When I was a telecoms account manager, I learned a sales technique called LAST. It was used to retain disgruntled customers who wanted to take their services away from our company.

It was really successful: account managers who used this technique had a 70 per cent higher retention rate than those who didn’t. It was great at helping to calm and soothe people who have felt as though they were “emotionally hijacked”. 

When I left my job in sales and became a teacher, I took LAST with me. And today, it’s still an invaluable tool in my teaching (and management) toolkit. Whether it’s dealing with belligerent teenagers after a classroom fight or handling a difficult situation with a member of staff, LAST helps the conversations to become productive, effective and congenial.

More on behaviour:

• How to help teaching assistants handle poor behaviour

• What do we mean by ‘challenging behaviour’?

• Behaviour management: the science behind Slant

So how does it work? There are four parts which must be done in order.

The LAST system for handling challenging behaviour in schools

Listen 

The first stage is about listening to understand, rather than to speak. The more upset the person is, the more you must listen. Use the ears-to-mouth ratio: listen twice as much as you talk. In this phase you are gathering the facts and establishing who needs to be involved. 

Another technique you can use is “mirroring” the other person: simply repeat a couple of words that the other person has said, often as a question. For example, if the students says, “I hate my English lessons and I am sick of this school,” you would repeat “You’re sick of school?” The act of mirroring builds rapport and forces them to reconnect with the neocortex (the thinking part of the brain) that helps them to calm down. 

Acknowledge 

In sales we are taught that acknowledging the problem is halfway to solving it. Even if the problem or crisis is nothing to do with you, acknowledge what the person has said and, where appropriate, apologise for what they are going through. 

If you are successful and your student feels that you are empathising with their point of view, they will start to calm down. They may even apologise to you - when this happens, it’s a sign that their nervous system is coming out of fight or flight. Label emotions using “it” statements; for example: “It seems like you are really upset.” This helps the other person zero in on how they feel and process it quicker, leaving them in a calmer state.

Send or solve 

Now it’s time to solve the problem. One of the key lessons from my customer service days was that while you cannot always provide a solution, you can provide a resolution.

In simple terms, your student may not get exactly what they want, but it’s our job to find a suitable alternative or use the moment as an opportunity for both the student and the teacher to learn how to avoid this situation again.

Never leave a situation hanging. Where possible, address all the elephants in the room. If this situation cannot be solved by you alone, then send/signpost the student to the correct person/resource. If possible, follow your “send” up to make sure that they are getting the help they need.

Thank 

If you have done the first three parts successfully, you will have to come to a better place than where you first started. The last step is a nice way to end the communication.

You need to acknowledge what has occurred between the two of you and hopefully this will give you the tools to have more positive interactions. In our day-to-day lives, the negative responses we get from people outnumber the positive ones. When we bump into people, they are more likely to swear at us than apologise. 

We were taught that for some customers our “thank you” might be the only one that they would hear throughout the day. It displays common courtesy and teaches your student to do the same. 

Karl Pupé is a qualified classroom teacher, and the author of The Action Hero Teacher: Classroom Management Made Simple