Innovation: Accelerate to "New"...

Remember the anticipation you had in your heart and mind at the beginning of your first year in college. Or the first day of that new job you had been seeking for months. Or that day your first child was born.

The anticipation of a next phase of your life that you had so much adrenaline or hope on your mind you couldn’t sleep thinking about it.

You see, discovering and experiencing “New” learning, “New’ opportunities, “New” challenges, “New” solutions and “New” insights is holy.

Before you were able to innovate and to accomplish the next anticipated change in your life, you were naive. You have learned to stay alive as you navigate your way across America and towards “New”.

As you join that next organizational phase to learn, to work or to care for others you realize you must continuously innovate:

Staying Alive While Creating Innovation

Key Takeaways

• Innovation is anything that helps your organization accomplish its mission, from small improvements to processes or policies to successful moon shots.
• To develop an innovative culture, you must be an agent of change.
• Creating innovation isn’t about new ways of doing work, it is about the outcomes, results and mission impact of those efforts.
• Speed is a fundamental change often needed to achieve significant results.
• A strategic approach is best, whether creating an innovative organization or developing innovative approaches to assist your organization.

Page 9 - Creating Innovation Navigators - Achieving Mission Through Innovation - Author, Sabra Horne

After you graduated from college, or were terminated from your job or celebrated your first child’s first birthday you had become more innovative.

You are well on your way to that next step, next opportunity or next life commitment with the wisdom you need.

The question now may be whether you have the right resources and the right team to accomplish the mission.

"How will you accelerate your activities so that you will discover whether your resources and your people are correct for your particular mission?"

Become an “Innovation Navigator” sixteen hours a day. Wake up early. Accelerate. Nourish your mind and body. Sleep eight hours a day. Repeat…

Future Risk: What is True...

On the dawn before the next large public gathering across the world, Operational Risk Management (ORM) professionals are on edge.  Readiness and contingencies are at their highest level in anticipation of any globally televised event.

The same crisis management environment exists four or more times a year within the confines of the Board Room and Executive suite.

Operating at the "Speed of Business" and effectively managing daily, weekly, and quarterly risk management tasks requires an adaptive and resilient culture.  A culture that has been born and evolved from its Genesis to a daily run rate based upon two main components.

• Trust is the first one and to many a given in any high performing environment.  To be able to trust the person to your left and to your right requires many tests.  It builds over time yet it must start with the right elements and be nurtured for it to flourish.

• The second component is far more complex.  It requires you to embark on a continuous discipline with yourself and the people to your left and right, to know "What is True."

"What is True" means one set of reality for you and perhaps something different for those around you.  Your mission is to get to a single version and reality of what is true faster than your competition, your adversary or your partner.  Survival will be a factor of your speed to understanding as a team, "What is True" and then your adaptive nature to the consequences of your actions.

Are you accountable for your outcomes?  Have you accepted the consequences of your behavior?  So what does all of this have to do with Operational Risk Management?  It has everything to do with it. The most high consequence event to any risk matrix, is the fact that people do not see themselves or others in a "True" perspective.  They are not operating in reality.

What is your willingness to bring current problems to everyone to dissect, understand and solve?  Those who continue to operate without a proactive problem-solving environment are headed towards disaster.  Surprises.  Being blind-sided.  Never saw it coming.

When you hear people saying these things.  You have someone who has not been proactive in the continuous identification of problems and communicating those problems to the team to be solved.

You see, leadership is about continuously testing, designing and improving the process or the product.  The thinkers and the doers, the blueprint and the construction, the designers and the operators must be in a synchronous harmony together.

Ask yourself; how is this movie unfolding compared to the script that was written?  How has the change and the rate of change had consequences?  What have I and my team done to adapt, by changing the design or the people to achieve the mission? 

The "Speed of Business" is the environment and the successful outcome we all seek and is captured in three words.  "What is True."

operational risk

Onward Together: Teams Navigation...

Before you were wise, you just acted out from pure thoughtlessness. You tried to fix situations without truly understanding the problem-set.

At some point in your life long experiences you might read a passage or paragraph in a book or online. Perhaps it is in a room where you are listening to someone preach, or a guest speaker for an event you are attending.

