Have you ever heard of “tell, tell, silence, yell”? This happens when we repeatedly ask a coworker to correct something, and then if they don’t, we give up until we can’t take it anymore. This may even cause us to accidentally yell or do something else drastic we’d eventually have to apologize for. No matter how resourceful, practiced, or trained you are, there will always be situations where you run out of ideas, skills, time, and/or energy. To avoid this trap, you can be more strategic (and professional!) in how you talk to your coworkers about performance issues.
Learn how to be more strategic (and professional!) in how you talk to your coworkers about performance issues.
Scenario: The Lazy Coworker
Let’s imagine there’s someone on your team that you view as lazy. They don’t get their paperwork to you on time, and it often leaves you scrambling. What follows is a list of steps that will help you address these types of performance issues:
Step 1: Talk to them. Of course, the first thing you should do is talk to the person about what’s happening. They may agree to get their work in earlier next time, but if they don’t, move to step 3. If they agree and follow through, great. If they agree, but don’t follow through, go to Step 2.
Step 2: Talk to them again and refer to your previous conversation: Outline the differences between what they agreed to do and what they actually did. Then ask them what happened. Provided you don’t come across as punishing, you may be able to get a good problem-solving conversation going to get to the root of the issue.
Now imagine the conversation ends with them saying they’ll change, but they don’t – move on to Step 3.
Step 3: Talk to them again, but this time add tone. “Tone” is not yelling, and, in all honesty, it’s difficult to define. It’s facing the person full-on, looking them in the eye, and explaining how their behaviour is impacting the team. Let your voice go to the place where you can show that what you’re talking about really matters – maybe you’ll speak quieter or a little slower than normal.
For some people, a change in tone is what they need to hear. However, if your coworker still doesn’t make a change, try Step 4.
Step 4: Tell them about the consequences. Explain that you will have to do one or more of the following if they are unable to change:
Go to the supervisor: Make it clear that you’d be forced to bring their performance issue up with your mutual supervisor. Emphasize that you’d rather work things out between the two of you (it really does make things a lot simpler), but you will do this if they’re unable to change.
A workaround: If your coworker is already getting paperwork in late, you already have to work around them. Maybe you’re forced to do the work for them, get someone else to do it, or, when they finally do get the paperwork in, you have to stay after hours to catch up. Maybe this makes it difficult for you to trust them in other situations, but whatever you have to do because your coworker isn’t cooperating is a workaround.
If you’re someone who will silently do the workaround, try to turn your resentment into a negotiation tactic. Instead of silently seething, tell the person that you’re starting to resent them so they can better understand how they’re impacting you. Be sure to add that you don’t want to resent them, which is why you’re asking for the change.
Even if you’re not going to talk to the supervisor, explain that you’d be forced to say why you’re doing the workaround if anyone asked – you don’t want to make them look bad, but you also don’t want to lie.
Step 5: Follow-through on the consequences: If their behaviour continues, they’ve actually communicated that they want you to follow through on the consequences – so go ahead and do what you said you would do.
When handling performance issues in this way, you avoid overreacting and giving in to “tell, tell, silence, yell.” While it doesn’t feel great if you end up having to do a workaround, at the very least these steps make your intentions and feelings about the situation clear, and allow you to take action with a clear conscience.
Do you find your work meaningful? There are undoubtedly many factors that influence whether you find meaning in your work – the balance between time spent alone vs. time spent with people, your stress level, and even the degree of novelty, creativity, and physical activity all seem to play a role. It’s important that the job fits with who you are.
Nevertheless, according to glassdoor.com, the career that is most satisfying to the greatest number of people is this: corporate recruiter. [1]
The good news is that while we have other tasks, all leaders are, in a way, recruiters. Whether we scroll through LinkedIn looking for new blood to hire, do interviews, or observe our present reports to select a successor, we recruit people for jobs. Even delegating is a kind of recruiting.
Leaders should take the recruiting and hiring aspect of their job seriously. In their book, How Google Works, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, and former Google Senior Vice President Jonathan Rosenberg declare that hiring is the most important thing a leader does. [2]
That’s quite a claim, but it makes sense given the fact that, when you hire, you determine who will be in the organization (and who won’t be). Given the importance of recruiting, and the level of satisfaction it gives leaders, we have a right to spend energy on this.
