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Write It Down The guns have cooled, the brass collected and now comes the hard part–the paperwork. We’ve all heard it said, “If it’s not in writing, it didn’t happen.” That may not be true every time, but you can bet when your career is on the line, no one will care about your memory recall, how you typically train or what you intended to accomplish. Along with witnesses, which may be years removed from the training event, they’ll rest their case on your training documentation, or the lack of it. And when we can’t produce anything more than a POST entry, it’ll be time to count the zeros when writing the check. And some of those zeros may come from you personally, not just the agency or its insurance carrier. It’s easy to be misunderstood, especially in writing. Who hasn’t sent an email that made perfectly good sense to you, only to be misinterpreted by the reader, usually with less than glorious results? Since writing can be ambiguous, we must rely on quality written documentation that clearly outlines the intent and effect of our training actions. While it can be hard to commit the time required to produce training documentation, you can avoid a lot of future stress by creating a quality record that will be effective on its own merit, without interpretation. Consistency is vital to success, whether in what you write or what you say. Before you start the training effort, consider a template that keeps you consistent. Use the same format for creating each portion of your training documentation such as lesson ideas/plans, after action reports, roster development, etc. It’ll keep you focused even when the information becomes complex. Here’s a format familiar to all law enforcement. The �� training you, what are you training, when are you training, where �� complex machine to perform a simple task. Also use that format when you teach. Practice your procedure. We’ve all sat under instructors who either didn’t know the topic or couldn’t clearly explain it. Either way, we spent more time being frustrated than learning. Know the topic and rehearse its delivery. Then, you can document it in a way that isn’t contradictory to your delivery. If your teaching doesn’t match the plan, the ice can start getting thin. Remember, students will be subpoenaed as witnesses and they’ll remember your instruction, not your plan. I have found that most of my training efforts can be encompassed in four documents; lesson plan, course roster, student performance sheet and training synopsis. Lesson Plan Believe it or not, most law enforcement training is conducted without a formal lesson plan. A few ideas, maybe a goal in mind and some ammo, then off to the range. Fun, but not effectively defensible. A formal, primary lesson plan should be completed for each major topic. Note that I said for each MAJOR topic, not EVERY topic. Re-use the primary plan to conduct other training �� | August 2019 | Real Hero Report sessions, or sub-sessions. Update it as needed and use it as a reference in future session material. Of course, each lesson plan must include the topic of interest, goal of the courses, student objectives, performance expectations, pass/fail criteria, instructor notes and resource/research material. In other words, what am I trying to achieve and how am I going to do it? Now use the primary lesson plan as your reference for spin-off sessions, as long as the currently taught material is in the primary plan and you record the primary as your source. Course Roster and Student Performance Sheet Everybody knows this, but let’s say it again; these are different and equally important items. If properly executed, these two items could save a lot of heartache when reviewed years or decades after the training event. The course roster should not give session content but instead document the topic, who was there and under �� title, the date and time duration, course codes for training credit, instructor names, and individual results (pass, fail, remediate, etc.). Student performance sheets for each participant are just as important to properly protect the training effort. My performance sheets include the session topic, date/time, assignment of participant (uniform, detective, admin, etc.), details such as �� skills completed. In the skills section, I include every primary skill taught and performed. This could get lengthy but it will help you easily identify the basic skills taught in each session. This information stays on the student performance sheet, and easily matches the more detailed synopsis. Training Synopsis �� session documentation. It is here that I detail the plans and activities of the session in an easily readable format that will make sense to a reader far removed from the session. The synopsis is written in a way that allows anyone to know exactly what the training session accomplished without reviewing any other documents or talking to a student. The synopsis’ I write includes the topic, date/time, location, environmental conditions and special equipment used like vehicles, clothing-type for non-uniform �� synopsis, as are legal rulings and department policies that were included as part of the class. Your synopsis can list anything you believe necessary to adequately record the session. The greatest benefactor of proper documentation is me. It is from these permanent and detailed records of training sessions that I have created, conducted or hosted that I will stand upon, whether �� at me and all that stand behind me such as my family, home and �� failure to document claim. Your life may depend on your training but your future may depend on your documentation. The job is not over until the paperwork is done, so Write It Down. ��