Then the feeling starts to come over you. You are thinking about what you have just encountered and now you start to wonder. Your mind is asking more questions.

After this encounter and as you say to yourself I belong here, in this place with these people, you are on your way to new insights.

As you begin your journey towards new problem-sets to create solutions that will benefit others you care about, you will then start to believe in your direction.

You will be listening and questioning. Over and Over. You will then create a test to determine if your hypothesis is clear.

You will be testing and observing. Over and Over. You will then adapt and change your solution to ensure it is even more reliable. You are an "Innovation Navigator"...

"Reliable in different places. Reliable in different situations. Reliable with different people using your prototype solution."

So what?

After you have talked to enough people you belong with and then you believe that you have the correct solution, then you shall discover the real change in behavior.

As you continue to navigate your life solutions journey “Always Be Ready” for the time, place and person we sometime have named the saboteur.

Will you encounter an act or process tending to hamper or hurt the mission? Sabotage can be destructive or obstructive actions by others to change you.

Being prepared today for the unknown in the future. Using knowledge gained by continuous testing and observation.

Learning and adapting in order to survive the continuous change ahead of you will not be easy.

Who is your most trusted team mate or partner to do it together?

Find the person and build the team of true professionals as soon as you are able. Communicate.

Communicate. Face-to-Face. Observe each others behavior.

Navigate, Change, Test, Adapt, Endure. You are on a life long journey of discovery, learning and wonder…

Onward Together!

Reputation Risk: Is Murphy to Blame?

Any board member or executive today is well aware of the direct impact of an adverse event or significant business disruption can have on shareholder value and customer confidence. When it does happen, how many people just throw up their hands and shout, Murphy's Law!

"Murphy's Law ("If anything can go wrong, it will") was born at Edwards Air Force Base in 1949 at North Base.

It was named after Capt. Edward A. Murphy, an engineer working on Air Force Project MX981, (a project) designed to see how much sudden deceleration a person can stand in a crash."

Murphy is all about managing the "What if's" and planning for their possibility.

More than one business has been subjected to the Law's of Murphy whenever a complex and logistical project or program is underway.

If you are one of those corporate executives who has been unable to use your security badge the Monday after the big office move, you are not alone.

The question is not that it could happen, it's what impact will it have on employee satisfaction the day it happens, and beyond.

In your future planning to mitigate the Operational Risks associated with Murphy and your reputation, we are reminded of a few of our favorite Murphy's Laws:

1._Computer systems are unreliable, but humans are even more unreliable. Any system which depends on human reliability is unreliable.

2._If there is a possibility of several things going wrong the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong.

3._A difficult task will be halted near completion by one tiny, previously insignificant detail.

4._High speed chases will always proceed from an area of light traffic to an area of extremely heavy traffic.

5._Every emergency has three phases: PANIC... FEAR... REMORSE.

Do you think you're spending too much time with your team planning? You haven’t.

Success in your organization doesn't happen because everything goes according to the plan. It happens because you were prepared when things go wrong.

The organizations whose team has planned for every possible scenario and trained together in live simulations will become the most successful.

Their missions will be accomplished on time and within budget.

Incidents of different severity and frequency are happening around you and your organization every day.

Would your employees know what an incident looks like let alone know what to do next to mitigate the risk to them and the organization?

Antares: Innovation from Country Roads to Cislunar...

It was early February 1971 and three High School best friends consistently car pooled to do a little early morning “Country Roading”, in the white Pontiac LeMans on the way to school.

This was just a circuitous route down tree lined roads and around vast farm lands in the Midwest USA.

We were always set to arrive in the school parking lot, just in time to make it to our locker and then to 1st period before the bell rang.

Our dialogue on Capital Avenue SW and West on Beckley Road, quickly turned to the prescience of the Apollo 14 Antares Lunar Lander and it’s planned descent to the Moon in a few days time on February 4th.

Country roading this early morning gave us guys a chance to catch-up, then map and sketch out where we would rendezvous to watch together the Apollo 14 coverage of Commander Alan Shepard, Command Module Pilot Stuart Roosa and Lunar Module Pilot Ed Mitchell.

