Let me start by saying that the puppy magnet is real. I get it. You see a dog, you want to pet it. It’s natural. You see a puppy, you want to run up to it, pick it up, talk to it, snuggle it, name it, take it home with you and raise it as...
Since getting to present at the 2015 WINx Conference, I’ve really come to appreciate the amount of time and effort that Roy Bethge and Brian Willis put into creating this excellent event each year in Lisle, Illinois. With the goal of helping police officers continually elevate their performance and achieve excellence in their field,...
As students go through our Tactical Analysis program, there is a question that often comes up during the portion of the course when we teach how to read and assess the behavior of individual people. The question is usually framed in this manner: “If the dominant cluster is manifestation of the fight response to a...
In the work that we do with our clients here at The CP Journal, we teach a process of observation that we categorize using the four pillars of observable behavior: individuals, groups, the environment, and the overall collective mood. Much of the training work that we do is with clients in the security world, but...
A question that we frequently get asked during our classes here at The CP Journal is whether a person can be displaying two clusters at the same time. In other words, can a person be both “dominant and comfortable” at the same time or “uncomfortable and submissive” simultaneously? The short answer to this question is...
This video analysis is part of our recently released training center content. In case you haven’t seen it, here is a 7-minute section of the video that was released showing the shooter before he opened fire on unarmed people at UC Santa Barbara on May 23, 2014. You can find the Wikipedia overview of the...
After having spent over two years commuting from Rockland County to Midtown Manhattan for work five days a week, a commute that consisted of one car, two trains, a subway ride and a bit of foot travel, I was extremely relieved the first morning that I woke up and did not have to rush out...
This morning, I posted on LinkedIn the “4 Reasons Why You Will Never Learn To Ready Body Language.” The article highlights some of the common pitfalls new students encounter when learning to read behavior. Whether your goal is to recognize threats or improve your negotiation skills, assessing the nonverbal communication plays a significant role in understanding...
People looking to develop their ability to read behavior can build the habit by mimicking and mirroring the behavior of those around you. By taking on the postures, expressions, and gestures of others, you gain insight into what causes people to display certain types of nonverbal behavior and become better at noticing the subtle cues...
Here’s a link to an info-graphic about How to Spot a Hidden Handgun:
The dominant and submissive clusters are often looked at from the perspective of identifying people about to commit violent acts, but obviously not everyone who displays this type of nonverbal behavior does so in a threatening manner. There are countless reasons why a person might give off submissive cues that are completely innocent and need...
Every time you walk into a room, you naturally begin to assess all of the people around you. You’re looking through the crowd to determine if there is anyone that you need to keep an eye on because they are showing hostility towards and also looking for any familiar faces. Beyond recognizing people we know,...
Behavioral analysis doesn’t make you a mind reader. Observing someone who is showing cues from the Uncomfortable Cluster only means that they are uncomfortable. That observation alone doesn’t mean they are about to commit a Green-on-Blue attack, we can begin putting together a plan, go into Condition Orange, but we still need more information. If...
We’ve established that the context for insider attacks is the Proxemic Pull – the approaching attacker. We covered that. But when we look at Green-on-Blue attacks, the observations we are going to make are going to be grounded in the nonverbal cues – the clusters. This is what is going to make the attacker stand...
We’ve all been there before. We thought we had done enough to get the “yes,” whether it was for a new contract, an agreement with a village elder in a foreign country over the placement of a new well, or the number for the girl you’ve been talking to at the bar. In fact, we...