Memorial Day USA: Risk Serving Those Who Serve...

On this Memorial Day weekend in the United States; we need a revived and committed public to "Serving Those Who Serve."

Thousands of veterans are continuously finding out what it means to serve in a time of war and then face many of the challenges of returning home. To family, friends and a new career.

There are dozens of new ways you can "Serve Those Who Serve" and we are not just talking about the number of new charitable organizations. These new ways to assist veterans are increasing on a daily basis. The consumer and the corporation need to address the Operational Risks associated with volunteering time, resources and funds as you choose your respective facet of serving.

For those who have a focus on turning those vital military skill-sets towards those victims of our global disasters and growing nation state discourse, there are organizations such as Team Rubicon.

Team Rubicon unites the skills and experiences of military veterans with medical professionals to rapidly deploy emergency response teams into crisis situations. 

Team Rubicon Saves Lives.

Since its creation in January 2010, TR has impacted thousands of lives – in Haiti, Chile, Burma, Pakistan, Sudan, Ukraine, and here at home, in Vermont, Maryland, Missouri, California, Alabama and so many others. TR reaches victims outside the scope of where traditional aid organizations venture; victims on the fringe. 

Team Rubicon Engages Veterans.

Hundreds of US military veterans, many returning home after fighting years of war, find a renewed sense of purpose for their skills and experiences through TR.

I’m not a veteran or a medical professional…how can I volunteer for Team Rubicon? 

"While Team Rubicon responds to natural disasters in the US and around the world, disasters are not all that they do. Throughout the year Team Rubicon conducts community service projects, fundraisers, and outreach to potential supporters and donors. These are a few examples where TR can utilize the expertise of the following skills: event organizers, fundraisers, training specialists, graphic designers, photographers, video editing specialists, and administrative specialists."

Team Rubicon's slogan "Bridging the Gap" is a theme that all of us can use as a basis for this 2023 Memorial Day celebration and beyond. How can you serve those who serve with the skills and assets you possess, to make a difference? 

Maybe it is the Wounded Warrior Project, Got Your 6, Tunnel to Towers Foundation or even Dogs on Deployment.

Remembering those who have died for their country to preserve our way of life is what much of what Memorial Day is all about.

Using Charity Navigator as a tool to find out more about who you are working with or donating your money to, will be a good first step. Yet this is only one way to determine what the right place for your particular interests, skills and resources may be. This will give you more information on how a charity is utilizing your donated dollar and how much goes to overhead or executives administration.

So how will you make a difference? What will you do, to "Serve Those Who Serve"? Why are you doing it? Once you answer these questions, you will be well on your way to a more fulfilling life. What ever it may be or where ever you may find yourself, never forget. Never forget why we serve:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Mothers Day 2023: Always With Us...

“God is in this story, God is in the details

Even in the broken parts, He holds my heart, He never fails

When I'm at my weakest, I will trust in Jesus

Always in the highs and lows, the One who goes before mе

God is in this story. “

This music and chorus from Katy Nichole’s song brings tears to the eyes each time it plays and/or we sing the lyrics.

On this glorious day before a Sunday and another “Mothers Day” in the United States, we think of all of our Mothers in our lives.

When you are a Mother, you have your own story to share as a Daughter. As a Son of a women who raised you, who taught you and loved you, the story might be a bit similar.

Yet when you as a son then become a Father, your insights and context is enhanced, on what being a “Mother” is really all about.

When you witness your own baby being born, you truly understand why “God is in this story”.

Tomorrow we recognize and celebrate our “Mothers” in our USA nation, who have cared for us, raised us and given us all the real opportunities in our future lives.

With the perspective of a Son who had a Mother that married a young U.S. Marine and was so wonderful during my 58 years with her, she was just so talented, so caring and so proud of her “First born son”, she has never left my thoughts. She is still dearly missed.

With the perspective of a Father with 37 years with my only Wife and a Mother of our Daughter and our Son who are 19 months apart, this story still continues.

The journey of life and witnessing Mothers in labor, Mothers in the Nursery, Mothers in Schools, Mothers in the Home and even a wife working and taking care of her own 94 year-old mom provides tremendous context to this day.

As the first son of a life long Artist and a graduate of Northwestern and also Cranbrook, her pieces have always adorned our home. As a youngster, the memories of being with my sister in the basement studio of a small one-story house on a short dirt road or with Mom at her Art Exhibits at the Art Center in our small Mid-Western town, still are with me forever.

Yet today, glancing again at this painting of hers on our wall, still makes me wonder what she was thinking or praying about, as her brush dipped into her paint that morning. What her hopes and prayers were for all of her own children, a Son, a Daughter, a Son & a Son.

On this memorable Mothers Day 2023 you are always with us Mom, we shall cherish and celebrate all of you excellent ladies…thank you for all your love and prayers.  ”God is in this story, God is in the details”…

Volatility: Enemy #1…

Organizations implement Operational Risk solutions to lower "volatility" in earnings growth and return on capital. The focus on volatility is because no institution likes to see peaks and valleys in their earnings or their return on capital.

