October 2008 issue
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PD Spotlight
Making It New
A police negotiator puts a new spin on conflict resolution for our M.I.T. seminars
BY Nancy Toth, MA, CHRP
Manager, Professional Development & Human Resources
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GARY McDOUGALL |
An interesting part of my job is keeping professional development subjects current. People are always on the watch for the next hot topics, but it’s just as important to cover the basics in new and exciting ways. This latter achievement can often be managed by discovering new presenters.
Recently Tom Sneddon, P.Geol., and Kate Handford of our Calgary office called me about a terrific new speaker from a branch luncheon. Tom is our Manager, Geoscience Affairs, and Kate is the Calgary Office Supervisor.
Talking to Gary McDougall confirmed for me that the judgment of my fellow APEGGA staff members is spot on. Gary has a strong background for presenting on several soft-skills topics.
During a 26-year career with the Calgary Police Service, he focused on staff training, particularly communications. In 1997 Gary received a University of Calgary certificate as a mediator and negotiator. The same year he completed a certification program as a crisis and hostage negotiator, through the Canadian Police College in Ottawa.
As a result, Gary has conducted many highly successful workplace mediations within the law enforce-ment community, outside agencies and in public businesses. On another level, between 1997 and 2006, Gary was involved in 47 high-risk hostage or crisis situations.
Gary’s training and experience led to a role coordinating training for the Police Hostage Negotiator Team in Calgary. He has also organized training for hostage negotiators from across Western Canada and the northwestern United States. He’s a graduate of the hostage negotiation course at the FBI Training Academy in Quantico, Va. — an institution that liked Gary so much they invited him back to provide training in 2006 and 2007.
With this background, Gary makes a very effective presenter on conflict management, dealing with difficult clients, ethical decision-making and workplace bullying and violence. In 2004 he formed a training company called Conflict Solutions. He also volunteers in his area of expertise to organizations such as the SPCA, the Salvation Army and the Alberta Council of Women’s Shelters.
We are proud to be able to offer seminars by Gary McDougall as part of this October’s member-in-training seminars in Edmonton and Calgary. Please check the ad on this page for the dates of Dealing with Difficult People and Negotiate Anything.
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