text: Chapter 3
  3-44. Trying to manage complex situations with a diverse team of individuals with ambiguously defined
  roles and responsibilities—from different organizations with varying organizational goals and priorities—
  can be challenging and frustrating. Under these circumstances, regulating one’s emotions plays an
  important role in effective interagency interactions. This is because unchecked emotions may interfere with
  the formation of accurate impressions and hinder effective communication.
  3-45. Key strategies for managing one’s emotions include—
  * Reframing.
  * Acting as if.
  * Physiological regulation.
  3-46. Reframing is the ability to deliberately change one’s understanding of the situation by stepping back
  and looking at it from another angle. A person can imagine watching a situation as a spectator, for example,
  and gain new insights.
  3-47. Acting as if refers to determining what emotional response a situation calls for, considering the social
  norms, and regulating one’s emotions appropriately as if playing a role. For example, a person can imagine
  someone known to remain calm and cool under pressure, and behave as that person.
  3-48. Physiological regulation involves deliberate physical actions that interrupt natural and immediate
  reactions to emotions. The brain produces predictable changes in the body (physiological changes) in
  reaction to certain stresses. Individuals may be able to regulate such changes by taking slow deep breaths,
  taking a drink of water, or taking one’s glasses off and putting them back on.
  3-49. In addition to assessing themselves, Soldiers should also assess others by gathering information
  regarding the person with whom they are interacting. As part of assessing others, Soldiers establish the
  person’s normal baseline behavior in different situations. The Soldier then watches for fluctuations in that
  baseline behavior. Often the presence of change may indicate something important is triggering the
  behavior shift. For example, a Soldier would need to analyze a situation in which a normally reserved
  notional interagency partner suddenly becomes very vocal during discussions of security measures for an
  upcoming district election. Such a change in the partner’s behavior should trigger Soldiers to gather more
  information on the situation and to understand the motivations for the partner’s change in behavior.
  3-50. When assessing others’ behavior, Soldiers should also examine the physical space between
  individuals. Culture, behaviors, and society affect the amount of space individuals permit. Two common
  uses of space include the use of closeness and space consumption. Generally, when people are physically
  closer to each other, it means that they like each other or feel positive about how the interaction is going.
  Further, when an individual takes up more space, this often signals comfort, dominance, or both. Therefore,
  the use of space is a simple clue to a person’s general feelings towards others, even if the verbal message
  seems unclear or even questionable.
  3-51. Soldiers should also watch for other nonverbal behaviors, such as showing stress. Since stress often
  produces a physical reaction, many people try to block the stress they feel (perhaps by squinting their eyes
  or crossing their arms in front of their body). Other individuals manage feelings of stress by engaging in
  pacifying behavior (such as rubbing one’s neck, cracking knuckles, or playing with jewelry or ties). Lastly,
  Soldiers should try to observe people’s facial expressions (such as raised or furrowed eyebrows).
  3-52. After Soldiers assess themselves and others, they need to assess the situation. Specifically, Soldiers
  determine what cultural and contextual information likely is influencing the person’s actions and motives.
  Soldiers use the information gained from assessing the speaker and the situation to create guesses about
  reasons for the person’s behavior. They develop and take a course of action based on the hypotheses
  generated.
  3-53. Because accurate perspective taking is a continuous learning process, Soldiers continually gather
  more information to help refine and prioritize their hypotheses. By taking steps to increase perspective
  taking accuracy, Soldiers lay the foundation for successful interagency relationships.