Early in our organization’s history, we interviewed in the same way that many organizations do – with the goal of finding the most skilled, educated, and experienced candidate. Using this approach worked for us some of the time, but the results were unpredictable. We learned that this type of hiring process sometimes gave us employees who were technically capable of doing their jobs, but who found their work unsatisfying or did not resonate with the mission of our company.
As a result, we began to tailor our interviews with the goal of discovering each candidate’s innate talent or aptitude, while discerning their fit for our culture…
After shifting the approach of our interviews to assess for innate talent and aptitude, we found that we were much more likely to establish mutually satisfying employment relationships.
As leaders, our most important job is to get the right people in the right places. That means knowing our people’s talents and aptitudes, and matching them to right work. When we do this, our people are themselves more satisfied – and we are too.
How do you react when someone is disrespectful towards you at work? It’s easy to get caught in a cycle of disrespect because our natural inclination is to respond aggressively or defensively.
This is because human beings tend to mirror each other. But with negative behaviours like disrespect, we often go a step further and escalate the situation. For example:
When a coworker is disrespectful towards me, I respond in kind and I add a little. This is just to make sure they get the message to stop.
Then they respond in kind, adding a little.
I respond in kind, adding a little more.
And so on…
As a communication facilitator, I teach people to avoid giving in to the cycle of disrespect by responding in respectful and assertive ways. And yet, there are times when I don’t practice what I teach. Instead, I retaliate by showing the other person my own disrespectful behaviour. For example, there was a time when a coworker yelled at me, saying something extremely vague and negative about my work. And for the next six months, I only communicated with her when necessary.
What do you think? Was my response justified? Did I react too strongly? Too timidly?
My point is that, justified or not, my response gave me more of what I didn’t want.
The most direct way to stop the cycle of disrespect is to refuse to copy disrespectful behaviour.
Although it’s natural to want to retaliate when we’ve been wronged, the best way to counter disrespectful behaviour is to respond with respect. Only then can we break the unhealthy cycle of disrespect.
Five Steps to End the Cycle of Disrespect:
DETERMINE THAT THE DISRESPECTFUL BEHAVIOUR WILL END WITH YOU. It often helps to recognize that if you’re not able to resolve things, you’ll need the outside help of someone like a supervisor. If you retaliate, any investigating authority might end up confused as to who’s in the wrong. Some will punish you both – some will feel so mystified that they will do nothing.
TAKE SOME TIME AWAYBEFORE YOU RESPOND.Allow yourself enough time for the retaliation impulse to subside. Breathe deeply, tell the other person that you’re going to think about what they’ve brought up, and excuse yourself.
FACE THE FACT THAT YOU HAVE NEEDS TO MEET:When you find yourself wanting to reflect disrespectful behaviour back to the person, it’s a sign that you’ve been hurt – either professionally, logistically, or emotionally. The retaliation you’re fantasizing about is your brain’s attempt to design a future where you won’t get hurt again. Avoid giving in to the cycle of disrespect by meeting your needs in more productive ways: practice self-care, redefine your relationship with the other person (see point four), and/or set boundaries (see point five).
USE MIRRORING TO YOUR ADVANTAGE: People don’t just mirror disrespectful behaviours – they mirror positive ones as well. So be a leader and redefine your relationship with the person by acting professionally and respectfully. Nothing sends a more powerful message about what you believe is acceptable than when you refuse to stoop to their level.Note: If you’re experiencing disrespect from a supervisor, they may assume your lack of retaliation is because you’re intimidated by them. You may have to indicate what you’re doing by saying things like, “Because I always want to be respected and I know you do too, I’m going to respond in this way,” or “I can tell this is upsetting and I understand why you’re angry, but I want to respond calmly so we can talk it out.” Even a simple, “Hey, let’s talk about this,” can signal that you’re making an intentional shift in the conversation.
PREPARE AN ASSERTIVE, BOUNDARY-SETTING RESPONSE: Another way to use mirroring to your advantage is to set boundaries. It’s likely that the other person’s disrespectful behaviour is their attempt to get their needs met, albeit in an unprofessional way. Demonstrate how professionals can get what they need from each other by setting clear, assertive boundaries. If you don’t have much experience doing this, write out what you want to say or talk it over with a trusted friend.
The most direct way to stop the cycle of disrespect is to refuse to copy disrespectful behaviour. We need to resist the impulse to retaliate by taking the time to calm down, modeling respectful behaviour, setting clear boundaries, and, occasionally, explaining what we’re doing. While there’s no way to guarantee that your coworker will become respectful, at the very least you can feel good about how you’ve responded. This will make it easier for management to see that it’s you that deserves to be protected if they need to intervene.
