is around 10 minutes now (much longer for porn). You still have more to see on my blog.  Besides I want you to visit so much you feel at home. So Ill get the popcorn and drinks ready for; Steps to Surviving with Others (self discovery 03-II).




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