Cool Heads, Quick Thinking. Teaching Staff to Solve Problems Under Pressure - Camp Code #169

Find full show notes and links at: https://www.gocamp.pro/campcode/coolheaded

When Counselors Freeze: Teaching Staff to Think Clearly Under Pressure

On this episode of camp code our hosts Gabrielle and Beth get real about a moment every camp leader has seen. A camper is crying, two kids are arguing, the plan is falling apart, and the counselor just freezes. Instead of treating that as a failure, they unpack what is actually going on. Most staff have never been taught how to think under pressure. So when things get intense, their brains do exactly what brains do. They panic, shut down, or rush in too fast. This episode focuses on how to change that by teaching simple, practical skills like pausing for a few seconds, noticing what is really happening, and choosing one small helpful action instead of trying to fix everything at once.

What makes this conversation land is how grounded it is in real training. Gabrielle and Beth share hands-on activities and simple frameworks like stopping, approaching appropriately, and speaking kindly, all designed to build confidence through practice. The goal is not perfection. It is helping staff feel steady enough to act, ask good questions, and know when to call for help. When counselors practice these skills ahead of time, they are far more likely to stay calm and capable when camp life gets messy, which it always does.

Best Practice for Leadership Training

From Beth,

Normalize asking for help by teaching staff that strong leadership is not about handling everything alone, but about knowing when to involve others. Many new counselors see asking for help as failure, but in reality, it is a sign of good judgment. During training, you can bring this to life with a simple “helpline” exercise by creating three zones: handle it yourself, ask a peer for support, or call a supervisor immediately. As staff place themselves along the line in response to different scenarios, they begin to understand how others assess risk and responsibility, and it opens up meaningful discussion. 

The bigger goal is to reinforce a clear thinking process that staff can rely on: pause, notice what is happening, take a small helpful action, ask questions, make a thoughtful decision, and get support when needed. When staff have the chance to practice this in real scenarios, they build confidence and are far less likely to freeze when challenging moments come up.

Your Hosts:

• Beth Allison, Camp Consultant - Go Camp Pro
• Gabrielle Raill, Camp Director - Camp Ouareau
• Ruby Compton, Chief Exploration Officer - Ruby Outdoors

Thanks to our sponsor…

UltraCamp

Imagine camp registration software that actually gives you MORE time for what you love - CAMP! With UltraCamp, you can effortlessly track attendance, manage staff, streamline registration, and more. Explore now at ultracampmanagemnent.com/campcode.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

What happens when a camper melts down, two kids start arguing, and the schedule falls apart, all at the same time? Too often counselors freeze, not because they don't care, but because problem solving under pressure is a skill most staff have never been taught. In this episode of Camp Code, we share practical ways to teach counselors how to think clearly in tough moments, including experiential training activities that help staff practice. If you want staff who stay calm, thoughtful, and capable when camp life gets messy, this episode is for you. Running camp should be about people, not paperwork. Ultracamp helps you manage staff, registration, and communication in one place, so you spend less time on tasks and more on camp. Find out more at ultracampmanagement.com slash campcoat. Welcome to Camp Code, a podcast brought to you by GoCamp Pro. We've been podcasting now for 12 seasons and we're just getting started, just kind of scratching the surface. So we're here ready to discuss new challenges, new ways of handling situations, new advice from those doing the work, and new ideas to help us all do our jobs better. So welcome everyone to another episode of Camp Code. It's just Gabs and me today. As always, before we get to the discussion, we'll begin with our introductions. Gabrielle.

SPEAKER_02 1:32

Hey team. My name is Gabs. I go by she, her, L, and I work at Camp Warro. Camp Warro is an all-girls camp. And we practice creating a positive environment for girls and gender minorities, and we do that in French and English.