Sometimes leaders make poor decisions. Human history is littered with stories of decisions that make you wonder, Why did they think that would be a good idea?
“Leaders are human beings, just like the rest of us,” is what people often say. Indeed, it’s true that our tendency to see our leaders with halos around their heads is part of the trouble, but that doesn’t explain all of it. What follows are some dangers leaders face that can lead to poor decisions… more
How to Stop the Cycle of Disrespect
How do you react when someone is disrespectful towards you at work? It’s easy to get caught in a cycle of disrespect because our natural inclination is to respond aggressively or defensively.
This is because human beings tend to mirror each other. But with negative behaviours like disrespect, we often go a step further and escalate the situation. For example… more
A Leader’s Job: Finding Meaning in Helping Others Find Meaning
Do you find your work meaningful? There are undoubtedly many factors that influence whether you find meaning in your work – the balance between time spent alone vs. time spent with people, your stress level, and even the degree of novelty, creativity, and physical activity all seem to play a role. It’s important that the job fits with who you are.
Nevertheless, according to glassdoor.com, the career that is most satisfying to the greatest number of people is this: corporate recruiter… more
Do You Have to Like Your Colleagues?
As a workplace mediator I’m sometimes asked, “Do I have to like the people I work with?” I’m always tempted to tell them “No” – that they just have to do their jobs – but that wouldn’t quite be true. I say this because effective communication requires positive interactions among team members.
Imagine that Adrian and Bobby work for you, and they recently had a conflict with each other. Adrian feels like it’s been resolved, but Bobby doesn’t. As a result, Bobby’s negative feelings towards the whole thing turn into a dislike for Adrian. You discuss the conflict with them individually, but don’t seem to be getting anywhere. You even attempt to resolve it by telling Bobby, “Well, you don’t have to like Adrian, you just have to respect him.” In a way, that’s a good thing because at least you’re holding Bobby to a standard of respect. However… more
High Stakes Civility
When stakes are high and your performance matters most, you and your team will likely get stressed. But how will you treat each other? Will you all take a deep breath, make sure communication is respectful and straightforward, and motivate each other by using language that acknowledges that you’re all in it together? Or, will you become short with each other, feeling that you have less time to be polite, and causing you to become more terse with your instructions? Will your colleagues notice that the tone of your voice has changed? Will you find yourself giving more negative feedback than you normally would? Your answers matter… more
Develop Your Culture Through Conscious Onboarding
Think back to your first day at your current job. Were you greeted at the door with fanfare and taken for lunch? Or, were you shown to your workstation and given an employee handbook? How did the way people treated you make you feel about your new workplace? How did this affect your subsequent behaviour at work? more
How to Make Your Mission Meaningful
Your organization’s mission and values should provide clarity for workers, helping everyone “row in the same direction.” But sometimes they don’t.
I once worked in a human resources office with a multi-national corporation of 3,500 employees. I’ll call the company “Big International.” While Big was built on a foundation of hard work and had some good products that were prominent in the North American marketplace for a while (until they were beat out by price), there were some things happening there that disheartened me.
Your organization’s mission and values should provide clarity for workers, helping everyone “row in the same direction.” But sometimes they don’t… more
5 Techniques to Help Fight Focus Fatigue
I gazed at the 30 expectant faces. I opened my mouth to speak but the words weren’t there. My sentences began with “Um,” or “Uuuh…”. I had written the presentation, but it was coming out as slowly as an 8-year-old goes to bed. When I finally found the words, they weren’t quite what I wanted to say. I tried to list the companies who had been my clients in the last year and struggled to remember more than 2 out of 4 of them. I would get an idea for a joke, but my timing was too hesitant.
I looked at my wife, who was recording the presentation so I could use the video to apply for my Certified Speaking Professional designation. I cast my eyes on a man in the audience who had the ability to hire me for considerably more work if I could impress him. But it wasn’t going to happen. Not today. What’s gone wrong? I wondered. What fuzzed-out my brain?more
10 Strategies for Detecting and Responding to Lying
Here’s the shocking news: We may not think of ourselves as liars, but we have all lied. Most of us lie just a little bit to make others feel better, simplify explanations by omitting details, or exaggerate to get a small reward such as admiration from our peers. Our own bending of the truth (lying) makes it difficult to spot and respond positively to more serious types of lying, such as compulsive lying… more
Guidance for Managing Your Team’s Emotional Climate
Great teams start with great leaders who give their team clarity of purpose, use intrinsic motivation as a primary motivator, and consider people’s personal work styles. Great Leaders provide an atmosphere where people can build quality relationships and engage in meaningful work. They encourage fun, collaboration, honest mutual feedback, and hold people accountable to get stuff done.
