Lance Burdett is a renowned expert in crisis negotiation, resilience, and mental health advocacy. Over a distinguished 13-year career as a crisis negotiator, he served as the National Advisor for the New Zealand Police Negotiation Teams. He achieved international recognition by qualifying as a negotiator in three jurisdictions, including the FBI, and played pivotal roles in high-profile incidents such as the Napier Siege and the Paremoremo prison hostage crisis. Lance’s enduring focus on suicide intervention and prevention remains at the heart of his expertise.
In 1999, Lance faced his own battle with depression, brought on by burnout. Determined to understand and overcome the pressures of modern life, he embarked on a journey of study and personal development. This transformative experience became the foundation of his work in helping others manage stress, pressure, and mental health challenges.
Lance has shared his insights through his bestselling books. His debut, Behind the Tape: Life on the Police Frontline, was prominently featured on TVNZ’s Sunday. His second book, Dark Side of the Brain, released in 2020, quickly achieved bestseller status, and in 2024, he published Anxiety is a Worry, further cementing his place as a leading voice on mental health and resilience.
With a Master of Arts degree, a Graduate Diploma in Business Studies, and a Diploma in Policing, Lance combines academic rigor with real-world experience. He is also pursuing a Diploma in Positive Psychology and Wellbeing, showcasing his commitment to continuous learning. Through his remarkable career, Lance has become a trusted authority on how to navigate life’s challenges with resilience and balance.
Talking Points
Coping Skills to Support Wellbeing
Understanding our brain – With a negativity bias, up to 80% of our memory contains bad memories which increases the effects of fight-flight-freeze and leads us to worry & catastrophise. Talking, reading, and writing overcomes this automatic process.Coping Skills to Support Wellbeing
The impact of increasing changes – Managing uncertainty by focusing on our basics.
Regaining control – Actions to stay focussed structure our day.
Overcoming emotional events – Eliminating the accumulation of adverse events.
Managing unwanted thoughts – Getting curious with our thoughts reduces their impact.
Handling change – Reducing the restrictive behaviours of change and building new patterns.
Develop a growth mindset – Our mind is not fixed; it runs in patterns dependent on our experiences. Identifying our mindset makes us adaptable, flexible and motivates us.
Debriefing negative events – three progressive methods to reduce the impact.
Writing exercises – A range of practical written exercises including the balance wheel, the strength exercise, learned optimism, goal setting and examining the positives.
Managing personal stress – Tips on how to boost energy and self-motivate, to switch off after a busy day, to motivate us through mundane tasks and to get a full night’s sleep.
Advanced Mind Health First Aid/Crisis Intervention
Understand how the brain processes negative information.Advanced Mind Health First Aid/Crisis Intervention
Identifying the common signs that someone is struggling with their mind (mental) health.
Dispelling myths – Learn the facts around crisis communication and intervention.
Communication techniques to swiftly engage and reassure the person.
Non-clinical crisis intervention strategies to effectively engage and avoid confrontation.
Using the hook to lift their emotions then how to identify and avoid the trigger.
Positive non-verbal skills to calm the person.
An open discussion on the experience of the facilitator (Lance) with the experiences of those in the room.
Managing personal stress – Introducing supportive techniques following the intervention including a positive debrief, self-aware of unwanted behaviours and effective sleep techniques.
Promoting Teambuilding Skills – S.E.L.F.
Self-awareness: - your ability to perceive and understand the things that make you who you are.Promoting Teambuilding Skills – S.E.L.F.
• The elements of self-awareness – understanding your behaviour and self-reflection.
• Identifying triggers – what are your triggers and how to successfully manage them.
• Changing our mindset – why we react according to the behaviour of others.
• Self-awareness – ways to maintain self-awareness while at work.
Values, Ethics & Biases: - our moral principles and standards of behaviour.
• Identifying your values – what are your core values and how they affect relationships.
• Understanding biases – How our biases are formed, how they impact on our ability to learn, and how to change them.
Learning: - self-development comes through continuous learning.
• How do we learn – examining how each of us learns differently.
• Learning through continuous improvement – reviewing our day to improve our tomorrow.
Fun: - improve motivation by challenging ourselves.
• Change one thing – what single thing can you do to improve your work.
• Enjoyment – what can you do each day to make work more fun for you, one thing for your colleagues and one thing for your customers.
Managing Workplace Change
Learn why change can be uncomfortable – Why we like to run in patterns, identify how we are limited in our thinking, how fear holds us back, and the importance of taking positive action.Managing Workplace Change
Workplace culture – How workplace culture is formed and linking it back to organisational values for positive change.
Understanding biases – How our biases are formed, how they impact on our ability to learn, and how to change them.
Developing a flexible mindset – How small achievements encourage flexibility and motivation.