Before we as young teenage students ever knew what true innovation was really all about, we were about to see and read about it in the national news.

And little did we anticipate that when you encounter the “ABORT” signal, you sometimes have to just improvise. Test. Improvise. Test.

“After separating from the command module in lunar orbit, the LM Antares had two serious problems. First, the LM computer began getting an ABORT signal from a faulty switch. NASA believed the computer might be getting erroneous readings like this if a tiny ball of solder had shaken loose and was floating between the switch and the contact, closing the circuit. The immediate solution – tapping on the panel next to the switch – did work briefly, but the circuit soon closed again.”

Software engineering and Software Quality Assurance (SQA) is a continuous cycle of development, testing, errors, changes, testing and deployment. The software teams at MIT knew this first hand.

“A second problem occurred during the powered descent, when the LM landing radar failed to lock automatically onto the Moon's surface, depriving the navigation computer of vital information on the vehicle's altitude and vertical descent speed. After the astronauts cycled the landing radar breaker, the unit successfully acquired a signal near 22,000 feet (6,700 m). Mission rules required an abort if the landing radar was out at 10,000 feet (3,000 m), though Shepard might have tried to land without it. With the landing radar, Shepard steered the LM to a landing which was the closest to the intended target of the six missions that landed on the Moon.”

As our United States continues our next generation of the commercial race to the Moon, we can only anticipate future “ABORT” signals. Prototypes. Testing. Innovation.

After so many years working in global places where Software Quality Assurance was mission critical, you finally will learn as a professional, that it is never finished. It is never perfect.

So what?

Our USA will always be a leader because we have already been there, with humans actually operating on the Moon.

We know what will be challenging and why a hypothesis might end up being changed and adapted.

As our next human race to the Moon continues and our cislunar challenges are encountered, we know that we must continuously improve and innovate.

The same strategy shall also work here for you today on Earth, in your own small town…around your own dinner table each night…

Godspeed!

Analytic Priorities: Crossing the Digital RubiCON...

The governance of information within the government enterprise or the private sector enterprise remains very much the same. Both are subjected to a myriad of laws to help protect the civil liberties and privacy of U.S. citizens. Yet the data leaks, breaches and lost laptops keep both private sector and government organizations scrambling to cover their mistakes and to keep their adversaries from getting the upper hand. Again, the governance of information is the core capability that must be addressed if we are to have effective homeland security intelligence sharing to defeat the threats to the homeland 100% of the time.

The stakeholders in the information sharing environments will say that they have all the laws they need to not only protect information and also to protect the privacy of and liberties of U.S. citizens. What they may not admit, is that they do not have the assets within the context of their own organizations to deter, detect, defend and document the threats related to too much information being shared or not enough. These assets are a combination of new technologies, new education and situational awareness training and the people to staff these respective duties within the enterprise architecture.

Operational Risk Management is a continuous process in the context of our rapidly expanding corporate environments. What is one example? People traveling to emerging markets to explore new business opportunities or new suppliers that will be connected by high speed Internet connections to the supply chain management system. These boundaries of managing operational risk, have not only expanded, they have become invisible.

Ru·bi·con

1. a river in N Italy flowing E into the Adriatic

—Idiom

2. Rubicon, to take a decisive, irrevocable step

This "Digital Rubicon" before us, to take on a more "Active Defense" in navigating the risk across international waters of e-commerce, privacy and legal jurisdictions will forever shape our future. The decisions made on what constitutes an adversarial attack in the cyber domain, will not be as easy as the dawn of the nuclear age. Policy makers today have to weave the potential implications into a sophisticated decision tree that crosses the complex areas of intelligence, diplomacy, defense, law, commerce, economics and technology.

The new digital "Rule Sets" are currently being defined by not only nation states but the "Non-State" actors who dominate a segment of the global digital domains. The same kinds of schemes, ploys, communication tactics and strategies are playing out online and what has worked in the physical world, may also work even better in the cyber-centric environment. Corporations are increasingly under estimating the magnitude of the risk or the speed that it is approaching their front or back door steps.

