Extraordinary: Always Be Ready...

The G700 private jets were taking off from Winchester Regional Airport (OKV) and they roared just overhead as we approached the small business park off Front Royal Pike & Airport Road.

It was a another glorious Virginia Fall week, with the Maple and Oak trees in full colors.

The next training course was scheduled to begin at 08:00 sharp and you could feel the butterflies in your gut as you pulled into the small tree lined parking lot.

The 72 hour on-site course to achieve a “Personal Protection Specialist” (PPS) Certification (32E) in Virginia was just one facet of a continuous journey to learn more about what the definition of “Extraordinary” really means:

Extraordinary

adjective

1a: going beyond what is usual, regular, or customary.

2: employed for or sent on a special function or service.

Over the next six days we would be in this class room and also out in the local community applying new skill sets in real time. Day and night.

Our key areas of instruction, innovation, mastery and testing included:

• Personal Protection Orientation.
• Virginia Code and DCJS Regulations.
• Assessment of Threat and Protectee Vulnerability.
• Legal Authority and Civil Law.
• Protective Detail Operations.
• Emergency First Aid and CPR.
• Advances.
• Surveillance Detection.
• Defensive Preparedness.

Why?

So our instructors will observe our behavior, coach us in the moment of action in order to improve towards true achievement of “Extraordinary” service.

The mindset and all of the innovative professional skills that are learned this week, shall stay with you forever.

So how does continuous learning and practicing these skills as a "Quiet Professional" over a decade ago, apply to our particular world in 2023?

As just an illustrated example, perhaps you are responsible for transporting your Principal client from a hotel to the airport in an unfamiliar California city at the end of a two day corporate event.

Some may call it pre-planning, and yet it is referred to as the “Advance”.

You have never driven the route before and based upon the amount of orange cones and detour signs already witnessed, you know it could be a challenge. There is no chance for errors.

As you take a first look in Google Maps at your proposed starting point and destination, the route looks unusual. Heading South for a few miles to make a U turn when you know your airport is to the North seems curious?

So to get a local perspective, you then approach the “Hotel Concierge” and ask them for the best route to the airport from their point of view.

They immediately pull out the paper Map of the area and show you the path North along the local North bound detours to provide you on a visual orientation.

Fast forward to check-out. You are now in the vehicle transporting your client with substantial luggage while they continue to deal with the growing barrage of message alerts on their iPhone.

15 miles North and 25 minutes or so later after keeping the visual orientation in mind with your Google Maps talking in the background, you safely arrive on time at this foreign airport.

As a PPS in your particular role of your small team, business organization or agency, just continue to remember this.

You learned and trained to be “Extraordinary”.

“Always Be Ready”…

Thanksgiving 2023: Anticipate, Listen, Act…

After an airline travel day home after the Thanksgiving Holiday with family, you too may be feeling exhausted.

Yet how will you grow from all that you have learned this past week?

Leadership traits are found across our companies, our agencies, our government and also within our respective families.

In the spirit of the U.S. holiday of Thanksgiving this past few days, some may have experienced tragedy and others pure joy.

In reality, “Being a true leader requires the continuous ability to Anticipate, to Listen and to Act in any situation.”

Whether there was missed flights, extraordinary traffic, or relatives with unique personalities at the dinner table, your goal shall always be consistent.

Leadership requires your ability to show bravery in the face of tremendous challenges.

Leadership requires your empathy and simultaneously your own trusted actions to show confidence and to build trust with others.

By the time 5th grade was a reality, memories of our long dining table set for another Thanksgiving day meal in a small midwestern town, was always impressive.

Sitting down with our small family and with "Grand Father Keith" and "Grand Mother Mary" at each end of the table, Keith would always start our meal with a short prayer of thankfulness.

For someone who had survived World War combat in Europe, attended U of M and then started a Midwest U.S. family business and now decades later had 4 Grand Kids, our Grand Father had much to be thankful for in his life.

Yet it was his trusted presence, the words he chose from Bible scriptures and his leadership of our family, that shall aways be remembered.

Who will you rely upon in your family, your organization, your neighborhood or your government to be your Senior Leader?

The lone individual with the life experience to guide you. The consistent leadership traits to make you feel safe, secure and cared for in your particular small team.

Leadership begins across our United States and is displayed at home, around a family Thanksgiving table.

Leadership is continuously demonstrating the actions that others will trust and follow into the future.

At home, in the workplace, on the field or across the Video Teleconference (VTC), we all shall have the opportunity to be Senior Leaders.

