Faculty Onboarding_Training Scenarios

Explore the different training scenarios on the right by clicking on the titles. In each scenario, Dr. Fingerhood engages in discussions with current ASAM Faculty members about different situations they have faced while conducting live in-person and live-virtual ASAM courses.

Applying ASAM Training Principles in Real-World Scenarios​​

Breakout Room Disagreement

Dominating Participant

Struggling Learner

Don’t Have the Answer

Controversial Question

Technical Difficulties

Request to Share

Disruptive Participant

Transcript

You notice that a participant in your training is consistently disruptive and not engaging with the material. What strategies can you use to address this behavior and ensure that it does not negatively impact the other participants' learning?​​

Scenario 1:

Consider how you might respond. Then, listen as Dr. Fingerhood discusses this scenario with other ASAM faculty.

Breakout Room Disagreement

Dominating Participant

Struggling Learner

Don’t Have the Answer

Controversial Question

Technical Difficulties

Request to Share

Disruptive Participant

During a breakout room discussion, two participants have a disagreement that becomes heated and unproductive. How can you intervene to de-escalate the situation and keep the discussion on track?​

Scenario 2

Transcript

Consider how you might respond. Then, listen as Dr. Fingerhood discusses this scenario with other ASAM faculty.

Breakout Room Disagreement

Dominating Participant

Struggling Learner

Don’t Have the Answer

Controversial Question

Technical Difficulties

Request to Share

Disruptive Participant

One of the participants in a breakout room is dominating the conversation and not allowing others to share their thoughts. How would you address this behavior and ensure that all participants have the opportunity to contribute to the discussion?​

Scenario 3

Transcript

Consider how you might respond. Then, listen as Dr. Fingerhood discusses this scenario with other ASAM faculty.

Breakout Room Disagreement

Dominating Participant

Struggling Learner

Don’t Have the Answer

Controversial Question

Technical Difficulties

Request to Share

Disruptive Participant

Transcript

One of your participants is struggling to understand a concept covered in the course. How can you adapt your teaching approach to ensure that they can understand the material without slowing down the rest of the group?​​

Scenario 4

Consider how you might respond. Then, listen as Dr. Fingerhood discusses this scenario with other ASAM faculty.

Breakout Room Disagreement

Dominating Participant

Struggling Learner

Don’t Have the Answer

Controversial Question

Technical Difficulties

Request to Share

Disruptive Participant

Transcript

A participant asks a question that you do not know the answer to. How can you respond in a way that is honest and transparent while also ensuring that the participant's question is addressed in a timely and respectful manner?​​

Scenario 5

Consider how you might respond. Then, listen as Dr. Fingerhood discusses this scenario with other ASAM faculty.

Breakout Room Disagreement

Dominating Participant

Struggling Learner

Don’t Have the Answer

Controversial Question

Technical Difficulties

Request to Share

Disruptive Participant

During the course, a participant asks a question about a controversial topic that may require a delicate response to maintain professionalism. How do you respond to the question while maintaining professionalism?​​

Scenario 6

Consider how you might respond. Then, listen as Dr. Fingerhood discusses this scenario with other ASAM faculty.

Transcript

Breakout Room Disagreement

Dominating Participant

Struggling Learner

Don’t Have the Answer

Controversial Question

Technical Difficulties

Request to Share

Disruptive Participant

Transcript

During your ASAM course, you may encounter technical difficulties with the platform you're using. Some participants cannot access the course materials, and others experience lag in the video and audio. How do you address these issues and ensure the session runs smoothly?​

Scenario 7

Consider how you might respond. Then, listen as Dr. Fingerhood discusses this scenario with other ASAM faculty.

Breakout Room Disagreement

Dominating Participant

Struggling Learner

Don’t Have the Answer

Controversial Question

Technical Difficulties

Request to Share

Disruptive Participant

Transcript

One of your participants asks if they can share a personal story related to the topic being discussed to better illustrate a point. How do you address this request while ensuring the course remains on track and all necessary content is covered?​

Scenario 8

Consider how you might respond. Then, listen as Dr. Fingerhood discusses this scenario with other ASAM faculty.