The bedrock of these behaviours can be found in a team’s emotion norms: how team members expect each other to respond emotionally to various events… more
Leadership Strategies for Reducing Resistance
When I started mediating, I found I was dealing with some very resistant people. I discovered firsthand that people who are angry, threatened, or scared will occasionally dig their heels in and hold on for dear life – sometimes to the point where they hurt themselves as much or more than they hurt the other party.
You’ve probably noticed that even when they’re not angry, people can be illogically resistant… more
How to Create a Culture Where Feedback Actually Helps
Most of us struggle with giving and receiving honest and mutual feedback. In his book, “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team,” author Patrick Lencioni deftly describes how an inability or unwillingness to engage in Honest Mutual Feedback (HMF) leads to poor performance. Lencioni provides some solutions, and organizations such as Pixar, Intel and George Mason University have developed additional techniques. These tools move us beyond our normal relational efforts of connecting, affirming, and determining status. Creating a culture of HMF takes effort, but the pay-off is a motivated, self-managing, and continuously-improving team. Here are seven important steps for creating such a culture… more
Inspiring Employees Through Your Story
I have two teenage boys. In 2017, this means I watch a lot of superhero movies.
The superhero movies I like best are the origin stories, like Batman Begins or Antman, where the protagonist goes from being a relatively normal guy to a stupendous fighting machine. It’s hard to relate to movies that are only crazy, high-powered action, but seeing a regular person become a super-duper-world-protector can be quite rousing.
When I worked at Palliser Furniture, Human Resources had a Palliser origin story. more
7 Steps for Controlling your Emotions
When you find yourself in a tough situation, the ability to master your emotions can mean the difference between success and failure. Here are seven steps for managing your emotions: more
5 Strategies for Improving Your Relationship with Your Boss
When you picture the person at work who will most impact your future, who do you see? For most of us, our relationship with our manager is the most important relationship we have at work. I believe we need to work to get it that relationship right. Here are five tips that will improve your relationship with the person that supervises you. more
3 Reasons To Confront Your Co-Worker
If your workplace is like most, people are too avoidant when it comes to conflict – even those who are more direct in their personal lives. That’s what Ralph Kilman, co-author of the world-renowned Thomas-Kilman Conflict Styles Inventory, found in a recent cross-organizational study. Too much avoidance means issues are swept under the carpet, contrary information is not shared, relational tension is not addressed and organizational performance suffers.
I’ll admit – there are times when I haven’t brought up concerns that were bothering me. more
Confronting Constructively: 4 Tips
In the social sciences, researchers determine the true impact of variable things by changing one variable and keeping everything else the same, then observing the result.
I experienced something similar recently when I was confronted by two very real people on the same day. I’ll call them Albert and Ziggy. more
3 Ways to Avoid Conflict and Improve Relationships
“I wonder what’s it like to be married to you…” I turned. The workshop participant was behind me, to the side, looking thoughtful, pensive, and curious. It wasn’t a pick-up, but a pondering.
I have taught conflict resolution skills for 20 years and it’s a question I occasionally get asked. more
Humor at Work: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
What kind of jokes are healthy? What kind lead to good teamwork? Social scientist Rod Martin categorized humor into four categories and research on these four categories is being carried on throughout the world. While all of these categories can be good, too much of some can be dangerous. Below are the good, the usually good, and the slippery slope types of humor. more
Shake Up Your Habits – 7 Tips to Change Your Brain
Habits are hard to change, but I recently discovered a simple way to do so.
I went to Nepal for five weeks. As it turned out, we were there just before the earthquake struck. While there, we ate rice and lentils, tried to speak Nepali, used different money and experienced uncomfortable sleeping conditions.
When we came back home, we found that we hadn’t come back the same, more
Safety Through Mindfulness
I used to think mindfulness – bringing your focus to only the immediate present – was dangerous. If I think only of what’s happening in the moment, how will I plan for the future? I wondered. I considered the mindfulness technique of focusing on one’s breath to be equally unsafe: If I’m just thinking about breathing in and out, I won’t think about what I’m doing. I’ll have an accident!more
Focus on a Few Good Skills – What the NFL Teaches Us about Conflict Resolution
Coach Tony Dungy has won more games than any other coach in NFL history. Before Dungy NFL games were a matter of psyching out one’s opponent. Those with the most complicated and surprising plays won.