Overcoming common hurdles – multi-tasking & procrastination often go together with ongoing change.
The ‘Triple P©’ model – Bringing an independent perspective by examining three dimensions; Personal, Pervasive, and Permanence.
Learning your learning style – Understand your learning style and how that impacts on your ability to learn new things.
Using dopamine to learn and grow – Dopamine (neurotransmitter) is how we learn, understanding how to regulate your dopamine to enhance the ability to learn and change patterns of behaviour.
Enhancing mundane tasks – how to enhance mundane tasks to make them become motivational.
Teamwork – using the support of others when needed.
How to move forward – Recovering from a setback in the workplace.
Motivating through change – Strategies to make change easier, to become more flexible, and to self-motivate through the challenges.
Leadership Skills for Managing Staff Through Challenges
Understanding human behaviour – The greatest leaders have one thing in common, they understand people and their emotions.Leadership Skills for Managing Staff Through Challenges
Contemporary communications – Words are now inclusive, less blunt, and said in a way to engage and motivate.
Negotiating the challenges – tips and techniques used by crisis negotiators to influence people in a variety of situations.
De-escalation techniques – Quickly de-escalate and engage with those who unexpectedly cry, become angry, or use aggression.
Advanced communication techniques:
o Triple A© - reduce heightened emotions.
o Triple Sentence© - deliver a difficult message.
o Triple Request© - direct someone who is not responding.
Dealing with people who face their own challenges – Whether impaired by alcohol, drugs, neural diversity, or those who just will not give up (zealots, fixated, recidivist complainers, etc.)
Managing those who are mentally struggling – Identify the signs that someone in your organisation is struggling with negative thoughts including suicidal ideations, what to say and where to say it to maximise engagement, and who to refer people to for support. ‘Shake and take.’
Debriefing incidents – Running a positive debrief.
Managing personal stress – Minimising the impact on yourself from the difficult conversation, the importance of speaking with others, and tools to remain buoyant.
Managing Challenging Customers
Why emotions heighten – How certain situations cause intense emotional reactions in ourselves and those we are speaking with.Managing Challenging Customers
Engagement techniques – Simple statements to engage with those who might unexpectedly cry, express anger, or verbalise aggression.
Advanced communication skills:
o Triple A© - Agree, Acknowledge & Assure to de-escalate those angered.
o Triple Sentence© - Negative, Neutral, Positive to deliver a difficult message.
o ‘I’-Message – I feel…, when you…, because…, for the aggressive.
o Triple Request© - Three warnings of caution to someone not responding.
Managing the most difficult callers – simple techniques when speaking with those with neurodiversity, the vulnerable, those talking in circles, or ending a lengthy conversation.
Managing threats – How to safely manage those threatening self-harm or harm to others.
Overcoming emotional dissonance – Reducing the impact when asked to behave in a polite manner that is counter to our natural response, and to limit emotion fatigue.
Managing personal stress – Practical techniques to mitigate the impact of challenging conversations, to motivate, and to stay alert. Plus, how to forget about work once finished, and the importance of exercise, socialisation, and sleep.
Advanced Communications & Personal Safety for Front-of-House
Understand human behaviour – Why emotions become intensified, the physiological & psychological aspects of challenging situations, and how to swiftly reduce tension.Advanced Communications & Personal Safety for Front-of-House
Communicating to engage – Advanced skills specific for the most challenging conversations, using voice and tone to affect behavioural change, controlling the venting process, and accurately recounting what was said.
Reading and using body language – techniques to predict and reduce inappropriate behaviour.
Engagement techniques – Simple statements to engage with those who might unexpectedly cry, express anger, or verbalise aggression.
Advanced communications – The Triple A©, Triple Sentence©, I-Message, and Triple Request© techniques.
Emergency response workshop – Identify actions to take in a variety of situations.
First responder – Listing the actions of the first responder when assisting colleagues.
Managing personal stress – Practical techniques to mitigate the impact of challenging events, staying alert, and the requirement of a debrief.
Video
Lance Burdett | Warn International Promo Video
Audio
We had great feedback from our ladies who all got something out of the talk especially around breathing techniques. So thank you, an awesome speaker lots of energy. ... keep reading Dairy Women's Network
I really enjoyed the course today. I can't remember when I have smiled so much on a course so that's a good sign!
I just wanted to drop you a quick note to say thank you very much for your efforts yesterday. I've spent the day today checking in with most of those who attended and I can report back that without exception everyone really enjoyed the day and had their own key takeaways. I look forward to catching up again soon.
I wanted to pass on to you the positive feedback we've been receiving, many staff have been stopping me and others in the organising team to say how they enjoyed it, how relevant it was, engaging. Someone else said they'd like you to come back and go into one of the topics in more depth.'