The private sector is under tremendous oversight by various regulators, government agencies and corporate risk management. Yet the "public-private" "tug-of-war" over information sharing, leaks to the public press and Wikileaks incidents has everyone on full alert. As the government has outsourced the jobs that will take too long to execute or that the private sector already is an expert, operational risks have begun to soar.

As the private sector tasks morph with the requirements of government you perpetuate the gap for effective risk mitigation and spectacular incidents of failure. Whether it is the failure of people, processes, systems or some other clandestine event doesn't matter. The public-private paradox will continue as long as the two seek some form of symbiosis. The symbiotic relationship between a government entity and a private sector supplier must be managed no differently than any other mission critical resource within an unpredictable environment.

Once an organization has determined the vital combination of assets it requires to operate on a daily basis, then it can begin it's quest for enabling enterprise resiliency. The problem is, most companies still do not understand these complex relationships within the matrix of their business and therefore remain vulnerable. The only path to gaining that resilient outcome, is to finally cross that "Digital Rubicon" and realize that you no longer can control it.

The first step in any remediation program, is first to admit the problem and to accept the fact that it exists. Corporate enterprises and governments across the globe are coming to the realization that the only way forward is to cooperate, coordinate and contemplate a new level of trust.

operational risk

Operational Risk: Volatility of Change...

What is volatility and how could this be an operational risk in your particular institution or organization?

The threat of "Volatility" depends on what is being measured. The stock price. The return on capital. The key is that you want to reduce volatility in most cases.

It scares some people. Long term investors, employees and customers.

Volatility is the standard deviation of the change in value of a financial instrument with a specific time horizon. It is often used to quantify the risk of the instrument over that time period.

Who likes volatility?

Volatility is often viewed as a negative in that it represents uncertainty and risk.

However, volatility can be good in that if one shorts on the peaks, and buys on the lows one can make money, with greater money coming with greater volatility.

The possibility for money to be made via volatile markets is how short term market players like day traders make money, and is in contrast to the long term investment view of buy and hold.

So volatility is in the "eye of the beholder". The point is that some people thrive on it and others are better off with that smooth and predictable future.

Risk in a financial institution is defined in terms of earnings volatility. Earnings volatility creates the potential for loss. Losses, in turn, need to be funded, and it is the potential for loss that imposes a need for institutions to hold capital in reserve.

This capital provides a balance sheet cushion to absorb losses, without which an institution subjected to large (negative) earnings swings could become insolvent.

How much capital is allocated to Operational Risk is a measurement issue. The decisions an institution makes in managing Operational Risks is not risk versus return, but risk versus the cost it takes to avoid these threats.

The key determinant of an institutions risk factor against operational failures is not the amount of reserve capital, it is the performance of management.

In fact, in a few spectacular cases of operational failures, incremental capital would have made no difference to the firm's survivability. It comes back to strategy, safety, security and soundness.

How volatile are your earnings? At the end of the day the question is about management controls and measurement.  What if your measurements were not earnings, but the number of workplace accidents and acts of violence?

How effective are they at mitigating operational risks in the areas of the institution that can't be insured?

Look at places where "Change" is happening in huge volumes and at a rapid pace and you will know where to begin.

Secure: Find it...

What are you and your team doing this week to create a “Secure” environment?

Your organization is counting on you for all that defines this adjective:

Secure

adjective

se· cure si-ˈkyu̇r  -ˈkyər

securer; securest

1a: free from danger

b: affording safety

c: TRUSTWORTHY, DEPENDABLE

a secure foundation

d: free from risk of loss

2a: easy in mind : CONFIDENT

b: assured in opinion or expectation : having no doubt

How are you creating and maintaining a continuously “Secure” workplace, church, school, home, transportation system, main street or entire country environment?

It’s not the role or responsibility of One person. One department. One agency. One camera.

"Leadership as a CEO, Principal, Parent, Mayor or President requires you to continuously pursue a more “Secure” environment that requires focus and a persistent innovation mindset."

Your family, your employees, your town and your own nation are watching you.

You may think you understand the problem-set. You might try to use one tool. You will learn that you must continuously adapt. Build prototypes. Test again.