Are you alert, are you ready and will you show the real leadership to Anticipate, Listen and Act into the future…

Entrepreneur Innovation: An Infinite Game...

Our Teams were all selected by their Senior Leader for the Fall Cohort. Each Team of Two Experts were admitted from Sacramento, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Pittsburgh and Manchester, NH.

Our proven Cohort Learning Objectives were outlined in the Syllabus. Lean Methodologies. SPRINT Process. Mission Model. Problem-set. Prototype Deliverables. True Innovation.

The time frame was the month of October 2023.

As any “Instructional Facilitator” across a spectrum of training based forums may tell you, people must be challenged.

They must be tested. Yet the process journey shall build continuous “Trust” in each other.

Whether it shall be students in a Spring Quarter at Stanford in the Engineering Department or Experts from private-sector industry from across the United States, the methodologies and process is the same.

What is most remarkable to witness over the course of the learning and the utilization of a proven process, are the final outcomes. Some people will excel and others will fail.

Human Factors are at play, whenever challenging and cognitive focused skill-based learning is in action. As a few examples, ask any instructor at BUD/S. Ask any host of the college legal debate. Ask any SCRUM Master.

Some of it is just plain DNA. Some of it is just a willingness to succeed. Yet most of it has all to do with perception of the relevance of the tasks and the delivered outcomes for each person individually.

Once you have confidence in the learning process and the methodologies for implementation of the science, then our own human behavior becomes the real unknowns.

So what?

The outcomes of success will depend on the ability for two people as a “Team” to coordinate, to collaborate and to deliver continuous innovative solutions.

These innovative solutions shall have application to a specific problem-set within a geographical or extraterrestrial area. They shall be applicable to a series of our most important and critical values.

What kind of values? “On-time All-the-time.” “Zero defects.” Pick the value of what will be measured according to the desired outcome of the solution-set.

If the prototype solution delivered is not meeting the desired value required, then the Team must adapt. The Team shall pivot. The Team shall innovate.

Repeat.

How will your “Teams” learn this month? This Semester. This Quarter. This fiscal Annual Year.

What is your particular mission? What is your destination?

Only 2 out of 10 shall meet and exceed your expectations. Those are the “Two” you must invest your time and valuable resources in to reach your vision.

These “Two”, will become your most valued Leaders, Explorers, Innovators and your next Instructional Facilitators.

Remember, this is an “Infinite Game” that shall never have just winners and losers.

Those who are able to stay in the game shall find their mission objective achievement, week-by-week, month-by-month, decade-by-decade…

November 11: Serving the United States by the Other 99%...

The United States Veterans Day National Ceremony is held each year on November 11th at Arlington National Cemetery.

Standing there with family and as the son of a U.S. Marine in 2015, the ceremony commences precisely at 11:00 a.m. with a wreath laying at the Tomb of the Unknowns and continues inside the Memorial Amphitheater with a parade of colors by veterans' organizations and remarks from dignitaries.

The ceremony is intended to honor and thank all who served in the United States Armed Forces. This represents less than 1% of Americans.

“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them”  -John F. Kennedy-

How many Soldiers will be on active duty around the globe on November 11 working in their current role, task or assignment, to keep America safe and secure?  So those of us who call the United States their home, may exercise their freedoms and the citizens rights that our nations architects designed for us.

How may Airman will be walking the streets in parades remembering their flights over the Pacific, Vietnam, the Atlantic, Europe, South America, North Africa or the Middle East?  What about all those pilots that have flown at such a high altitude; never to be detected over Russia, North Korea or China?

How many Sailors and Marines will be cruising on, over or under our vast oceans to be present and ready, for our next mission to help others?  How many Submariners will never be detected on their 24 x 7 watch; or with SOF waiting patiently below deck for their next clandestine operation, anywhere in the world?

So on Saturday, November 11, what will you be doing, John or Mary Q. Citizen, in Anytown U.S.A.?

For some Veterans who experience this day of recognition, it is not easy.  It could be a day that is simultaneously bitter sweet.  There is certainly great pride, yet some within the 1% who are Veterans, look around the country and wonder why the other 99% are not serving their nation, in their full capacity as a U.S. citizen.

Service to your nation doesn't begin or end with a job in the military.  Service to your nation begins for everybody who becomes an American.  What does that mean?

It means that we stand up and believe in the U.S. Constitution.  We defend and negotiate all that it says and what it enables for us to accomplish for ourselves, our families and our fellow believers.  You see, the freedoms and the opportunity to prosper in the United States is there for anybody to grasp.  For anybody to achieve.