SPEAKER_01 1:45

Nancy fancy. So fancy. And I'm Beth Allison, co-owner of Camp Hacker and Go Camp Pro. My pronouns are she, her, and I am a camp consultant, trainer, and author. We have always wanted our podcast to be useful to camp professionals who care deeply about building thoughtful staff, strong camp cultures, and leadership that actually works in the messy, real moments of camp life. Today we're talking about something that every camp leader has seen happen. A camper starts crying in the middle of an activity, or two campers are in a conflict in the tent, or the schedule collapses because of weather, or somebody says something hurtful at the lunch table and the counselor just freezes. Maybe they look around for a supervisor, maybe they say nothing, maybe they react too quickly and escalate the situation. And when that happens, it's really easy for directors to think, why didn't they just handle it? But here is the truth: problem solving under pressure is not a personality trait, it is a skill. And most of our staff have never actually been taught how to do it. Many of them have spent their lives in environments where adults solve the problems for them, or where mistakes were punished so harshly that they learned it was safer not to act at all. So when a complicated moment shows up at camp, their brain does exactly what brains do under pressure. It freezes, it panics, or it rushes to react. And that's why staff training can't just teach policies or procedures. We have to teach staff how to think in real time. So today, Gabs and I want to share some practical ways you can help staff learn how to solve problems under pressure, and more important, how to teach these skills in experiential ways during staff training. Because staff don't learn this from lectures, they learn it from practice. So, Gabrielle, I'll go first, shall I? I love that. All right. So I have in the course of this episode six steps that I'm going to share. So here are my first two. One is to teach the 10-second pause. And this first skill is incredibly simple, but it's incredibly powerful. So teach staff to pause. When something unexpected happens, the brain wants to react instantly. But the most effective counselors take a moment, like just 10 seconds, to gather information. So that pause creates space for observation. It allows the counselor to ask, what's actually happening here? Who needs support right now? What might be the safest next step? And without that pause, people often jump straight into fixing the wrong problem. So during staff training, one way to teach this is through a simple experiential activity that is called the balloon emergency. So you can give each small group of staff a balloon and tell them their job is to keep it from touching the ground. And then, of course, start introducing chaos. So as you're doing this, maybe you got some fun music in the background. You know, me always like to have music with my sessions, but maybe one person can't use their hands anymore. Or maybe you turn the music up too loudly. Maybe you introduce a second balloon. Maybe you start giving really confusing instructions. And everything becomes really chaotic very quickly. So after a minute or so, stop the exercise and ask them what helped them succeed. And almost always somebody will say something like, We had to slow down and communicate. And that is your opening. You explain that in real camp life, the balloon represents the camper's emotions. When something is escalating, counselors often just react too quickly instead of pausing to think. And the pause doesn't make you slow, it actually helps you make better decisions faster. And my second one is train staff to notice before solving. So one of the biggest mistakes that new counselors make is jumping straight to solutions. But great problem solvers always notice first. And Gab and I did a whole podcast on how to teach staff to notice. So you can go back and listen to it if you like. But they observe body language, they notice tone of voice, they see the camper who isn't speaking. So the second skill that we want to teach is intentional observation. An activity that works really well for this is the observation challenge. So during training, you stage a short scene with trainers or returning staff who've maybe done this a few times. And maybe two of them are campers who are arguing. Someone else is sitting quietly apart. Another person is trying to joke their way out of the tension. And then you stop the scene and ask staff to write down everything they noticed, not what they think is happening, just what they noticed. And this is where it gets fascinating. Half the room notices the argument, but very few notice the quiet camper in the corner, which leads to an important realization the loudest problem in a room is not always the most important one. So when counselors learn to slow down and observe, their responses become much more thoughtful. Gabrielle, we'll turn to you for your brilliance.

