“How quickly can you learn to use the iModes? And what are ‘modes’, anyway?”
What would you say if I told you that prison guards, nurses, teachers, soldiers, police officers, addiction counselors, child protection workers, and, oh yes, psychologists, can learn to use the iModes cards in less than 30 minutes?
Let me give an example. I give many trainings for personnel in forensic and psychiatric settings who work with very disturbed patients. While they come from different backgrounds, they are generally of two types. First, people with security backgrounds, like former police officers, prison guards, or military personnel. You can recognize them because they are usually men that are seriously bulked-up (think “The Rock” types!). Second, young women like nurses, teachers, and psychologists, who are highly empathic, idealistic, and seem to lack normal functioning fear genes (think “Beauty and the Beast” types!). These are the front-line workers in forensic and psychiatric institutions, providing the daily care on the wards to patients who can be violent and unpredictable. Hats off to them!
At the start of the training, I give them the following, short explanation of modes:
“Modes are emotional states that dominate how a person feels, thinks, and behaves at a given moment. We usually refer to modes as “sides” or “parts” of a person. Everyone has different sides. No one feels the same way all of the time. However, in our patients, emotional reactions often go to extremes. That is because they lack a strong healthy side – what we call a “Healthy Adult” mode – that can keep them in balance.”
I then pass the sets of iModes cards, in their metallic boxes, around the table. There are 25 cards per set; each shows a different mode depicted in cartoon-form. Each member of the treatment team gets to work with his own set of iModes during the training.
I give the following instructions:
“Every person has his or her own learning style. The cards give you the opportunity to learn about modes according to your own style. The cards have a picture of the mode on the front, and the name and a brief description of the mode on the back. Explore the cards in your own way, and discover what modes are.”
I then sit back and watch them explore the cards for about 15 minutes. What transpires is always fascinating. Some people start laughing and showing the pictures to each other. Others get serious looks on their faces and look through the cards one by one, staring at each picture, and then flipping the card over to read the back. Yet others organize the cards in neat rows on the table. Each person indeed has his own learning style!
Then I invite them to share examples of modes that they see in their daily work with patients on the wards. They describe what they observe, and hold the card up to show their colleagues which mode it is.
“Erik is constantly interrupting me. It doesn’t matter what I am doing. He always needs something from me, and he needs it NOW!” He holds up the card for the Impulsive Child mode.
“Sami comes up to me like I’m his best friend. He calls me “Bro,” and tells me how great we get along, that I’m the only one who understand him. Then I know what is coming! “Bro, I need you to do me a favor…”. He holds up the card for the Conning Manipulative mode.
“Whenever I ask Susan how she’s doing, she gives me this smile, and says, “I’m fine!” She never wants to talk about anything real, like the fact that she’s still cutting herself. She just keeps everything superficial.” She holds up the card for the Detached Protector mode.
In most cases, the team members are completely on target. They get the correct mode the very first time they try it. Sometimes they need a bit of fine-tuning, like knowing the differences between modes that share the same emotion. For example, the Angry Child mode involves the open expression of anger, while the Angry Protector mode involves indirect hostility. Discussing these distinctions gives us the chance to deepen their learning.
Our research confirms that people with no previous background or training can learn to use the cards in 30 minutes or less. In a recent study, one of my colleagues gave the iModes to police officers in Germany. She introduced them to the cards in exactly the way that I described above: giving a short explanation of modes and letting them explore the cards in their own way. She then asked them to describe a recent police call where they responded to a domestic disturbance or similar tense situation. The officers looked through the iModes cards, and chose the ones that described the modes of the people they encountered at the scene. Remarkably, the officers’ mode ratings corresponded highly to ratings made by independent experts who rated the same scenarios, even though the officers had no prior experience in using the cards. Put differently, the officers achieved a high level of proficiency in using the iModes, after receiving a training of less than 30 minutes.
As I discussed in my previous posts, the iModes work on the principle of “amplification through simplification.” By using cartoon images that boil down concepts to their essence, the iModes communicate in a powerful and efficient manner. This explains the ability of the cards to engage viewers in a learning process, where they can rapidly understand and apply the mode concept. Of course, there are individual differences in this learning process. Some people grasp the idea of modes more quickly and easily than others. Nevertheless, we have not yet encountered a group of any background that cannot learn to work with the cards after a very short amount of training.
To learn more about our SafePath training in which we use the cards to train teams, please see visit our SafePath Solutions website.