John Bostain, president of Command Presence Training and former FLETC instructor, leads a session at the ILEETA conference teaching about building a healthy department culture.Wayne Parham
Longevity and mental health of officers have been a hot topic among police leaders in recent years, but special programs alone are unlikely to yield optimal results. It will cost more. John Bostein calls culture the “missing link” in officer health.
Mr. Bostein, president of Command Presence Training, has been a law enforcement trainer for 27 years and has coached more than 40,000 public safety professionals. At the recent International Association of Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers annual conference, he led a session on “Police Officer Safety and Health: The Missing Link.”
Mr. Bostein began by telling the story of an obscure agency in which eight police officers committed suicide in less than two years.
“Sometimes you get all the health programs you need, but you don’t have a wellness representative. That’s exactly what happened with the agency I mentioned earlier. They had a wellness coordinator,” Bostein said in a session with ILEETA told the attendees. “He literally went to the chief and said, ‘Chief, I’m the health coordinator here, and we’ve got a problem. Our culture sucks.’
Mr. Bostein asked the class whether the culture of a faculty may necessitate a wellness program.
The officers in the room “absolutely” agreed with his questions.
“The missing link is your culture. The missing link is your culture,” Bostein emphasized. “If you don’t have a culture, it doesn’t matter how many health programs you have. You’ll never have a health manager.”
How can we become an agency that everyone wants to work for? How can we improve morale and increase recruitment and retention? Bostein believes in creating a culture where police officers at all ranks can trust. We have provided a roadmap for building.
So what is culture?
The longtime trainer referenced concepts from David J. Friedman, author of Culture by Design, which outlines eight steps to building a culture. After studying these, Mr. Bostein created his three elements for building a culture within his department and shared them during ILEETA.
After Bostein learned of Friedman’s teachings, she followed him online, and the two eventually talked about challenges facing law enforcement when it comes to culture.
Bostein adopted Friedman’s definition of culture. Culture is a commonly held set of values and principles that are manifested in people’s daily behavior.
“So culture is not what you say you believe. Your culture is not defined by the posters that run down the hallways of your agency,” Bostein explained. “That’s not your organizational culture.”
Bostein said culture shows up every day in the actions of every member of the department, from secretaries to dispatchers to the men and women on patrol, and even in the agency’s leadership.
Executives may leave the agency, take other jobs, move to nearby departments, or, as Bostein said, quit to become baristas. He explains that they are not leaving the country in search of more money. They leave because of cultural issues or a toxic culture.
Mr. Bostein used images to describe departments with healthy cultures, images of greenhouses, and departments with toxic cultures, represented by an image of an arid desert. In a greenhouse, all plants are nourished and given what they need to grow. The desert is barren.
Most of the sectors, he explains, are located in the middle of the two sectors, and while they may have good-looking grass, they resemble gardens mixed with barren areas.
Like the greenhouse example, a good agency culture is healthy for everyone.
Bostein divided building a strong culture into three components:
- Leadership at all levels
- intentionally designed culture
- Succession planning that focuses on talent, not title
1. Leadership training at all levels
Bostein says leadership training should be provided to everyone in the department. But he divides it into three layers.
- Tier 1 leadership training should target non-supervisor staff members, but perhaps also lower-level supervisors. It is supposed to teach self-leadership and personal responsibility. It also helps you achieve your professional goals and achieve your desired career path.
- Tier 2 leadership training is intended for all supervisors at the command staff level and below. This is about building teams, being aware of situations and issues that can cause team dysfunction, and learning how to be an ideal team leader.
- Tier 3 leadership training is about how to lead your organization and is aimed at executive staff. As other lower-level staff receive leadership training, top staff must learn to be strong leaders and develop strategic plans.
Bostein noted that commanders often want to leave a legacy when they retire or depart. Creating a leadership training plan for all levels is a great way to leave your department in better shape.
He suggests that any department can easily begin leadership training in simple ways, such as suggesting that staff listen to podcasts or watch videos. Leadership training does not require sending staff for training.
2. An intentionally designed culture
“Intentionally design a culture that is appropriate for your people,” Bostein says.
It starts with creating a good mission statement that is purpose-built and answers important questions such as “Why do we exist?”
Next, you must focus internally.
Bostein points out that mission statements are typically too long and tailored to the public’s perspective, so they aren’t truly internal. Your mission statement should be short enough for anyone to remember, and the words should have meaning.
Create a simple, actionable mission statement. Mr. Bostein gave an example of his company’s mission statement: to educate, empower and enable people around the world to serve the public.
The second step in intentionally designing your department’s culture is to identify the fundamental behaviors you want from everyone in your organization.
“Basic actions first create responsibility,” Bostein explained.
You set the basic standards of behavior that are expected and followed, from your chief or commanding officer to your newest recruit.
3. Succession planning for human resources, not just job titles
“We talk about succession planning, and it’s about who’s going to be the next captain, who’s going to be the next major, who’s going to be the next lieutenant commander. It’s always about that,” Bostein explained. Did. “What we should start asking ourselves is who will be his next PIO? Who will be his next firearms instructor? Who will be his next drone operator?” Do you want it?”
Every department needs to think about which officers can grow into what roles and know which officers are interested in following a particular career path within the agency. Bostein said career path programs and mentoring programs are needed.