To honor and thank those who have served in the Military on Veterans Day, requires so much more:

• Will you "sleep in" on your day off or volunteer with the local church or non-profit to teach Veterans how to be more effective in the transition to a civilian private sector job?
• Will you design and code the next iPhone App to locate other Vets in your local town or city to assist each other and your community?
• Will you meet with local business owners to plan, raise funds and deploy vital programs for families of Veterans?
• Will you vote to fund and allocate adequate resources for the operations necessary and requested, by those forward deployed on the front lines, in uniform and also in the shadows?

The opportunities to serve our country and all of our Veterans November 11, requires a continuous cycle of thinking beyond just the Soldier, Airman, Sailor or Marine.

It also requires more proof, that a majority of the other 99%, are also serving their country and all that the United States stands for in the world.

So this November 11, listen to John F. Kennedy...

Pulpit Rock: "The Right Stuff" and Beyond...

Walking up the path to Pulpit Rock soon after dawn in Colorado Springs just before the “Value of Space Summit” (VOSS) this week, was a time for thinking. It is a time for reflection and where our future human exploration shall take us.

The value of exploration and our innovative curiosity to learn more, is a human trait that will never leave us.

Before an ambitious set of people in the United States made the decision to travel to Earths single Moon, our human exploration was across oceans and mountains.

Imagine a quiet Michigan summer evening July 20th, 1969 sitting in front of a 21” Zenith color television with family watching Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin from Apollo 11 walk on the Moon. It was truly epic.

After 24 brave and talented people from our nation have traveled to the Moon, our last mission was in 1972.

Why?

Astronaut Eugene Cernan and Astronaut Harrison Schmitt (88), spent 3 days 3 hours on the Moons surface between December 11-14 1972. This Apollo 17 will not be the last manned journey to our Moon.

After a team of dedicated people find their own “Just Cause” and purpose, there is nothing that will stand in their way to achieve it.

After 51 years, we have been taking many steps to perpetuate our journey. 

Humans have been back and forth from our Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Space Station and we have sent the James Webb and other telescopes to explore other stars and planets light years away.

The “Just Cause” of space exploration is still ahead of us and the race is on.

Our human journey to places outside (LEO) will encounter new challenges, new discoveries and even create greater learning.

Before a most favorite movie “The Right Stuff” was released in 1983, all we had were slight views into our “Just Cause”.

Once you see this movie, then you too might understand the mission ahead from a different perspective. At least you will have greater context on our “Why”…

Godspeed!

Infinite: Game Strategy & Mission...

As our uncertain world becomes more turbulent with hurricanes, typhoons, earthquakes, regional wars, asymmetric ransomware hacks and the increased number of horrific crimes or terrorist plots, we must remain resilient.

The “Infinite Game” we are living and operating in each day, truly requires enlightened thinking.

Before you changed, your thoughts about the game were “Finite”. There was a clock counting down or there was only so many innings or golf holes remaining in the round.

The score was not quite tabulated or finished yet to determine the winner and the loser of the game.

Unfortunately for many in that current competition, it is always about the number on the scoreboard. The Wins and Losses. The number of "Followers". The number of locations. The number of employees. The number of dollars in the bank.

As our turbulent environments at home, at work and in our small towns to our major cities become more extreme and less certain, it requires a new mindset.

An “Infinite Mindset” as defined by Simon Sinek or James P. Carse puts your senses on the longevity of staying in the game longer than the others.

Those who live each day always behaving and acting only to win, shall continue their war, perpetuate the competition until they win.

In between losses and defeats they continue to think that they shall win at all cost or else. That this will enhance their well being.

Yet, after you changed your mindset and thinking, the game has now become “Infinite”.

"To stay in the game and to operate longer than others in our so uncertain times, requires you to adapt, to innovate, to change, to always remain RESILIENT."

It does not require you to anxiously and continuously aspire to win. The conversation, the contest, the relationship. By the end of the day, the month, the quarter or the year.

It requires you to continue, to never quit and to think about performing at your best, again tomorrow. How many smiles, how many hugs, how many kind words.

Your new mindset is positive and peaceful, you observe, you listen and you continuously change to adapt to the infinite environment you are now operating in.

Whether your mission is “Winning” or “Operating the Longest” makes a difference in life...

Large Language Model: Friend or Foe…

Trade Secrets are the Intellectual Property which the owner has taken reasonable measures to protect, and derives independent economic value of keeping it secret.