Breakout Room Disagreement

Dominating Participant

Struggling Learner

Don’t Have the Answer

Controversial Question

Technical Difficulties

Request to Share

Disruptive Participant

Dr. Michael Fingerhood: Just want to ask questions that you do not know the answer to. And that'll happen to me a lot. How can you respond in a way that is honest and transparent while also ensuring that the participant's questions are addressed in a timely and respectful manner? Speaker 1: I think that's the beauty of having a co-facilitator as well. We have different background experiences, different levels of expertise, and I don't think I've ever been on a question, and then the staff is there as well. So, depending upon the question, either it gets passed to the other co-trainer who has an answer. Or it's maybe a question that the staff person can answer or go research and find an answer while we continue going forward. And then we just say, hey, we'll get back to you on that with an answer after the break or after lunch or whatever.Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think ASAM staff can certainly help with this information that we know that they have that we don't have at hand that they can certainly help and perhaps even help in the chat, they'll give a link to the information that we need.

Dr. Michael Fingerhood: If you notice that a participant in your training is consistently disruptive and not engaging with the material, what strategies can you use to address this behavior and ensure that it does not negatively impact the other participants learning? Since most of you are pretty seasoned, you have taught the course in the past, I certainly welcome you actually letting us know if this has happened to you. And not only what you did, but I have to say, no matter how many times you do it, I'm going to state that it always makes me realize that it always raises your heart rate and makes you uneasy. I'll just validate how unsettling this scenario is, no matter how many times you've taught. So having said that, anybody want to share a personal experience they've had teaching where something like this has happened? Speaker 1: Well, if you've ever run a substance use disorder treatment group, this is a pretty common occurrence. But that said, we just recently had an experience that Dr. Smith and I were on, this happens, I think, fairly regularly with these online trainings. Particularly, if you get 68 participants, somebody's not going to have the mute on. And they're going to take a call, and they're going to be doing something or another, and it's going to bleed over what I can do, and it's usually visible to me. So I can just usually, quickly, at least on Zoom, reach over unmuted. But, on occasion, it'll keep getting overwritten, and the interruptions continue. So what I did last week was, as it became obvious, and without trying to, you know, without embarrassing the participant, I just simply said, "Hey, Laura, would you get a not keep an eye on that and see if you can't resolve it?" And then just kept moving. Without pointing it out. She knew what I was talking about. And so it was just a way of resolving the interruption without directly targeting the individual. That's just the example for a disruption that I'll share. Thank you. Speaker 2: I've had that experience, who of course, I was with Jeff, when we had the mute experience. I think we I was on the same training, we had a participant, she wasn't rude, but she was trying she would monopolize a lot of the conversation. I've had this happen for years, and teaching it, you'll have students that are, you know, going to talk talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk talk, and you can see the eye rolls by all the other students because they're raising their hand or they're speaking out again. So, it's a fine line without disrespecting their participation, but it's a fine line to have to kind of "Thank you very much. Now, let's ask somebody else." Or you can say, "He really seemed to have a grasp on this; let's, let's check with some of the other folks." Just to kind of keep them contained. Because otherwise, the audience gets upset with us because we're not controlling or containing somebody that's a little too exuberant. Michael Fingerhood: Right, anybody else? And I guess it just depends again, on the audience and what you are anticipating, but sometimes I think just having some of the conversations upfront before you even get started, and just say, hey, just want to make sure everyone feels included. We all have tendencies to either speak a little too much or step back and not speak and today, let's try to balance it. If you're that person who tends to like to speak up a lot, step back. If you're that person who tends to not like to speak up, try to step up so that we hear everyone's voice and so if you put it out there in the beginning, it seems maybe unnecessary, but it can get out ahead of some of those problems and kind of avoid them in the beginning.

