Beware the Negative Energy Train

The only thing constant in life is change. We have all heard this, but have we really given the deep consideration it requires? Brad Stulberg recently penned the book Master of Change. Being a fan of his work, it was a no-brainer to pick it up.

When I read non-fiction work, I heavily use my Post-it highlighter pen. I call it the trifecta pen because on one end is a highlighter, the other a pen, and in the page clip, a sleeve of convenient Post-it tabs. So I can tab a page, highlight something I want to remember, and then take a few notes about the relevance to me at the moment. It is always fun to come back to these notes at the completion of a book or months and years after to see what struck me in moments of time.

Today, I just had to stop reading and write.

A paragraph on Page 40 struck a cord in me. In it, Sigmund Freud was relating a personal account of a walk in the countryside with two friends, one a famous poet.

"The poet admitted the beauty of the scene around us but felt no joy in it.  He was disturbed by the thought that all this beauty was fated to extinction, that it would vanish when winter came, like all human beauty and all the beauty and spendor that men have created or may create.  All that he would otherwise have loved and admired seemed to him to be shorn of its worth by the transience which was its doom."        

This led to a discussion about the essence of transience. The fleeting of all things, even the most beautiful and perfect. Freud did not argue against this concept, but he did dispute the poet's pessimism and disdain. His point was that the transience of moments of joy and beauty does not devalue the experience; in fact, it increases their value. According to the story, Freud's attempts to change the poet's perspective failed. "The poet couldn't fully experience the beauty around him because that would also require accepting the inevitability of its loss."

I imagine I will spend a lot of time thinking about this interaction. It made me consider all of the times in my life when I have failed to capture the beauty of moments. Being a police officer can do this to a person. I can think of few professions that expose the soul to the scale of human suffering that exists in the world. To cops, these experiences are not an esoteric exercise; they are real. They are also relentless.

It makes me wonder if Freud's poet friend was a copper. The "realist" in the group of three friends trying to enjoy the beauty of nature on a countryside stroll. The one who, no matter the circumstances, would default to the negative and bring the group back to "reality." If you have ever been in a police roll call room, then you know what kind of "friend" I am talking about.

While one is admiring a beautiful summer sunset, the other is quick to point out that soon it will be dark, and it will probably rain. Which means we will probably get wet and cold and be miserable. In conclusion, we should have all just stayed home!

Maybe this is why this passage has resonated with me today. It has taken me back to my roll call days. I have described a phenomenon that I coined as the "negative energy train" to many young supervisors in the years since. Picture this. A room full of officers preparing for a midnight patrol shift. The room is filled with smiles, laughter, and funny stories. Officers are excited about hitting the street for another night of unknown and unknowable adventures. That is - until... until that one curmudgeon opens his mouth. Then, as Dr. Kevin Gilmartin would say, it's all "Bullshit." Roll call is ruined, and it goes downhill from there.

A room full of eager officers now carries the mood of the waiting room in a funeral parlor. Death is lingering in the air, and nothing good awaits outside the walls. Winter is not just coming; it has arrived. Time to hit the street.

On the way to his car, an officer who, ten minutes ago was laughing, is now angry. Then, his portable radio chirps in his ear. Dispatch. The officer has not even made it to his car. He is now being sent a call that has been in holding, waiting for the next shift to hit the streets. A domestic violence call, a crash, a barking dog. It doesn't really matter because before he even got to his patrol car, his mind was already heading someplace where it shouldn't be, into the doom loop.

The doom loop is the bitter cousin of the OODA loop. Where the latter can take you to victory, the former leads to the Chief's Office, or worse.

The officer's response to the dispatcher is clear in his tone; without saying it out loud, he says it in verbal emphasis when he responds, "CA - LEE - A - ER." Why me? I'm not even 10-41 yet (in-service); why didn't somebody else already handle this call? The dispatcher now reacts. Don't blame me; I'm just the messenger, as his 911 phone rings again. He picks up the phone and angrily responds, "9-1-1, what is your emergency!" When the caller wants to report a stolen bike with no suspects, the dispatcher yells at them and tells them to call the non-emergency line before hanging up. Of course, the caller does not call the non-emergency line; they call the complaint line.

Now the shift sergeant's phone rings. He has barely returned to the office from roll call, and a complaint awaits him. All the caller wanted to do was report her son's stolen bicycle, the one he saved for and bought himself. Instead of being politely redirected, she was ridiculed and scorned.

And so the story goes. The negative energy train billows a dark cloud of burned coal, marking its path with joy-killing combustion. It is driven and fueled by toxic people.

This takes me back to the book. Stulberg coins a phrase himself, Rugged Flexibility. Where rugged means to be tough and determined, flexible is the ability to respond to changing situations. To bend but not break. To evolve and be open to change.

"The green reed which bends in the wind is stronger than the mighty oak which breaks in a storm."  -  Confucius        

Rugged flexibility encapsulates the resilience and adaptability that is required to thrive in the midst of volatile, unpredictable, complex, and ambiguous challenges. If only this book had been written thirty years ago, I would have read it with the power of foresight. I could have saved myself a lot of aggravation. Learning how to balance a mindset that enables decision-making in unpredictable and often perilous situations can help protect police officers and those entrusted to our care, which is a trait that can be cultivated. Rugged flexibility encapsulates the idea that we can avoid the negativity that is often rooted in rigid thinking patterns born in stress.

Stress is a reality of police work, and the harsh realities of life on the streets will accumulate and overcome us if we don't actively defend against it. If we accept this, we can approach the job and each scenario presented with a clear mind and the robustness to withstand the associated psychological pressures. This adaptability frees us from the "Doom Loop" and propels us into the "OODA Loop." Any call can change, and at any second, things can move from calm to chaos, requiring a mindset that is flexible and rugged.

The officers that can master this concept will innoculate themselves from the cynicism and burnout that can accumulate over a career. They can avoid becoming the coal that burns in the engine of the negative energy train. Most of society is never exposed to the darker facets of human nature. Without the ability to remain mentally agile and resilient, the weight of these experiences can lead to a negative worldview. Rugged flexibility can encourage officers to embrace change, seek continuous personal growth, and maintain a positive outlook. It fosters an environment where learning from experiences and bouncing back from setbacks are the norms.

Think about this; resilience-building practices don't just improve the well-being of the officers; they reduce stress among coworkers creating a positive working environment. This will undoubtedly spill over into interactions with the community. This will build trust and respect. If we go back to the train analogy, when we embrace concepts like rugged flexibility, we give control back to the train's engineer. We don't let cops become runaway trains headed toward disaster every time they pull out of the station.

We can't be effective if we can't control our own emotions. Change is inevitable, and adaptability is a trait that must constantly be refined. While Freud may have been unsuccessful in showing his poet friend the value in fleeting beauty, as police officers and leaders, we owe it to ourselves, each other, and our communities to try. Because all beauty is fleeting. The transience of our careers in law enforcement is inevitable, but our ability to help others in their time of need is something that will last forever.

If you find yourself on the negative energy train, make sure you get off at the next stop!