Since this is a public dataset, therefore it is probable the algorithms will search, digest and store these words for eternity.

Generative, pre-trained or transformer algorithms are a 24 x 7 x 365 operation by millions of entities across the globe. Whether they are operating in the dark Internet or within the public datasets is by the originators design.

It depends on the goal or the mission.

Whether you and your enterprise are enabling conditional access policies or continuously monitoring for anomalous activities does not matter.

“Adversarial or Malicious AI will continue to plague our digital world with weaponized artificial intelligence (AI).”

Whether it is designed with proxy servers for defeating “Multi-Factor Authentication” (MFA) or creating very convincing phishing e-mails is for certain.

Synthetic voice/video generation and cloning are also on the rise to add to the syndicates and certain nation states waging our global asymmetric warfare.

There is a point in every humans journey in life that the technology, the volume of information and the pace of change will seem like it is overcoming you.

At a young persons age, they are taught “Stranger Danger” and other early life lessons about the evil that exists in our world.

In addition, the continuous education of our children about the digital evil that exists must also become a priority.

Every human has a point in their life when an event or incident becomes their wake-up call. A learning point is reached on information received or the live accident is unfolding before your eyes.

Learning new lessons each day is the way we have survived and are still the master species on our Earth.

Whether you are a child learning about something named “Fire” or you are an adult learning about something titled “Large Language Model” (LLM) does not matter.

You must continue to test, damage, fail, learn, test, damage, succeed, learn.

Once you decide as a person that you will strive to not be burned, you will drive defensively and follow the rules, you will always tell the truth and you will protect your loved ones then you are on your way to even more vital learning.

The lesson of “AI Resilience” will always be the mission.

Whether October is “Cybersecurity Awareness” month in the United States or around the globe you shall always remember.

Never Forget.

Be Resilient.

Problem-Set: Enterprise OPS Risk...

Who is responsible when a particular Operational Risk problem-set has risen to your organizational awareness?  Clue: It is not the name of a department or single person.

This means that all people in your company, agency or command unit may have encountered behaviors, information or evidence of potential Operational Risk loss event outcomes.

Until you have a documented 1-Pager in your organization, you don’t have a problem-set or someone with the responsibility to solve it.

What is the Problem-Set? Give it a short Title that identifies the issue.

How do you describe the Background on the new problem-set in less than two short paragraphs?

Explain the Challenge ahead.

In less than one paragraph of three or four sentences, explain what the intended outcomes of solving the problem-set will be.

Now provide the Boundaries in your process of discovery and activity, that will provide you with the solutions solving the problem-set.

Now, who is the Owner / Sponsor of this problem-set?

“You have an “Operational Risk” loss event potentially waiting to happen.”

The people and/or the team who have been assigned to the defined  “OPS_RISK_PROBLEM-SET” (ORP), now have the organizational responsibility and power to engage with mitigating the risk of the potential outcomes, by designing and implementing the prototype Solution.

If leadership assigns you to this particular 1-Pager, it is now your responsibility to follow the process and to execute the steps you have been trained to carry out within your organization.

This shall occur in a timely manner, based upon the severity of the Operational Risk:

Design an easy and memorable numerical scale that could be utilized with the team or owners of your Problem-Set to provide a quick numerical severity for the ORP.

SEVERITY / LIKELIHOOD OF LOSS EVENT

LOW >>>>> 1 >>>>> 3 >>>>> 6 >>>>> 10+ HIGH

Stack rank your company, agency or command unit ORPs from High Severity to Low Severity on a pre-determined schedule, relevant to the size and pace of your national regulatory requirements.

If your organization is categorized as one of the 16+ national Critical Infrastructure Sectors as defined by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), your organization shall engage in a continuous process of solving new problem-sets that are being continuously discovered in your enterprise.

Now you are on your way to solving more problem-sets with timely defined solutions within your entire Operational Risk Management (ORM) organization.

Onward!

Vantage Point: Never Stop Wondering...

If you grow up in America in a small town, it gives you a "Vantage Point". Especially, when that one day early in your life when you finally drive out of there.

So you are on to a new U.S. state, a new global time zone or traveling to a new place you have never been before.

In America, we like to drive a vehicle a thousand miles somewhere, across our country to observe. To learn. And to just explore.

Traveling from that small town in Michigan to a small college town at the foot of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, provided all kinds of new learning.

vantage point

noun

Synonyms of vantage point

: a position or standpoint from which something is viewed or considered

especially : POINT OF VIEW

The minute upon arrival, you could not take your eyes off of the mountains and the glorious sun sets above them.