But Dungy didn’t want his players to know a lot of plays. He wanted them to know a few plays and do them automatically. more
Missed Opportunity – Failing to See the Other Person’s Interests
The following is a true story told to me by a workshop participant. It is shared with permission but modified to protect the identities of the persons involved. The person who told it to me is “Caleb” in the story.
Alvin Zemlock sat behind his desk, and Caleb faced him. The Room was tense. Alvin was the founder and CEO of Zemlock construction. Caleb represented a union and saw Alvin as an enemy, and for good reason. Not only was Alvin’s company not unionized, Alvin had publicly spoken out against the union some years ago. So Caleb would have loved to see Zemlock unionize.
Caleb had been distributing union flyers in the Zemlock Construction employee parking area with pleasure. But moments later was ushered into the Zemlock Construction head office, face-to-face with Zemlock himself. What was the CEO’s plan, Caleb wondered. Did he intend to intimidate him? more
Sometimes leaders make poor decisions. Human history is littered with stories of decisions that make you wonder, Why did they think that would be a good idea?
“Leaders are human beings, just like the rest of us,” is what people often say. Indeed, it’s true that our tendency to see our leaders with halos around their heads is part of the trouble, but that doesn’t explain all of it. What follows are some dangers leaders face that can lead to poor decisions.
While the conflicts we are in the midst of can often feel unique to us, in reality, conflicts are strikingly similar in structure. This video takes you through seven steps of conflict escalation and how to respond constructively to each one. It is approximately 10 minutes.
One-Minute Videos
ACHIEVE Centre for Leadership Videos
Intended for leaders of all kinds, these videos contain quick, helpful thoughts about working with people.
Crisis and Trauma Resource Institute Videos
Offered for the helping professions and other interested parties, these videos provide quick thoughts about how to navigate some of the more difficult parts of daily life.
Statistics Canada has suggested that Canada’s present drug crisis is partly fueled by prescriptions (2019). In January of 2020, we were not able to find data to substantiate this statement, so we turned to US data to look for evidence of a relationship between opioid deaths and related prescriptions. As prescriptions of oxycodone and hydrocodone have increased over time, so have opioid-related deaths, but the relationship is unclear. While New York State has reduced prescriptions of the more addictive of the two substances, hydrocodone, this has unfortunately had no observable impact on opioid-related deaths.
Background
Deaths due to opioid overdose have spiked in Canada, doubling between 2015 and 2017. Statistics Canada has posited that while illegal drugs with fentanyl are part of the problem, “…prescription opioids have also contributed to the crisis… High rates of opioid prescribing mean that more people are being exposed to the risks of opioids” (2019). We were not able to locate data to back up Statistics Canada’s statement, but we were able to get informative data from our neighbours to the south: The Washington Post (2020) has obtained and published detailed information about supplier-retail sales of the US’s two most prevalent prescribed opioids, oxycodone and hydrocodone, which we combined with the US’s National Centre for Health Statistics’ (NCHS) annual estimates for deaths due to opioid poisoning (Hedegaard et al., 2020). We then used this data to explore the relationship between the prescription sales and opioid-related deaths. Due to the massive size of the dataset, we decided to focus on two of the United State’s best-known states: California and New York.
Prescriptions and Income
The maps below allow the reader to compare prescriptions with per capita income. Counties are coloured according to per capita income, and each county has a dot that represents total amount of opioid prescriptions, in kilograms. In general, income and opioid colours darken together, indicating that as income increases, so do prescriptions.
California and New York per capita income (shading) andprescriptions (circles).
We adopted per capita as a measure because there is a significant difference in the population of California (38.8 million) and New York (12.9 million).
Comparing DeathRates
Below are the number of opioid-related deaths per 1000 people per year in New York and California as assessed by the NCHS. As you can see, New York began with a lower opioid-related death rate, but beginning in 2010, NY’s rate started to climb relative to CA’s, becoming equal to CA’s in 2012.
Death rates in New York and California over time. Note that to focus on changes, all the “Death Rate” charts in this report have a shortened axis that ranges from eight to 13.5 deaths per 1000 people per year.