Your creative ability to change on the fly, your capability to act faster than the threat will make all the difference in your counter-response.

What are you measuring this day, week or month to determine what and where you need to adapt?

It is not always what you will be able to hear, smell or see with the naked eye. This is why innovators designed detectors, radar, alarms, cameras and even binoculars.

Asymmetric threats to our environments are Invisible. Undetectable. Irregular. Disordered. Atypical.

So what?

All of us, into eternity will remain responsible for our “Secure” environment.

Whether it may be in your global neighborhood, on campus, at the Mall, in your software, undersea, aerial or to Mars, you too shall have a role.

Find it…

Observation: Sensory Informed+Aware+Ready (SIAR)...

In a focus to be more innovative in your particular business or vocation, which of your own human senses are you using most effectively today?

• Sight.
• Sound.
• Smell.
• Touch.
• Taste.
• Pain.
• Hunger.
• Thirst.
• Pleasure.

Anything else?

How well are you using your complete observations that combine these senses with other brain functions to create new insights, new intelligence or safety knowledge?

How many steps are there from your front hallway up to your second story in your residence? If you know the answer, why?

Your observation skill sets are combining human senses and other brain functions to provide you with new insights, knowledge and domain awareness.

Or you may already know the answer of how many steps are in your home because you are handicapped or blind.

You many also know the moment that someone in your house is boiling water on the kitchen stove, because of a unique smell. And you probably know who that person is.

You many know the moment a next door neighbor leaves their garage, based upon the sound of their vehicle.

We are continuously combining our sensory functions and brain functions all the time, even without thinking about it.

"Yet how observant are you really? Do you store your sensory information somewhere for retrieval later? In case you need it?"

What if you became more actively conscious about this by practicing it each day. How might this new observant talent be of a vital use to you and others?

Operational Risk Management requires multi-sensing information processing and response 24x7 by you, not just by your machines.

By you as a standalone human.

If you had to operate for a whole day without your iPhone with you on next Friday, what might you observe? What might you learn?

How might you better increase your own personal knowledge on this Friday.

With the observation of human senses of Time? Of Direction? Of Temperature? Of Weather? Of even a lack of “Knowledge” of what your friends, followers or family are doing each hour of their day.

So what?

Your future abilities of human observation will enhance your innovation capabilities as you continuously adapt to your hourly and daily environment.

Your enhanced personal “Operational Risk” skill-sets will keep you more Sensory Informed, more Aware and more Ready (SIAR) than so many others…

Onward!

Objective: Utilizing Empirical Learning…

 Objective  adjective

1 a : expressing or dealing with facts or conditions as perceived without distortion by personal feelings, prejudices, or interpretations.

When you were growing up in your family, perhaps sitting down for a dinner each evening at 6:30PM, what was your classic ritual?

Did your Father sit at the head of the table and your Mother on the opposite end? Was it a time of jovial catching-up on each others respective days and sharing information on topics of family interest?

Was the dialogue open minded and full of questions about the topics? Maybe it was the opposite.

Or was your Father or Mother listening and observing while adding experiential lessons to the dialogue.

Each persons age and level of experience in life has much to do with the value of a true dialogue.

Each persons ability and willingness to be truly “Objective,” enhances the value of the dialogue because it is actually more empirical.

Is the person talking, teaching or facilitating the group focused upon actual observation or actual experience?

Is the information being shared capable of verification or testing by experiment?

Is the person at the end of the table or in front of the room or the principal investigator utilizing experiential knowledge and lessons, based upon true witnessed outcomes?

How many high school and college class rooms today, do you find someone who is a true empiric?

One who relies on practical experience. An “Instructional Facilitator” who is in the back of the room, carefully listening.

With decades of experience to provide additonal context.

Learning and discovering what the day, week or hours have produced from those people who have been recently operating on the front line. Operators in the action and who have been part of the actual witnessed experiences.

How well do those who are listening and observing, utilize both “open-ended” questions to explore and expand while also utilizing “close-ended questions” to verify understanding?

Empirical  adjective

1 : originating in or based on observation or experience.