It wasn’t much longer until it was time to explore, to walk up with a pack on your back. 

To visit that small “Blue Lake” in September, was definitely a vantage point at 9,300+ feet looking up at Mt. Audubon and Paiute Peak in the Rocky Mountains.

Lying out there under the thousands of stars in the new L.L. Bean Goose Down sleeping bag for the first time was so epic.

"Thinking about the journey so far, it was almost certain the infinite game had started."

This was going to be a life full of adventures, with so many stories to tell from small towns to a college campus to some of the largest cities in the world.

Once you begin, it’s difficult to stop exploring. It just seems like you can’t get deep enough or high enough on this planet.

Whether you are almost a hundred feet deep in the South Pacific holding hands with your new spouse, or thousands of feet high in the Monashees snow skiing in light powder does not matter. You are at another Vantage Point.

While you are learning throughout your life, what else do you wonder about?

Whether you are falling asleep under the stars or to the sounds of sirens in a metropolitan city near the quiet ocean, say a prayer.

Give thanks for all you have been given and witnessed so far in your life. Guess what, there are so many more "Vantage Points" to come.

Wonder…

Trusted Horizon: "Augmented Intelligence"...

When you read that critical powerpoint report last week at work, did you trust what the author had written?

How did you make the decision to trust the numbers that the author placed in the columns and rows chart on page 3?

Did you trust the author and source because of their previous track record of accuracy?

Did the numbers come from a sensor that has been tested in an independent lab to a 99% level of truth?

You trusted that report at work for a reason. It was a “Trust Decision”.

Why?

Have you personally tested the math? What is the source of the data?

So why do you trust Apple vs. Samsung? Verizon vs. AT&T?

Would you pay $100 for a machine that was 99% accurate or could you live with a machine that was 50% accurate and only cost $50?

Think about your mobile navigation mapping app. Where are you going?

These kind of discussions are fundamental yet necessary for us at this point in our digital innovation journey. Just as humans have since the inventions of the Personal Computer, Internet and Quantum Computing.

Trust Decisions are mathematical.

mathematical

adjective

1: of, relating to, or according with mathematics

2 a: rigorously exact : PRECISE

b: CERTAIN

3: possible but highly improbable

We have been trusting computers, data and all kinds of sensors as a result of established testing standards. You name it. ATM’s. Stock Markets. Airplanes. Rockets.  Satellites.

Today, would you trust the answer of any question asked to your favorite Large Language Model (LLM)?

LLM’s will challenge your future digital “Trust Decisions” because you might decide whether you believe Chat-Brand A vs. Bard-Brand B vs. Claude-Brand C.

No different than your preference today on using Google search or Bing.

Are human lives at stake? How will we ensure the trust of our digital machines? 

Into the future, our ability to produce high accuracy “Trust Decisions” will depend on your own “Augmented Intelligence” (Ai)...

Never Forget: Memories & Our Future Resilience Innovation…

On the dawn of September 11, 2023 our United States remembers and reflects.

The day 22 years since the attacks on our country 9/11/01 actualizes so many facets of our “Resilience”:

Emotional.

Educational.

Emergency Management, Transportation, Healthcare, Communications, Information Technology, Financial, Defense, Energy and so many others within our International Critical Infrastructure systems.

In the middle of a 8:30am business breakfast at the Reston, Virginia Hyatt on 9/11, the screams from those watching the bar TV across the restaurant will never be forgotten.

Our USA is so much more “Resilient” than we were over two decades ago and we have much further to reach, in order to achieve total functional resilience across new sectors.

The true commercialization of SPACE is far beyond the knowledge awareness of our average U.S. citizen. Unless of course, they have seen the film Apollo 13 or The Right Stuff.

Our SPACE infrastructure is rapidly growing from the key private sector companies ecosystem who have been in business for years.

More importantly, the new Space ecosystem of private sector companies beyond the traditional government aerospace suppliers to NASA, is currently providing vital resources and new SPACE technology innovation.

The growing supply chains for SPACE missions has already multiplied the requirements for resilience in so many new and different realms of our United States private sector, including academic engineering education and R&D environments.

Therefore, on the eve of this September 11, 2023 we must be even more vigilant to NEVER FORGET.

“Around and within our innovative U.S. Space infrastructure is a growing threat landscape and it requires: securing our space assets, increasing situational awareness, maintaining resilient satellite communications, creating new policy frameworks, expanding workforce development, and creating new emerging technologies.” --Space ISAC

So what?

