Wasted Honor -

Carl R. ToersBijns is the author of the Wasted Honor Trilogy [Wasted Honor I,II and Gorilla Justice] and his newest book From the Womb to the Tomb, the Tony Lester Story, which is a reflection of his life and his experiences as a correctional officer and a correctional administrator retiring with the rank of deputy warden in the New Mexico and Arizona correctional systems.

Carl also wrote a book on his combat experience in the Kindle book titled - Combat Medic - Men with destiny - A red cross of Valor -

Carl is considered by many a rogue expert in the field of prison security systems since leaving the profession. Carl has been involved in the design of many pilot programs related to mental health treatment, security threat groups, suicide prevention, and maximum custody operational plans including double bunking max inmates and enhancing security for staff. He invites you to read his books so you can understand and grasp the cultural and political implications and influences of these prisons. He deals with the emotions, the stress and anxiety as well as the realities faced working inside a prison. He deals with the occupational risks while elaborating on the psychological impact of both prison worker and prisoner.

His most recent book, Gorilla Justice, is an un-edited raw fictional version of realistic prison experiences and events through the eyes of an anecdotal translation of the inmate’s plight and suffering while enduring the harsh and toxic prison environment including solitary confinement.

Carl has been interviewed by numerous news stations and newspapers in Phoenix regarding the escape from the Kingman prison and other high profile media cases related to wrongful deaths and suicides inside prisons. His insights have been solicited by the ACLU, Amnesty International, and various other legal firms representing solitary confinement cases in California and Arizona. He is currently working on the STG Step Down program at Pelican Bay and has offered his own experience insights with the Center of Constitutional Rights lawyers and interns to establish a core program at the SHU units. He has personally corresponded and written with SHU prisoners to assess the living conditions and how it impacts their long term placement inside these type of units that are similar to those in Arizona Florence Eyman special management unit where Carl was a unit deputy warden for almost two years before his promotion to Deputy Warden of Operations in Safford and Eyman.

He is a strong advocate for the mentally ill and is a board member of David's Hope Inc. a non-profit advocacy group in Phoenix and also serves as a senior advisor for Law Enforcement Officers Advocates Council in Chino, California As a subject matter expert and corrections consultant, Carl has provided interviews and spoken on national and international radio talk shows e.g. BBC CBC Lou Show & TV shows as well as the Associated Press.

I use sarcasm, satire, parodies and other means to make you think!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
































































































































Wednesday, May 4, 2011

How to maintain Motivation & Morale for Change

During these times of controversy and who is telling the truth versus those trying to be politically correct, it has been very difficult to motivate people to do their best and the right thing. Ask yourself a simple question and look at the answer to find out if you are becoming a pessimist or remain to be a die hard optimist with these tough economic times and low morale within our country, our job and within the family circles. This question is very simply put. How many of you are really putting in the extra effort to enjoy a better quality of life? Then follow up with another question and ask yourself this one. How many of you are feeling the extra stress and anxiety at home or the workplace? If the answer to these two questions are negative in nature, you may need to pick up the pace a bit to get better at how you manage your life or job.


Obviously there are some things you can do to make it a better life for you and your family. You can begin to organize your thoughts to build up morale in the home and the workplace by knowing what it is you need to motivate those changes. Remember that motivation is a very powerful tool that can be used to create good things or bad things depending whether the thoughts are good or evil. The power and the desire require effort and the effort should be a united front [consistency] so that all things will work out well for all involved. Focusing on the good things and dealing with any adversities in a positive manner will keep you on track towards the goal.

The first element to increase the morale in life is to trust your own thinking and evaluation of the matters that surround and impact you. It is often said that self confidence and the inner trust of your own will bolster a positive feeling you can use to manage change. Share this trust and express how you see the task that lies in front of you and seek participants to join you in the challenge(s).

Before you start any such a task to change or motivate yourself or a group into a new directions you must make sure you have a plan. This plan should consist of expectations [group input] and clear up any misunderstandings immediately. Whether working as an individual or as work teams within the individuals assigned appoint a facilitator that can guide the group and step in or out as the progress is identified. Focus on creativity, independence in thinking and positive qualities to enhance motivation to participate to the fullest and most of all communicate effectively.

Communicate those things you want to do or implement. Managing change is important and should be shared with as many people that you can bring into the plan to transform the situations accordingly. Don’t try to do this by yourself as it will be a too heavy load to carry. Learn the effectiveness of writing and speaking the points with accuracy and personalization for each member of the change group. Draw them into a tighter circle so you can exemplify the trust in each of them and communicate accordingly. Seek dialogue and focus on the good ideas but never dispose of any bad ideas as they too are beneficial to this process. Be unselfish in you mannerism to gain ground on the project to change and motivate everyone’s lives with a celebration of some sort. Ask for help and talk things out. Stay away from promises and realize that change along the way is a key to success.

Give credit where credit is due and build on your progress with positivity that fuels the future and the result of this change. Don’t do all the talking as you let others talk. Be observant and look at body language as they speak to find consistency in their message and their actions. Do the same with every member of the group and if you see controversy, don’t be afraid to address it with a sincere approach for input or comments. Learn to rotate roles and delegate or disseminate the messages and the tasks. Let the trust factor guide you in decisions and do this judiciously so that a spirit of fairness exists within the work group or family circle. Don’t be afraid to allow the team to exercise their own strengths as they meet the expectations or those objectives discussed and identified. Many people tend to create a “loner” role that isolates them from the rest of the group and impairs their ability to delegate to others as they might not communicate their tasks with sufficient data or information.

As a group, let the successes and failures fall on the entire entity and not on any individual. Don’t be in a hurry to take sole responsibilities as the responsibility to succeed is everyone’s duty or task to accomplish one way or another. Don’t overload any one person in particular and give credit where credit is due. However, don’t let the credit syndrome overcome the spirit of the group as this is about teamwork and not individual accomplishments or glory. Don’t make excuses for others and don’t put the group in harm’s way by overloading the commitment to the tasks at hand.

Other elements of this task to motivate and change are ensuring positive relationships within the group and organization or family. Avoid competition or comparing of tasks to ruin the spirits designed to motive the group with positive energy. Ensure that when you identify the problems, you don’t become part of the problem. This may seem to be an obvious concern but conflict is the biggest factor of defeat among work groups or families. Treat each other with respect and don’t demean or patronize participants who are willing to share their input with others. Share as much as you can and formulate common ground that will solidify the findings or the points of views. Communicate clearly with each other and share the responsibilities to the fullest extent possible.

No comments:

Post a Comment