2 : relying on experience or observation alone often without due regard for system and theory.

As you learn more about our own human behavior and the way our brain stores information, the questions that you will have, shall begin to change…

Mechanisms: For Continuous Risk Monitoring...

Years ago working in concert with fellow risk professionals within the ranks of an international organization off Route 123 in Tysons Corner, our “Team Leader” was briefing us in a small conference room on the 5th floor at 8:00am.

One of the systemic problems at large institutions including organizations like this one is keeping your finger on the pulse of all "Risk Indicators". Unfortunately for SVP's and other executives in the corporate hierarchy, the organizations middle managers are creating a potential layer that impedes the best "Early Warning System" you have at your disposal. 

She continued her dialogue with substantial hand gestures as she circled our long table in the middle of the room:

“When problems surface here on the front line or in the "Cube City" down in Information Systems, sales or operations, the normal agenda is for the employee to go to their direct supervisor to raise the "Red Flag" or disclose the incident. And the first behavioral response by the Middle Manager is to keep it quiet. Fix it before anyone else finds out. Keep it under wraps until damage control can be implemented.”

When you are the head of Enterprise Risk Management, you need truth mechanisms to bypass and eradicate the barriers filtering data, your intelligence, incidents and overall hunches.

There is no magic system or process that will solve it all. The only way to attempt at breaking through this layer of social and organizational dysfunction is to circumvent it.

Design a continuous risk monitoring system that shall be implemented and operating anonymously 24/7. Do this if you require the correct people in the upper echelons of executive management responders to “Feel, See and HEAR the Pulse" of any risk hotspots in the enterprise.

These hotspots translate into "Risk Indicators" from the sources themselves, people who know what's going wrong and know the truth.

A Continuous Risk Monitoring System (CRMS) is an automated human feedback and problem identification mechanism for detecting organizational risks.

It allows leaders of large enterprises to quickly identify problems and incidents of all kinds within their company. 

Call it a sophisticated whistle-blower system or suggestion box if you will, but that is exactly what it is, on steroids.

The ideal system would emulate communication patterns in small groups which is often a major ingredient in successful teams.

It would also run on the existing iPhones, computers and networks of the organization such as applications like Slack, Teams or Wickr.

Think about how long it takes today for data and information to percolate and bubble up from the places in your organization that are considered "Current Risk Hot Spots”.

The point our Team Leader was emphasizing is that for far too long we have been playing the old telephone game. You know, the one that you played as a kid sitting around the kitchen table or on the floor in a circle.

"One person starts and whispers into the ear of the person to their right. Just a sentence or two. By the time the message gets around to the 3rd or 4th person, now the data is dramatically different than the original. It's been interpreted, edited and even sanitized."

As the current CEO, walk down and visit the person who is in charge of your anonymous electronic suggestion box or the mandated legal “Whistle-Blower” program at your own organization.

Is it the Chief Risk Officer (CRO) or Chief Security Officer (CSO) in your own HQ or perhaps an HR Manager in another state or country?

Ask them to print out the “Activity Log” for the past 30 days. Ask yourself how you might work with your front line leaders to develop an encrypted innovative solution that can't be filtered, changed or deleted.

Now you might be on your way to detecting the real story, in real-time…

July 4th: Protecting and Sharing Information...

Information and the transparency of information will continue to be at the center of investigations on Wall Street, the Defense Industrial Base (DIB) or any other highly regulated Critical Infrastructure industry.

"Who knew what when" is the mantra being repeated in various command posts and within task forces who are responsible now for insuring the safety and security of future employees of these firms but also the national security of the U.S..

"Insider Risk" of leaked information is at an all time high, whether you are in the "C" suite in Manhattan or the "Situation Room" on Pennsylvania Avenue. 

Information is the lifeblood of any highly functioning organization whether in the private sector or government agencies. Protecting that information of leaks to third parties who do not have a need to know, is the crux of the "Insider Trading" cases on Wall Street or even the comments made within the confines of the situation room during Bin Laden's operation.

So why do people want to tell another person something that they know is forbidden? Why do they risk sharing information with the media or others who may not have a legitimate reason to know the information?

