The Approachable ABE™ Seminar

Alertness, Baselining and Engagement
The Approachable ABE™ Seminar teaches a set of specific techniques for employee engagement and INSIDER TRUST® detection at work, at home and in other common settings.

The Speaker

An intense focus on value creation through bolstering of trust.
Join Karl Wagner for his Approachable ABE™ Seminar, learning specific techniques for employee engagement and Insider Trust® detection at work, at home and in other common settings. Mr. Wagner’s approach is informed by his 29 years of service in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), where he was a key driver of the CIA’s first resilience program, as well as by his service as Senior Director, Global Security at Tesla, and his work in the PTSD and suicide prevention space.
Karl Wagner is the Creator of The START Method®, The Insider Trust® methodology, and The Approachable ABE™ Seminar. He is the Founder of NTN Holdings, whose impact investment fund is “Nurturing Tomorrow Now” through investments that promote resilience, at the individual, enterprise, national, and global levels.

LinkedIn Profile: Karl Wagner

Linkedin

The Status Quo is Unacceptable

In today’s society, we are often hesitant to engage with employees who we suspect may be having personal challenges, whether to avoid “violating their privacy;” or out of fear of potentially impacting their standing at work and their potential for promotion; or because we think someone else surely must already be aware and working with them to address their challenges; or based on our inexperience and discomfort with difficult conversations.

However, the sad reality is that, whether it’s ourselves or our colleagues or friends, people very frequently struggle utterly alone with their personal challenges, some so daunting that they place one’s mental and physical health in mortal jeapordy. Even when surrounded by others physically, in 21st century American culture it is rare that others will have the courage to actually step in and engage, providing us the sounding board, the human connection, and the simple expression of care that we require as humans when we are having problems.

Further complicating matters, it is often not readily apparent to our co-workers, friends and family that we are experiencing problems, so expert are some of us at shielding our issues from outside view, whether based on pride (“I can handle this; I was taught by my parents that I should be able to handle anything”) or based on our fear of being viewed as “less than” by others (“What will they think if they know I’m struggling with this?”).

Learn how to change the Status Quo

The informal seminar — delivered either in-person or via live, synchronous video — includes the following segments:

  • Introduction to the Approachable ABE™ technique: Alertness, Baselining and Engagement
    • Who was Abraham Lincoln?
    • Example 1: Bringing your Lunch to Work
    • Example 2: Komodo Dragon
  • Focus on Stress
    • Good vs. Bad Stress
    • Daily vs. Traumatic Stress
    • Life Changes and Top Life Stressors
    • Inevitably of Selective Stress vs. Appreciation for Stresses We Avoid
  • Personality Types and Approachable ABE™: How Different Types Deal with Stress and How They Detect Stress in Others
    • Introduction to Myers Briggs
      • Extraversion vs. Introversion
      • Perceiving vs. Judging
    • Attachment Styles and Why They Matter
    • Coping Strategies: “Surely He Must Want Privacy at this Tough Time” vs. “Why is Everyone Avoiding Me?”
  • Alertness
    • What to Look For
    • Alertness Exercise: The 800 Pound Gorilla in the Room
  • Difficult Conversations
    • Insider Threat vs. Insider Trust®
    • Psychological First Aid
    • SBIA Technique: Situation, Behavior, Impact, Action
    • Importance of Body Language; Creating Your Own Reality
  • Putting it all Together: Final Exercise

The Outcome

At its core, the Approachable ABE™ Seminar aims to make situations like the following a thing of the past:

  • “My boss and colleagues don’t seem to care about me as a person, so there’s no way I’m going to open up about my problems, even though they’re really getting in the way of my work. Having a sympathetic co-worker or boss would be incredibly liberating, but it’s just not possible in this company where I can’t really be myself at work and where I need to hide behind a facade of perfection.”
  • “Why didn’t anyone help Joe in Accounting before he took his own life? We all knew and could clearly see that he was having issues, but we all assumed someone else was helping him. We’re not psychiatrists or therapists; we were worried that whatever we said might cause more harm than good.”

The Approachable ABE Seminar™ aims to, instead, replace these situations with the following:

  • “My co-worker actually cared enough to notice some subtle changes in my behavior and to ask about my wellbeing. I was hiding my problems, but now I know that I can be more open at work and that my co-workers have my back, just as I have theirs.”
  • “We don’t need to be ‘best friends’ at work, nor do I necessarily expect co-workers to replace the role of my therapist or the best friend in whom I often confide just about everything. However, it was exhausting to wear a mask of perfection and now I feel at ease at work, even liberated, knowing we’re looking out for each other.”
  • “I was in crisis and a simple comment from my boss showed that she cared and served as the impetus for me to seek professional help. It was a small step on her part, but a turning point for me. I might not be here today if it weren’t for her courage to engage with me and say something.”

Interested in Our Approachable ABE™ Seminar?

Please complete the below form to contact us for more information.