The United States shall now create a 17th Critical Infrastructure domain, that shall require our resources and continuous innovation for the next 20+ years and beyond.

“Resilience of SPACE infrastructure” has always required key people from vital organizations:

“The Space ISAC (Information-Sharing-Analysis-Center) has launched in Colorado Springs, CO and is the only all-threats security information source for the public and private space sector.

“It is the most comprehensive and single point source for sharing data, facts and analysis on space security and threat to space assets. Space ISAC also provides analysis and resources to support response, mitigation and resilience initiatives.”

Who will we work with side-by-side, to prepare our response in an “All-Hazards” SPACE world that changes by the minute?

These dedicated people can be found solving SPACE problem-sets in our future innovation strategies by utilizing proven methodologies in:

• Mapping / Targeting

• Sketching / Solutions

• Deciding

• Prototyping / Testing

How shall we continuously work together to provide the correct tools, systems, knowledge and trusted experience to make a proactive global difference? 

It is our purpose and our mission to “Protect Critical SPACE Infrastructure” across our great nation and to ensure the resiliency of our people, systems and our organizations in the Public - Private Sector.

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…

Trust Decisions: Creating a State of Zero Surprise…

Most people believe in some form of risk management and the truth is, that it doesn’t work all the time. It doesn’t work because the human being is incapable of processing all of the possible rules of the moment, the game, in any specific scenario, fast enough.

The organization or environment you are operating within and the responsibility you are tasked with each minute of each hour of each day, requires you to make “Trust Decisions.”

There are three essential qualities of Trust:

1. “Trust is a rules-based exercise.”
2. “Trust decisions are fueled by information.”
3. “Trust decisions are mathematical.”

“In a digital world where we are struggling to sustain and build trust across a global, wired landscape of human affairs characterized by reports and allegations of cyberwars, digital theft, electronic espionage, and the loss of human dignity through ubiquitous surveillance, this essential truth changes everything.”

“Achieving Digital Trust: The New Rules For Business At The Speed of Light” - By Jeffrey Ritter Page 51-53

As you begin to think about your daily tasks, do you know and understand the rules?

Trust Decisions require a “Yes” or “No”. There is no “Maybe”.

Unfortunately, humans operate differently than machines and software that were designed with rules that are truly binary. Zero or One.

That is why we designed and built tools and innovations that can follow the rules at tremendous speeds using rules that we agreed upon.

How well do you know the rules that are the origin of behavior within your most trusted tool?

Is it a gondola? Is it an alarm? Is it a safety switch? Is it a software program? Is it a computer embedded in another machine?

Rules are followed. Information is gathered. Calculations are executed.

So what?

“Taking the risk” means choosing not to calculate trust and the first opportunity to do so occurs far earlier than you might ever imagine.“

“Decisions that are thorough—decisions that are to be trusted—create more wealth.”

“Achieving Digital Trust: The New Rules For Business At The Speed of Light” - By Jeffrey Ritter Page 75-77

Humans are continuously processing a combination of all three qualities simultaneously and yet you know when “Trust” is quickly eroding in your vision, your senses and your mind.

You are comparing all of these qualities simultaneously based upon your past performance and/or experiences.

Therefore, failures of people, processes, systems and external events seem to occur randomly.

Is it possible to achieve a state of zero surprise? Where all risks are mitigated and humans can achieve an environment of trust that is sustainable. We think it is. In the right environment and in a specific scenario, surprise is now almost “impossible”.

How safe, secure and wealthy do you feel today?

Prediction: Another Year of Living Dangerously...

Will this be another year of living dangerously?

Security forces within your organization are busy at work, contemplating a combined strategy to address a continuing barrage of new potential threats. 

2023-2024 could very well be even more dangerous than this past year.

"Enterprise Security Risk Convergence is the "Operational Risk Management" wave of the future."

How these converged entities are forming and how they will arrive at a single focal point is based on what they both have in common. Information-based assets.

“Contingency Planners” shall be more beware. Savvy CIO's and CxO’s recognize that new threats and soaring costs are two factors driving the convergence or integration of traditional and information security functions in a growing number of global organizations.

Operational Risks span the continuum from the physical to the digital environment in our enterprise ecosystems.

Prepare your organization for the day when the efficiencies and the effectiveness of having redundant safety and security responsibilities becomes a new agenda topic at the next executive retreat.

Business desire for contingency professionals who can examine and assess the risks that organizations face as a whole, is one of the tipping points behind the convergence phenomenon.