And what about the opposite? Withholding information from the public or others who have a need to know the information, especially if it will save lives or keep the country out of harms way.

The decisions to tell or withhold information has serious consequences in either case and requires a mechanism for making sure that humans know when it is right and wrong.

Unfortunately, we live today in a world of information warfare and information operations that spans the globe from Hollywood to Kabul or London to Hong Kong.

So what?

The "Human Factors" motivation for withholding or sharing information has been studied for decades if not hundreds of years. The gratification one receives from telling another a secret only known to one person or a few provides the stimulus.

Whether that human gratification is the result of seeing someone else in pain or suffering, surprise or elation doesn't really matter. Recognizing that humans thirst for information is relentless when it comes to being first, or to gain power can provide you with the understanding to better prepare your organization for "Information Operations" (IO).

Effective Operational Risk Management (ORM) begins with understanding information and ends with protecting or sharing information.

It's your challenge to determine what is real truth and what is just another narrative to influence your perception as a human being.

As we approach our 247 years of “The United States of America”, read our Declaration of Independence…

Happy 4th of July!

Prescience: Coffee on Glebe Road...

One glorious Spring morning in the National Capital Region (NCR), the coffee meetup was scheduled just about 30 minutes away as the Jeep GC headed down the tree lined woods of Old Dominion Dr. through McLean, VA.

We were meeting at the First Floor Starbucks of the Westin Arlington on North Glebe Road.

The meeting this early Thursday was with a Chief Security Officer (CSO) of a large Defense-Industrial-Base contractor (_ _ _ _) and we had planned to catch-up and talk shop for 45 min.

As we recognized each other in the lobby and made small talk ordering our favorite Starbucks blend, the dialogue shifted to one of the key reasons for our meeting.

Our real focus on Operational Risk Management (ORM) that particular day was the “Insider Threat” best practices that we all were rapidly implementing.

Whether you are talking about an employee or a contract supplier who visits your facility or organization on a single or periodic basis, the threat exists.

It was April 2013 and little did we realize this morning, we both would be hearing the name of Edward Joseph Snowden in July.

“An ex-government (_ _ _) employee now working for another large DIB contractor based in Tysons Corner (_ _ _) as a system administrator, “Ed” might have been thinking about his eventual escape from a government regional operations center in Hawaii as we talked.”

In Northern Virginia just two months earlier, our conversation turned to the actual prescience of the DIB companies “Insider Threat Program” and how many employees working for his company were also current members of a specific large non-profit organization.

One example we discussed was a local non-profit that is excellent on educating and training members on the tools and strategies to enhance protection of intellectual property.

Gaining additional foresight, clairvoyance or the special ability to see or know about events before they actually occur, is your CSO ground zero.

Concern or preparation for the potential future threat event or incident, is on the mind of every Chief Security Officer in the corporate world. Yet, what are you doing this month to improve your own sixth sense?

How many people in your organization are members of non-profit XYZ or ABCDEF that are now focused on training their members on topics of relevant interest to you?

The lesson here, is that whether you are a local Bank Manager, a School Principal, a CxO or just a parent; people in your responsibility are counting on you.

They want you to ask them questions, they want you to test them on their readiness to use CPR or a tourniquet. They want you to make them even feel more safe every day by educating them about ransomware and cyber "phishing".

When our Starbucks coffee meeting was over by 8:00AM, my hunch is that Jeff went back to his Defense Industrial Base company a mile away to do some homework and some rapid internal recruiting of key employees.

As a CxO in your particular organization, how well do you really know your employees, contractors and suppliers?

Believe: You Are Not Alone...

You have questions just as many will, about why me, why now? The world we live in here on Earth is only a small example of one of our real miracles.

No matter what your future challenges are that await you in your particular life, remember what you have learned so far.

Make your best innovative decisions with the people you love and with faith.

Look up.

When was the last time you looked at the pictures from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)?

Our small lives here in our own families are where it all begins. How you as an individual decide to become a better Brother, Sister or even Father, or Mother.

Now take the time machine back to the early-nineties and standing in the driveway on a late afternoon in San Clemente, CA near Halloween, picture a 6-year old Sister and 4-year old Brother, that were showing off their excellent costumes.

