Doug NollI'm called in when human dynamics are getting in the way of strategic leadership execution.

The Art of Staying Calm: Doug Teaches De-escalation #emotionalintelligence

15 Jan 2026 · 2 min

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This content was created by Doug Noll. This content was uploaded by Doug Noll. This is a YouTube video titled "The Art of Staying Calm: Doug Teaches De-escalation #emotionalintelligence" (created 2026-01-15). The excerpt is a single-speaker instructional talk in which the presenter describes an evidence-based de-escalation/listening training used in schools and corporate settings. The speaker gives examples (a high school–middle school cluster and a middle-school science teacher in Georgia), explains the observed classroom behavior changes, and outlines the typical workshop format (a 3–4 hour initial session followed by 6–8 weekly one-hour follow-ups).

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Worked, uh, I worked in a high school-middle school cluster, for example, where I trained the high school faculty how to de-escalate angry students and parents, and they, they saw their classroom management completely change as a result of that. And then I worked with the middle school faculties that feed into that high school, and they saw the same result. Where instead of sending kids off when kids misbehave, if you, if you, when they, when the teachers learn that if the kids are just looking to be validated and heard, that's all they're looking for. And when you learn how to listen them into existence by listening to their emotions instead of their words, they completely change their behaviors. Yeah. Right now I'm working with a school teacher, and he's a middle school teacher in Georgia, a science teacher, and he's leading a— he's going to start leading an effort to bring this kind of listening into Georgia schools. And every teacher that's ever learned this walks away saying, how come I wasn't taught this in teacher training? Right? It's that kind of transformational thing. And the process takes— the way that I prefer to teach it, whether I'm teaching it at corporate or I'm teaching in schools or wherever I'm teaching it, it's typically a workshop setting, either in person or virtual, that goes for 3 to 4 hours. And then we have 6 to 8 follow-up sessions of 1 hour each for a week. I mean, once a week for an hour for 6 to 8 weeks or longer. Most people get it in 6 to 8 weeks. And basically in the first 3 to 4 hour session, I give them the science behind all of this because this is all based on science.