In the end, the winners will be those contingency planners that realized that all the guards, gates, firewalls and intrusion prevention systems are nothing more than tools.

What they support is the successful implementation of a Risk Management System focused on intelligence information.

The single asset that security organizations have in common is the dynamically changing information in our contingency plans.

As the Operational Risks continue to surround our supply chains to corporate enterprises, it's imperative strategic planners look at where we are spending our money and deploying our resources.

What would happen to our preparedness, readiness and recovery capabilities if we just reallocated 5% of the corporate marketing budget to our protective intelligence and risk management budget?

If we did, then we might find ourselves with fewer calls to the Courthouse, State house or even to the (202) area code...

Navigator: Speed of Innovation...

When the Netscape Navigator was finally launched here on our planet Earth, much of humanity was just on the verge of an era of massive organizational change.

Working in the IT industry and living through the transition of our communications era of data transfer across and through the digital Internet in the early days was full scale innovation. In more ways than one.

As the desktop devices were rapidly designed for digital storage and computing power and the software industry was now at the dawn of incorporating modems of mbps data exchange, data integrity, data security and data resilience; our global intelligence strategies were still naive.

Deficient in worldly wisdom and informed judgment, it would not be too long until DISA, DARPA and others expanded the processes for the protection and the exploitation of the Internet. Network Solutions, Inc. ICANN and so many others.

Ft. Meade, MD to McLean, VA to Arlington to Quantico to Mt. Weather, VA. This was only the beginning of the late night SCIF meetings in the late 90’s.

The next data wake up call was February 18, 2001 in Foxstone Park near Vienna, VA when Robert Hanssen was finally arrested. His Palm 3 PDA was logged into evidence.

So what!

The light speed of fiber-optic submarine cables communicating our “Zeros and Ones,” Quantum, Hypersonic missiles at Mach 5, is just an example.

Back in July of 2000, a few stories above 1555 Wilson Boulevard in Arlington, a three year old startup company was already crawling the Internet 24/7, downloading Terabytes of open source information (OSINT). It was named Cyveillance then.

Many of these early Cyveillance founders can still remember what was discovered then, and what the value of international online monitoring services would soon become. The exponential growth of just the “Dark Web” was astonishing.

It was just causing a feeling of great wonder among leadership early mornings and late evenings across the National Capital Region (NCR).

The speed of defense and intelligence innovation and the pace of critical response in those days was truly epic.

On May 11, 2017 the President issued an Executive Order (EO) on strengthening the Cybersecurity of Federal Networks and Critical Infrastructure?

The question now is, why did it take us so long? In the mean time, 20+ years had passed.

In April of 2018, the NIST Cybersecurity Framework 1.1 was updated. Now 5+ years later, the journey to CSF 2.0 is in draft.

One of our U.S. greatest vulnerabilities still remains in so many places. The speed of change and our future technology innovation.

Our next few decades are so ready for acceleration, in so many places.

With so many more new young minds, working alongside our people with real leadership experience. 

With so many new inventions of mankind ready for launch…

Onward!

Office Automation: Time to Wonder...

It was located near the corner of Red Hill Avenue and Bell Avenue in Tustin, California and our ground floor offices were complete. We were the first tenant in this new modern business park.

You could never miss it driving down Red Hill, as our view across the road was the massive Tustin Blimp Hangar #1 in the near distance, today a historical landmark.

As a newly promoted Orange County District Manager, now after several years with a territory of high rise office buildings off Wilshire Blvd. in West Los Angeles, it was a great arena of new career opportunity in a growing business segment of the “Office Automation” industry.

Just inside the front door of the office we had our greeting desk and waiting area, our demo room was just to the left, and then straight ahead was a hallway door that led to the sales “Bull Pen” and to the rear of the building.

This is where our company service technicians area and our other tech support offices were located near a rear entrance.

It also included space for our growing high technology innovation business, to add dozens of new sales and support employees to serve the growing business areas in Orange County of Irvine, Newport Beach and Costa Mesa.

Within the year, we would soon come to hear the merger news of our national company Lanier being acquired. Harris Corporation of Melbourne, FL was our new owner and we were now on a rapid strategy to compete with Wang and new competitors in the growing “Office Automation” industry. By the start of the 1990's, Lanier accounted for about 1/3 of Harris Corporation's revenues.

What is that? Office Automation?

You know, the beginning of the IBM PC LAN networking of Word Perfect Word Processing, Lotus 1-2-3 and dBASE.