The Relationship Between Prescription and Death
So, then, what is the relationship between opioid prescriptions and opioid-related deaths? Our attempt to grapple with this question in California’s case is below. The green bars show death rates, while the lines show hydrocodone and oxycodone prescriptions, respectively. While the two ratings both show a subtle rise from 2006-2011, they go in opposite directions after that. In other words, even though something happened in California to curb the number of prescriptions, the death rate continued to climb.
Graph showing death rates (bars) as compared with amount of prescribed opioids (lines).
The chart below indicates the same information for New York State, and it’s more complicated but quite interesting in its own right. Beginning in 2014, due to the fact that hydrocodone is generally thought to be more addictive than oxycodone, New York restricted the distribution of hydrocodone without a doctor’s visit, and at the same time, all products containing hydrocodone in any amount and in any combination were added to Schedule II – Controlled/Restricted Substance (Drug Enforcement Administration, 2014). Buying patterns followed suit, and sales of hydrocodone decreased, while oxycodone significantly increased.
Sadly, the problem of opioid-related deaths skyrocketed regardless, as New York’s death rate began marginally lower than California’s (New York was 9.0/1000 while California was 10.3/1000) but actually ended up marginally higher (with New York at 12.9/1000 and California at 12.6/1000).
Conclusion
We know that both opioid-related deaths and opioid prescriptions in the United States have climbed from 2006- 2014, and so a correlation is suggested (Centers, 2020). However, New York’s attempt to reduce harm by limiting hydrocodone has been unsuccessful, suggesting that hydrocodone, at least by itself, is not a driver. More work will need to be done to compare other communities’ approaches in an effort to discover best practices.
References
Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Ed.). (2020, March 19). Drug Overdose Deaths. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/data/statedeaths.html
Drug Enforcement Administration. (2014, August 22). Rules – 2014 – inal Rule: Rescheduling of Hydrocodone Combination Products From Schedule III to Schedule II. Retrieved from https://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/fed_regs/rules/2014/fr0822.htm
Hedegaard, H., Miniño, A. M., & Warner, M. (2020, January 30). Drug Overdose Deaths in the United States, 1999–2018. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db356.htm
Public Health Agency of Canada. (2018, March 17). Government of Canada. Retrieved from https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/publications/healthy-living/national- report-apparent-opioid-related-deaths-released-march-2018.html
Statistics Canada. (2019, April 09). Government of Canada. Retrieved from https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/publications/healthy-living/canada- opioid-crisis-fact-sheet.html
Washington Post Staff. (2020, January 24). The Opioid Files: Follow The Post’s investigation of the opioid epidemic. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/2019/07/20/opioid-files/?arc404=true
Since 2003, the AIDS Network Kootenay Outreach and Support Society (ANKORS), now partnered with Interior Health and the British Columbia Centre on Substance Use, has been offering free drug checks to attendees at music festivals like the Shambhala and Bass Coast held in British Columbia, Canada. Drug checking is a free harm reduction service that allows service users to bring drugs and have their compositions checked using technologies such as Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Service users are then shown the results, allowing them to make informed decisions regarding the drug’s use. To understand the impact of such services, ANKORS created survey sheets for service users, technicians, and advisors to record information during their transactions. Data has been collected regarding where drugs are obtained, what service users think they are, whether or not the FTIR results concord, and what the service user then determines to do with the drug. Based on the studied dataset, some of the key findings of the data analysis are: ● It was discovered that the percentage of new service users accessing the drug checking services increased from 52% in 2018 to 70% in 2019. ● The two drugs most commonly brought by the same service user during the same visit at Shambhala are MDMA and LDS, and the most common drug additive is one of many possible forms of sugar. ● There is no statistically significant difference between what a service user believes a drug to be and the spectroscopy analysis.
Researchers also conducted unsupervised learning to look for patterns, specifically utilizing various clustering algorithms to draw inferences from the data. Additionally, various ensemble and boosting algorithms were conducted to predict whether or not a service user will discard their drug as well as to predict what service users will decide to do with a drug after getting the results of the drug check. The results of the exploratory data analysis were clear enough, but the results of both the supervised and unsupervised learning approaches were inconclusive. Further research could involve experimenting more with variable selection, aggregating multiple datasets over many years, or asking more specific questions on the survey sheets, and suggestions are made for data collection that would facilitate this future research. An appendix is included that explains, to the general reader, the supervised and unsupervised techniques that were utilized.
To obtain a copy of the full report, email mikelabun@gmail.com.
Soft Skills Blog