SPEAKER_02 6:48

I I love, I really love this. I'm gonna bring back a camp or oldie, but it is a goodie, and it is it is exactly why myself and my teammate Natasha Nardoza created SAS, which is stop what you're doing, approach appropriately, speak kindly. And it's exactly for the reason of how everybody's raised in a different way at home, at school, culturally, and it's setting a clear expectation of what we want our staff to do in an intervention type way. And that could be asking a camper to listen uh to the instructions, to maybe a camper doing a dangerous behavior, or a couple of campers getting into a heated argument. First and foremost, the stop, I have to give credit to Michael Branwine. It's something I learned in one of his sessions. But kids pay attention to body language, and we benefit from stopping what we're doing. So we're not multitasking at that moment. So if you are writing something down, you put your pen down. If you're talking to somebody, you turn your body pro politely away from them, but you stop what you're doing, you give your attention to that camper, and then you approach appropriately. And appropriately is really about the environment around you and the safety of the child. So if it's a couple of kids that are talking during, I don't know, a game instruction and you want them to, you're a staff member sort of in the back and you see the two talking, you don't want to draw attention to those two campers that are talking. They're probably seniors that just have heard these instructions before, but you approach in a way that doesn't draw attention to that behavior. Whereas if it's a camper that is about to do something dangerous, you might decide to go a little bit quicker and faster. And then speak kindly is because during stressful situations, our tone can be sharp, our tone can be unkind, even if it's not meant to be. It's stress, it's a stress response. But saying please and thank you and making sure that there's a kind tone, even in an emergency situation, will really, really help with post that experience, especially if there's an argument or frustration or or whatever's happening, happening. But it's it's almost a first aids way of looking at dealing with stress or issues. And this is also the same if you have an upset parent. You stop what you're doing, your body is appropriate to that person, and you're speaking kindly and listening. So it's just a framework that we use, but it's to help typically staff in stressful situations.

SPEAKER_01 9:22

Love it. I've used SAS for years. Yeah, because of you. All right. Thanks, Gab. We are now going to take a moment to hear from our brilliant sponsors. For Camp Code listeners, unlock UltraCamp's operations checklist for new directors, a free download to help you prepare for a smooth season. Find it at ultracampmanagement.com slash campcode. Running camp comes with countless moving parts. Ultracamp helps you stay on top of them. Organize activities and daily schedules, manage wait lists and cabin assignments, automate billing and payments, centralize all camper and staff info in one place. With UltraCamp, camp operations run smoother so directors can lead with confidence. Book your free customized demo at ultracampmanagement.com slash campcode. All right, we are back and we're talking about how to help staff react under pressure in the best possible way. So my third step would be to teach the smallest helpful action. One of the reasons staff freeze under pressure is that they think they have to solve the entire situation immediately. But I think experienced counselors know something a little bit different. You rarely solve the whole problem at once. Instead, you take the smallest helpful action. So maybe you separate two campers who are arguing. Maybe you sit next to the camper who looks overwhelmed. Maybe you redirect the group to buy yourself a little bit of time. Small actions reduce chaos. And once chaos is reduced, thinking becomes easier. And a great way to teach this is with an activity called the overwhelming scenario game. So you give each group of staff a complicated camp situation. So something like three campers refuse to swim, one camper is crying about missing home, another one of your campers is trying to convince everyone to break the rules and sneak out to the dock. So at first, you ask them to list, ask the staff to list all the possible ways they could solve the situation. And this list usually becomes enormous. Then you just ask a new question. What is the smallest helpful action you could take first? That shift is thinking in thinking is really powerful because staff realize that they don't have to solve everything immediately. They just have to move the situation in a better direction. And number four for me would be to build the habit of asking good questions. So another habit that improves problem solving dramatically is asking questions instead of making assumptions. And that's all part of SAS. But under pressure, many counselors jump into telling. Stop that. Go over there. You need to apologize to each other. But questions slow the situations down and help counselors understand what's actually happening. And the way to practice this at training is with the question-only challenge. So pair staff up. One person describes a challenging camper scenario, and the other one is only allowed to respond with questions. No advice, no solutions, just questions. And at first it feels incredibly awkward, but then people start asking things like, well, what happened right before that? Or how are they feeling? Or what do they need right now? And suddenly the question becomes much clearer. Questions turn problem solving into a conversation instead of a confrontation. Gabrielle, what more brilliance do you have to share?