A steady and consistent growth curve without "Volatility" is the goal by many steadfast organizations.

Contrary to the goal of minimized "volatility" there are also those who feed off of the chaos and the large swings between these highs and lows in the marketplace and with specific companies in vital sectors of the financial economy. Will another Blueprint for Regulatory Reform be the answer?

As a hedge fund investor, can you explain what the strategy is for your investment fund? Do you know what your money is being invested in?

Does your hedge fund manager provide transparency on calculating your return on funds invested? What was the reason you invested in alternative investments to begin with?

Carrying this analogy to the operational processes within your organization, the goal is to keep the processes running smoothly. When people or systems deviate from the agreed upon "Rule Sets" then change ensues along with the volatility of the performance measures.

Errors, Omissions and systemic "glitches" are the catalysts to volatility that creates fear, uncertainty and doubt.

Do you understand the Math? When the process gets to this stage and people don't trust the rules anymore, you are on the brink of a failure and impending loss, in dollars and/or peoples lives.

Operational Risk Management is a discipline that is remerging in our corporate ranks because it has already proven that it saves lives. The regulators and inspector generals are going to raise it’s mandate within our institutional ranks once again.

The "Rule Sets" of playing business in the financial, health care and energy sectors are not the only ones being subjected to this increased scrutiny and renewed focus on OPS Risk as lessons were learned over 15 years ago:

“In March of 2008, the Department of Defense learned that four non-nuclear nose cone assemblies and their associated electrical components for a ballistic missile where mistakenly shipped to Taiwan in the fall of 2006. These items were originally shipped in March 2005 from F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming to the Defense Logistics Agency warehouse at Hill Air Force Base in Utah. There are no nuclear or fissile materials associated with these items.

Upon learning of the error, the U.S. government took immediate action to acquire positive control of the components and arranged for their safe and secure recovery to the United States. These items have been safely returned to the United States.”

After this event, lessons learned and “After-Action-Reports” were generated in the ranks of the U.S. Treasury Department and the Department of Defense all relating to the failure of People, Processes, Systems and or External events.

Operational Risk is all around us and continuously ready for prime time focus in terms of our leadership strategy execution, implementation and measurement.

Whether you utilize Operational Risk Management (ORM) in the Defense Industrial Base or in another Critical Infrastructure sector in the United States, it’s important to revisit what it is NOT:

Operational Risk is Not:

• About avoiding risk
• A safety only program
• Limited to complex-high risk evolutions
• A program -- but a process
• Only for on-duty
• Just for your boss
• Just a planning tool
• Automatic
• Static
• Difficult
• Someone else’s job
• A well kept secret
• A fail-safe process
• A bunch of checklists
• Just a bullet in a briefing guide
• “TQL”
• Going away

The goal of Risk Management is not to eliminate risk, but to manage risk so the mission can be accomplished with minimum impact...

Superhuman: Mission Possible...

Each new day is a real opportunity to make yourself better. It can be another day of new discovery, curiosity and learning.

Are you Superman?

Living day by day, going to work and/or finding the truth, as you talk with other people to hear what they have to say and then perform the tasks to improve your own world or the enterprise.

What about conquering evil the moment you see it or feel it, by using your God given talents in order to protect others and defend people from harm and to provide for their daily needs.

Are you a Father or Mother?

Then you too may be a “Superhuman” (Superman or SuperWoman) and now you truly understand what it really means to be a good responsible parent.

It is difficult to know the feeling and experience the emotions of being a Parent, until you actually are one.

You won’t be able to ever comprehend being a parent by just becoming a singular representative, manager, analyst, chef, teacher, banker, author, artist, supervisor or landlord.

You can learn about what to do or not to do, by watching your sibling or your own parent, a friend or by reading a parenting book or even just watching CoComelon on YouTube.

Yet it is not until you are actually performing and experiencing the moments in your own motherhood or fatherhood, that you will truly understand.

Yes, you will need to be “Superhuman” to achieve a level of true excellence that others will say you are a good and responsible Mom or Dad.

So what?

You alone as a “Superhuman” parent have a duty and mission.

The mission will change your life forever and so you too, have only one person to rely on.

On your next Childs birthday, take the time to reflect. Take the time to think about the journey so far.

Say another prayer.

You know that each birthday of your child is another opportunity for you to show your own super powers as a parent. No matter how old they are on this day.

"Love. Patience. Friendship. Encouragement. Forgiveness. Faith. Love."

Onward!

True Professional: Who Will You Become...

What will you do that is extraordinary and contributes a positive addition in your life that demonstrates your consistent effort and shows your own actual discipline?

It shall demonstrate your devotion and focus on becoming better even though you shall never achieve a level of true perfection.

Continuous skill and knowledge improvement is just that.

The discipline you choose will be so difficult to perfect that even after 2 decades and over 1000 documented examples almost weekly, you are far from the perceived finish line.

1000+ examples / 52 weeks = 19+ years

In September 2003 it all began. Writing words on a regular basis about real topics of interest was a discipline that started a career to become an even better “Operational Risk Specialist”.

Your discipline might be flying aircraft or doing heart surgery and you want to continuously grow your expertise. How do you measure your own consistent effort and show discipline?