The lawyers, insurance companies, defense industrial base juggernauts such as Northrop, McDonnell Douglas and the financial services business community had also discovered other tech innovation to eliminate the historical secretarial typing pools and even the fax machine.

It was named Novell NetWare.

"At its high point, NetWare had a 63 percent share of the market for network operating systems and by the early 1990s there were over half a million NetWare-based networks installed worldwide"…

Imagine what is was like for our Sales, Support and Tech personnel in those days. So busy and so incredible. Even our “Happy Hours” off PCH at the “Rusty Pelican” were epic!

So what!

Well, those were the days of true business innovation.

Our Monday Morning Sales Meetings were at 8:00AM sharp, and then at 8:30AM our 1-1, 15 min sessions followed behind closed doors with each Sales Rep, to discuss their next weeks priorities and last weeks activity. See you next Monday!

Our Sales Reps were working on a straight commission and for their first 60 days their compensation was a draw against any monthly commissions earned. If you were in the “Hole” after 30 days, you were put on a Performance-Improvement-Plan (PIP). If you were still not meeting your sales quota in 60 days, you were fired.

When you have experienced any dialogue with an employee to notify them that this Monday will be their last day, it is never comfortable and always emotional.

Even after 20 or 30 notice meetings over the forthcoming years as a District and Regional Manager, helping another tear filled sales rep carry their “Bankers Box” to the parking lot next to that active Marine Corps Air Station El Toro (ICAO), it was never routine. Helicopters and the roar of jets were always in the background.

So many of these same dedicated people, went forward in their work careers to other competitors and excelled in their jobs. Maybe it was just meant to be.

When one career door closes and then another one opens before you, take a minute to smile. And Wonder.

Within a few more years and some other career moves in the OC, our own family was packing up our San Clemente house. Mom had a wonderful opportunity back East and with our 6 year old Daughter and 5 year old Son, we told them we were leaving their friends in their Capistrano Unified School District and headed to the Langley School District along the Potomac River in Northern Virginia. We witnessed even more small tears that day.

Soon thereafter, walking through the thick woods and along the dirt horse trails near our home one sunny September Saturday, with the sound of the “Great Falls” in our ears, little did we all know what was soon to launch on the global technology horizon.

Netscape.

"Marc Andreessen, the leader of the team that developed Mosaic, left NCSA and, with James H. Clark, one of the founders of Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI), and four other former students and staff of the University of Illinois, started Mosaic Communications Corporation. Mosaic Communications eventually became Netscape Communications Corporation, producing Netscape Navigator."

Now it was time to truly Wonder…

Aspiration: Life Achievements...

Your future will depend on how well you master innovation and certain disciplines in life.

How you alone decide to continuously learn and apply these effective rituals will make all the difference.

How many times have you repeated some of these same tasks, same rules, or same endeavors in order to achieve the goals that have been set for you or that you alone have set for yourself?

Many famous books have been written about finding your purpose, “Your Why”, yet what is it that drives your aspirations because you excel at some God given talent.

Having a talent that is discovered by your parents, a teacher or some other mentor or coach is only just the beginning.

Growing up in small town America or a little suburb outside a large U.S. metro city is the place you first learn about any potential talents you were born with.

It is not until you leave it and venture beyond your own locality to see the rest of the world outside your own neighborhood, that you will discover your ambitions, and what real talents you would like to pursue.

Who will you trust to be your instructors, coaches, your mentors, your colleagues and your institution, company, organization, agency or service for building and accelerating your disciplines as you grow older?

Will you choose a venture introduced by a parent, a coach or someone you want to be like some day? Will your choice to learn a particular skill or area of knowledge change your life trajectory forever?

Yes it will.

The focused skills and the area of knowledge you choose to pursue will become your path to the future.

One truth is, you must find yourself “Doing” far more time than just time “Thinking”. 

Getting out of your own local domain, doing more into the unknown with others, will gradually build new valuable skills and your growing knowledge.

Perhaps more important, it will build more real experiences. Experience is what you choose to do and you combine this with your life aspiration. The strong desire to achieve something great.

You will continuously make choices to create opportunities or challenges. How you learn from these truly creates your portfolio of life and career experiences.

Where have you traveled? Who have you trusted? What have you learned? Why did you decide to gain experience in _ _ _ _ _?

Always remember. How will your aspiration and experience achieve a positive good and greatness with others you care about?

Remember the day you look in the rear view mirror and see your Mother and/or Father shedding a tear while waving at you, as your life is accelerating into the future.

Will you make a positive difference…Godspeed!

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…