SPEAKER_02 12:50

Thanks. I I really love those two. I'm gonna, I'm gonna go back to an old to to one of my swim instructors that did my pool NLS. And she was, like many swim instructors, extremely intimidating. And as, you know, as pool people should be, they're they're in charge of you know prevention and and you know, people getting hurt. One of the things that she would do when we would do first aid or any anything really that we would do in in in our first aid course or or our lifeguarding course would be she would say, Are you sure? And you would answer, I would answer, I would say, and a lot of people my age would answer, like, yeah, I think that's what I'm supposed to do. And then she'd just walk away. She'd say, Call me when you're when you're sure. And then I come back and I'd be like, No, well, this is how I I need to do it. And she's well, are you sure? And then I I needed to answer with confidence. I won't say I'm I'm as intense as this the swim instructor was, but I do think it's important to, in certain moments, uh, when we're doing scenarios and staff are on the right path, ask them if they are sure. And when they sort of answer with a wavery voice, ask them again, are you sure? Why? And if they say yes, I'm sure, it's like, excellent, that was great. You are sure. You you're doing it right. And I think a lot of the time staff members, especially with not so much experience, they question themselves even when what they're doing is excellent. And sometimes you have to push them on the question, that little questioning bit in your in their mind, and then say, Yes, you actually you nailed it, but I need to hear from you. Yep, I am sure. This is why. And if you're giving them a framework like SAS, or you're giving them a framework like Beth is bringing up, you can always refer back to that framework, but building their confidence and and not just saying, good job, well done, but getting them to be to say to you, the the director, this is how I would do it, and they can back it up is a is a very good building tool in my own personal experience.

SPEAKER_01 14:52

Love that. All right, I have two more, but I'm only gonna give you one and I'm saving one for best foods. So he's bad. Practice making imperfect decisions. So many staff freeze because they're afraid of making the wrong choice. They want that perfect answer, but camp leadership is not about perfect decisions, it's about thoughtful decisions made in real time. So a great exercise for that is the rapid decision drill. You read a scenario, and then counselors have five seconds to decide what they would do. Five. That's it. Not enough time to overthink it. And then you ask them to explain their reasoning. So, what this does is it normalizes the reality that leadership often means acting with comp incomplete information. And the goal is not perfection, the goal is good judgment combined with care for the campers. So I'll save the other one for after. Gab, have you got one more?

SPEAKER_02 15:51

I do. Excellent. I think, I think again, it's back to like first aid stuff. And I think sometimes staff members think that they need to figure out the entire solution. They need to do the entire thing. And really what we're trying to get do is when staff members are intervening, they're either trying to, you know, prevent harm from happening or disruption from happening. And we don't need to go beyond that. We don't need to have a serious conversation, we don't need to, we're it's mostly shifting energy, and that's what we're doing. And so when we're keeping that goal in mind, it's like if somebody, you know, you know, it happens at camp, somebody maybe like sprains their wrists or, you know, breaks a bone, you're not there to reset the bone. You're not there to even wrap the wrist when it's you just on site. The goal is to keep the kid stable, calm, and wait for the healthcare professional to show up if that's your policy at your camp. So letting staff members know what the next step is and what the expectation is in any of these situations is that we're not, and I think that's where they freeze, is that they think they have to do all of the things. No, we're just redirecting energy until somebody comes and helps out, until you, you know, get a little, but you're keeping people safe and maybe redirecting energy and keeping that bar very clear for them so that they're they're not overthinking their steps.

SPEAKER_01 17:14

Perfect. You see why Gabs and I work so well together. All right, let's hear from the brilliant recap lady. Recap recap.