In the picture, She has her arms around her younger brother, who is in his “Power Ranger Space Suit” costume and she is modeling in her most Barbie-fashionable off-the-shoulder pant suit.

Remember those times of fun and happiness with family? Even after 25+ years later…it is truly amazing.

“Life is not in our hands. We can only prepare for a life that will be uncertain. Train and learn for those most challenging times. Love and pray for those times that will surprise us.”

What do you think about, when you look at the snapshot of the “Tarantula Nebula” light-years away?

Think back and consider how much you have accomplished, where you have traveled and what you have learned in your journey so far.  Believe.

Innovation: In Search of "New"​...

Some of our worlds greatest leaders, scientists, researchers, programmers, instructors, journalists, quiet professionals and entrepreneurs recognize innovation when they see it, hear it and they experience “New”.

They are searching for it. “New” is worth more time to explore its possibilities and the potential change before us. Will you become more curious in search of “New”?

In 2023, people across our world will encounter “New” with more enthusiasm, curiosity and will recognize that anything is possible.

The optimism and the business opportunity is before all of us. To explore more often. To ask more open ended questions. To build new relationships in places and with others, you never truly anticipated in your past.

Simultaneously, the business models of the past are still so relevant. Do not forget the value and the need to build a singular relationship through focused dialogue.

The innovations of 2023 will come to us, through more effective time Face-to-Face.

Yes, one-to-one, whether in-person or even over your favorite digital audio/visual tool does not matter.

A devoted time to build relationships 1-to-1 with others, will create “New”:

• New Discovery.
• New Understanding.
• New Empathy.
• New Insights.

How might you spend more time this year in true dialogue, with other people you could learn from? For your learning and new perception.

How might your deliberate use of open questions allow for your new discovery? For your new inspiration.

How might you listen to others in a way that allows you to learn more? For your new ambitions.

You see, you are now a future “Innovation Navigator”.

You might not realize this yet in your life, however time will tell us the truth.

Others you will meet in person. Others you will have dialogue with soon enough in your future, will make all the difference to you.

Your work reading and questioning and your time devoted to “New,” will make all the difference in your modern life, and in joy with others.

For you and for all mankind…Onward!

Perseverance: Navigating to Your Life Destination...

Remember that place you used to live. Remember that place you used to travel to each August in the United States.

Tears welled up in the eyes each year as the car pulled out of the driveway of our home in a small Midwest town.

Feeling happy and headed West, back to our college town at the foot of the Rocky Mountains. 1170 miles and 17 hours away.

We would drive straight through taking our rest stops and meals along the way of I-80 and I-70.

Our goal was always to arrive there late afternoon on a Saturday, so we could witness the grandeur as we pulled off to the "Overlook" and gazed down on Boulder.

The tears would come back again, anticipating another wonderful 9 months of study, mountain adventures and the pursuit of growing relationships.

Who will you become?

The journey shall be full of challenges and yet so rewarding, especially when you realize how to solve real problem-sets both personal and in your career ambitions.

Someday, you will look back on all those years of hardship, disappointments and personal challenges and know that it was all part of a life long learning experience.

Perseverance.

noun

per· se· ver· ance ˌpər-sə-ˈvir-ən(t)s 

: continued effort to do or achieve something despite difficulties, failure, or opposition : the action or condition or an instance of persevering : STEADFASTNESS

Keep this word in your mind as you travel forward in your life.

Now you realize, that it all makes sense. You have now arrived at a destination with tremendous joy and experiences of love you never imagined were possible.

Faith is so vital in your journey here. Keep it in your thoughts always. It will make a true difference.

Arriving at a destination that you have navigated to with so much perseverance is ever more rewarding, in mind and spirit.

Can you see it?

Heading towards any highly anticipated place, revives our fortitude and our thankfulness. For all of those who have assisted us along the journey: 

Parents. Siblings. Neighbors. TeamMates. Friends. Teachers. Professors. Counselors. Spouses. Kids. Managers. Entrepreneurs. Partners. Mentors. Peers.

Persevere. Onward!