PowerBlog Review: Notes from the World of Anger Management

Editor's note: We're back once again with the sixty-seventh in our regular weekly series of PowerBlog Reviews of business weblogs. This week's review is being guest-blogged by Lynne Meyer. Lynne Meyer, APR, is president of A Way with Words.


By Lynne Meyer

Today we review Notes from the World of Anger Management.

Bet you're asking yourself "What in the world does anger management have to do with small business?"

Plenty, according to anger management expert George Anderson, who's president of global anger management training company Anderson & Anderson and a Diplomate of the American Association of Anger Management Providers (AAAMP). In addition to his impressive professional credentials, George also recently had a gig in popular culture. He was the technical consultant on the Sony Pictures movie "Anger Management," starring Jack Nicholson.

The contents and links George uses with his blog demonstrate many value-added techniques bloggers can incorporate in their own blogs.

He explains that his blog is designed "to promote professional anger management research, intervention, news and anger management provider information." George links his blog to both his own business's web site and that of the AAAMP.

In addition, the blog highlights and includes links to news articles on anger and anger management. The links are provided to educate readers about how anger is a significant problem in the workplace, schools, the criminal justice system, sports leadership and even politics.

Here's something that readers of this blog will find interesting and that can work for any field. In the March 23 post, he describes "A Typical Day in An Anger Management Practice." This is an excellent technique to illustrate what a particular field like anger management is all about, and it also personalizes the blog a bit giving us real life examples.

The postings also demonstrate how a blog can be used to take a stand on important policy issues and shape public debate on a subject. An example of this is the April 29 posting, "An Open Letter to Mental Health Clinicians." George points out that anger management is a legitimate discipline that should play an important role in society and needs to be included on multiple fronts, including the military, with soldiers returning from Iraq, and school yard bullies. This aspect of his blog nicely complements the work of AAAMP in this area.

Additional techniques George employs are reporting on trends and giving real-world examples. In his May 4 posting titled "Trends in Anger Management," he notes that there's a growing trend of more small businesses requesting anger management training for their staff:

"Some of our recent small business cases include a pediatric medical practice that referred an office manager. An animal clinic sent a technician, and we received a request for executive coaching for an important Neurologist whose bedside manner was problematic."

While the field of anger management may not be mainstream yet -- and is even somewhat misunderstood -- with the blog George is tackling the challenge of educating people and elevating awareness that this field exists, that it has applications in many settings and that it is has an important place in our world. Notes from the World of Anger Management is truly a purpose-driven blog.