SPEAKER_02 17:23

Re-cap. Okay, well, what I really loved, Beth, was your your 10-second pause, your look, and then smallest helpful actions. The way I hear this is really like take the 10 seconds for yourself, center yourself, then look, and then what is the smallest action that you can make in this moment to have an impact? And for me, that is such a clear way and something that's not so stressful when you're dealing with a stressful situation. A lot of the time, stressful situations in our staff members' minds is that what happens if a barricade shows up on camp. Most camps, this is a very unlikely situation to happen, but they're thinking of worst-case scenarios. So by breaking it down, you're really helping with gearing down that anxiety. Second of all, people have different aptitudes. Some people are great in emergencies, some people aren't. So giving them a framework like SAS for everybody to have an even playing field on what we're expecting from them is going to be really, really important. And then, of course, we just want to build confidence within the team. So practicing this in scenario based, getting feedback and getting that positive feedback from other staff members through experiential exercises is going to get them prepared for the summer.

SPEAKER_01 18:36

Great. Thank you so much, as always. And you can tell us any of your thoughts on this episode or any others. You can let us know topics you'd like us to discuss or any guests that you recommend we have on the show and any any great leadership training tips you have to share. We would love to hear from you. And if you've got a moment, we'd love a review or a rating of our podcast on your podcasting app. And Gabrielle, how can they get a hold of you?

SPEAKER_02 19:03

They can get a hold of me at info at world.com and they can check out where I work at war.com o-u-a-re-a-u.

SPEAKER_01 19:11

Thank you. My email is Beth at GoCamp.pro, and you can also find me on threads at topaz underscore fayfa. And for our next podcast, we're actually going to talk about something that somebody wrote in and asked us to talk about. So we're going to be talking about teaching staff how to be professionals. And this week's best practice is surprise, is from me. Okay. So normalize asking for help. The final skill that we have to teach is knowing when to get support. And many new counselors think asking for help means that they failed. But experienced leaders know something different. Good judgment includes knowing when a situation needs more support. So during training, you can practice this with an exercise called the helpline. So create a line across the floor with three zones. Handle it yourself is one zone. Ask a counselor for support is another zone. And call a supervisor or leadership team member immediately is the third zone. And then read different camp scenarios and ask staff to physically stand where they think the situation belongs. And what makes this powerful is the discussion that follows. So staff begin to see how other people evaluate risk and responsibility. And it sends a really important message. At camp, asking for help is not weakness, it's good leadership. If you step back and look at sort of those six skills that I was talking about and put them together, you will notice something important. We are not teaching staff to have all the answers. We're teaching them a thinking process. Pause, notice, take a small helpful action, ask questions, make a thoughtful decision, get support when needed. It's a leadership framework that they can use again and again. Mine's a little bit longer than Gab's, but who's shocked about that? And if you're listening and thinking about your own staff training, here are some other questions for you to consider. Where do your staff get to practice thinking under pressure? Where do they get to try things, make mistakes, and learn? Because lectures about leadership don't build confidence. Practice does. We talked about that in our last episode. And when staff have practiced these skills during training, something remarkable happens during the summer. When the hard moments arrive, and they always do, staff don't freeze. They pause, they notice, they take that first helpful step. So thank you for listening to Camp Code. If this episode sparked any ideas for your staff training, why don't you share it with another camp leader who's thinking about how to prepare better with their team? And if you try any of these activities with your staff this summer, we'd love to hear how they go. Because the goal isn't perfection. The goal is counselors who are thoughtful, observant, and ready to respond when real camp life happens. Camp Code is part of the GoCamp Pro Podcast Network, and you can check out all our other podcasts at gocamp.propodcasts. Thank you so much for joining us. Today, and if you have questions or want us to dive deeper into any part of this, please reach out. We're here to help you create the best staff training possible. So until next time, this is where we're building camps where staff feel confident, supported, and ready for the moments that matter most. Thanks for the listening, friends.

SPEAKER_00 22:16

Please remember, no other industry shares their best practices the way summer camps do. If you use an idea you heard on a GoCamp Pro podcast, please be professional and remember to give credit where credit is due. The Camp Code is brought to you by GoCamp Pro. Thanks for listening, friends.

SPEAKER_01 22:36

Camp Hacker.