Dr. Michael Fingerhood: If one of your participants is struggling to understand a concept covered in the course, how can you adapt your teaching approach to ensure they understand the material without slowing down the rest of the group? As this happens, and if it's happened to you, you can maybe share with your colleagues that this has happened. And you can even give an exact example of when it's happened if you'd like.Speaker 1: I don't know if I have a specific example. But it happens frequently. And I like that because people are vocalizing their needs. And it's participatory. And so the idea is that just being able to explain something, again, in a different way, sort of based on the audience, based on the particular topic or whatever. I think one of the examples I have may come into play with a clarification on say, the severity ratings level of functioning, or maybe a setting of what a level of care looks like or something, or arriving at some sort of conclusion as to how we got there. So, since I've already stated it, what I will often do without trying to get bogged down in the details, or go too slow, is basically try to reframe it, engage the participant directly because usually it represents other people that had the same question. And acknowledge, thank them for that. Say, look, that's a good point. Let's try looking at it this way. Explain it and then just sort of see, "Is that starting to make sense?" Or most of the time, it will or they won't challenge it. And if they do, I'll say, you know, you got a good point there. Let's see if we can pick this back up further into the discussion. What I'll try to do is make a mental note if I'm presenting or if I'm following another facilitator, and we do this often, we will sort of track each other's questions. Maybe the one that's not presenting will jump in the chat and engage in something to try to keep things moving. In summary, it's just basically validating it, knowing in the back of my mind that is probably a general question for other people as well. Give it some attention, long enough to reframe it, engage the participant to see if that resonated, and/or follow up in chat to try to bring clarification to the individual without slowing down the group.

Dr. Michael Fingerhood: During a breakout room discussion, two participants have a disagreement that becomes heated and unproductive. How can you intervene to de-escalate the situation and keep the discussion on track? I think these scenarios were chosen, at least many of them, because they've happened. I'll just put that in the background.Speaker 1: You know, I think one of the things that I try and do is, is let people be in their breakout rooms by themselves. I'm not usually monitoring really closely the breakout rooms because I do feel like with these full-day online trainings, people need a little bit of a break to be in smaller groups and not have the facilitators kind of omnipresent going into their breakout rooms. I think the situation that would come up for me with this, which is when somebody came back from the breakout room, and we're like, "Well, we had a really heated discussion; we have a real area of disagreement." And so I think sometimes, you know, I do say, "Okay, just to clarify, the correct answer is whatever." It's because sometimes the person who was kind of arguing vociferously for the incorrect answer can back off and kind of observe those social norms. And I think there are some times when also, I'll use kind of the parking lot and say, "We've got some really strong opinions on at least two sides. And I'm sure there are multiple perspectives about this issue." So I'm going to kind of add that to the parking lot because we're going to talk about that in terms of systems issues, at the end of the day, or in terms of some of the macro issues. Because sometimes we're talking about different rules in different municipalities or different states, or kind of a lack of resources that people get frustrated by, I think that our learners tend to be pretty careful about not dogging out one part of the other professionals, like providers, or payers, or physicians and other clinical staff, or withdrawal management providers and other providers. So I think that, in general, people are pretty generous about that. But every once in a while, if people have real strong opinions, then we'll kind of make light of it like, "Oh, gosh, you know, we've got such tough issues like recovery is a tough thing, and providing treatment. And so we get passionate about these things.Dr. Michael Fingerhood: Anybody else? Yeah, I think, you know, the idea when we're working, particularly in the fidelity aspect and trying to align fidelity. We know that the overall context about ASAM is where to meet an agreement and where to refine disagreement. And so the philosophical approach just lends itself to this to say, clearly, we've got some interesting things. And there are areas we can agree on and places we disagree; you can validate the disagreement and still bring in sort of the overall normalcy that this is part of a process that lends itself to respectful dialogue. I have not run into a de-escalation situation per se that was so animated that it required intervention, but I've certainly seen some passionate discussions. So again, just validating the differences that come in, moving towards places of agreement, and working through the fidelity models as to how we're seeing and responding to things.

Dr. Michael Fingerhood: During the course, a participant asked a question about a controversial topic that may require a delicate response to maintain professionalism. How do you respond to the question while maintaining professionalism?Speaker 1: I think that examples given in general just a minute ago, this is how we're taught to do it; we kind of get drawn into the conference room or the doors of their agency, if not careful, I think we can kind of sense that when it's happening, and just try to respond in a general way of validating what they've done, what the experience is, and sort of pointing it to a better way, if that happens to be the controversy. So there's a lot of little soap boxes out there, and I'm not immune to my own. Yeah. But with that in mind, is just being aware of the fact and just trying to stay out of the landmine in the field there. Each situation sometimes calls for a different particular, but in general, it's catching it, being aware of it, and formulating an answer that has sort of a diplomatic response, and staying out of the weeds.Speaker 2: I think, you know, a lot of times, we'll still get about language use, right, you know, whether we're talking about, sending people to rehab, sending people to detox, and people who need to be treated in the criminal justice system, or, you know, sometimes we'll get into those issues with co-occurring, capable co-occurring enhanced and I think I often, when it's about language issues, I'll often talk about, like, gosh, when I think back on some of the terms that I used 20 years ago, when our practice was different, and my own development was different. I have a little bit of shame sometimes about some of the ways I used to refer to people with substance use disorders or with addiction illnesses. And so I think as we evolve as a field and as a profession, one of the ways that we see that evolution happening is in our use of language, how we refer to people, and how we refer to people and communities and identities in ways that are either supportive of people's recovery from these chronic illnesses or are not supportive of people's recovery from chronic illnesses. So I'll usually kind of take that on to, like my own experience. And kind of talk about and I think about policies the same way, some of the policies that I've been responsible for, some of the policies that I've implemented, I look back on and say like, that was not very supportive of people's recovery. So how can we interrogate that process and accept that evolution is a really good thing rather than being opposed to that change.

Dr. Michael Fingerhood: When a participant is asked if they can share a personal story related to the topic being discussed, to better illustrate a point, how do you address this? Is it okay for participants to share personal stories? I assume pertinent to what you're discussing what you're discussing, I hope.Speaker 1: It's like any other speaker that dominates, who just tried to cut in if it seems to be going on, or for some reason might be inappropriate or overly polarized, maybe try to, you know, just move it on, but people will speak up to what they think and so forth. And that's actually welcomed to a degree and, so I haven't seen a real issue with.Dr. Michael Fingerhood: Yeah, the capital here, since it's implied that it's pertinent, right? You don't want something that's tangential and not related. But certainly, something that's personal, it's on the topic seems useful.Speaker 2: I haven't really had it happen where they're asking, but if somebody did, then I would just reiterate if it's related to their professional personal experience meeting is client information just to make sure that they are not giving any identical and any identifiable information and they're maintaining confidentiality, and then having to kindly redirect if they are going on a tangent and the pertinent information is not being shared with the group.

Dr. Michael Fingerhood: We touched on this a few minutes ago. When other participants in a breakout room are dominant in a conversation and not allowing others to share their thoughts. How would you address this and ensure that all participants have the opportunity to contribute? Speaker 1: That was something I mentioned. And going around to each room like I started doing was good because then, this happened to me just last week, I went into a room, and there was a person who was actually dominating the breakout room, plus she was the same one that was kind of dominating a lot of the conversation during the training and so it was I had to kind of jump in without disrespecting what she was saying but had to change the conversation back on track and kind of keep her pinned in over on this side. But that's kind of how I've always done it is just keep people contained, and when they want to jump in, let them say something but then divert it back away back to other people without being rude. I've hardly ever had to say, "Hey, be quiet. Yeah, stop talking." I've never had to do that.

Dr. Michael Fingerhood: During your ASAM Criteria Course, you encounter technical difficulties with the platform, some participants were unable to access the course materials, and others experience lag in the video and audio. What do you do to address the issue? What we can do pretty quickly? AJ seems to work every time. Yeah, I think that's when we really turn to our ASAM staff to help out. Staff you want to comment?Speaker 1: A lot of the time, many learners actually don't know this, there is that the little arrow in Zoom next to your unmute button and mute button, you can actually test out your audio and sound and see where everything is connected. So whenever somebody's having an audio issue or visual issue, I always direct them to that. And that always seems to fix the problem, and they can test out their sound, and none of us can hear them only they can, so that always works.