Do you measure the number of hours or miles you have on duty in the air or space or classroom or on camera or operating room or court room or missions in theatre using your skills?

Why?

You too may become, a “True Professional”.

Do you measure the quality of your particular skill and/or innovative deliverable on every attempt?

So what?

You see, what ever your discipline may be and to what degree you are practicing consistently to become even better, if you are not measuring it in some way, then is it a real discipline?

What tool do you utilize to capture and measure your accomplishments? A log book, a photo journal, a score card, a web blog, a three ring binder, a digital file folder measured in GBs or TBs?

What are you actually measuring? The Number of attempts. The Quality of completions. The game score?

Maybe it is just a written exam and Two, Three or four letters (_ _ _ _) after your name?

Whether you have become a Doctor, Lawyer, Professor, Pilot, Operator, Specialist, Stylist, Salesperson, Manager, VP, Owner, Driver, Player, Author or Analyst in your life does not really matter to so many.

Maybe it does to you and your specific clients, customers, parishioners and patients and a few of your fellow family, comrades, co-pilots, clergy, operators and other True Professionals.

Yet, when you decide personally that your own professional tenure in this discipline has come to an end and you will stop being measured, then what?

Start a new one and have extraordinary consistent discipline…Godspeed!

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?

Easter 2023: Finding Forgiveness...

On Easter weekend growing up in the late 1960’s as a young acolyte at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in a small midwestern U.S. city, there was a tremendous focus on our services.

This holy holiday on Good Friday, was just the start of a busy weekend of prayer and many family gatherings.

As a fellow church acolyte, how well did any of us truly understand the real story around this man known as Jesus Christ?

At this point in serving our local church, how could having so much faith in a man you never met or knew, make any real difference in your day-to-day life?

Over time, the answer to this question became more apparent and continues to make a true difference today in so many ways.

When you grow up as the eldest sibling of four, you are looked upon by your Christian parents as a lead by example kind of person.

Over decades of time, it is hard to count the number of prayers said out loud on numerous occasions and after so many other significant life events.

“Easter is a Christian festival and cultural holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in the New Testament as having occurred on the third day of his burial following his crucifixion by the Romans at Calvary c. 30 AD.”

What Good Friday and Easter are really all about across history is this: “Forgiveness”.

Who will you forgive in your life and who will you pray with?

One truth about our humanity, is that if you too are experiencing forgiveness, whether “Giving it” or “Receiving it”, this creates even more positive outcomes and increased resilience in our personal lives…

Believe.

Life Lessons: What Did You Learn?

Do you remember the first time you learned a real “Life Lesson”?

Maybe it was with a brother or sister. Maybe it is a best friend. Maybe it is a co-worker. Maybe it is a Mother or a Father. Maybe it is a Grand Parent? Maybe it is a doctor. Maybe it is a lawyer.

Your particular “Life Lessons” will most likely be a combination of events and of coaches along the journey.

How about the time you were picking up your sibling from a friends house at 9:00PM on a Sunday night? The “Blue” flashing lights from the police in the rear view mirror was unexpected, yet driving 42 MPH in a 25 MPH zone at 17 years old, resulted in a traffic ticket and drivers license 30 day suspension.

How about the time you were assigned a vital project at work with a date/time certain deadline and it was 3 hours late? Your supervisor/boss/commander asked you to come to their office and they shut the door. The tone of their voice was stern and it was a little bit loud, as they explained how your failure to submit your part of the project, delayed the customers shipment and they canceled the order.

Your particular “Life Lessons” will typically occur when your lack of experience or your apathetic mental attitude, puts you in a direct intersection with some new learning opportunity.

The question is, What did you Learn?

Follow the rules when driving an automotive vehicle. Turn in your work assignments early or on-time. Tell the truth. Save money. Pay your bills. Any of the Ten Commandments. Use an 18-multi-character password.

One life lesson you will certainly learn, is that making mistakes is inevitable. Understood. Making the same mistake over and over, is an unwillingness to comply with the defined rules or a real learning deficiency.

Which is it?

Life's analogies are prolific. Three strikes and you are out. Or where there is smoke there is fire.

Should you find yourself in a bad place or a difficult situation, where you are asking yourself “Again,” why am I here again, then perhaps you need to ask for some real help.

Whether your own journey is successful or is not successful is entirely up to you. It is now totally up to you as a person, citizen, student, colleague, or an employee whether you are truly capable of learning real lessons in life.

Now that you too have found the help and the coaching you need, Onward!

Live a wonderful life and always remember your own “Life Lessons”…

Reliable: Who Do You Have Faith In?

When you think of the person you would recommend for a particular task or to perform defined professional services, who comes to mind?

There are many ways and words to describe a person or the business, yet if you had only one word to choose from, what would it be?

Reliable  adjective

1: suitable or fit to be relied on: DEPENDABLE

2: giving the same result on successive trials

Reliable noun

1: one that is reliable

In many cases, this is the word people really mean to use, as the basis for their recommendation.

Whether a business or a person is reliable, makes all the difference in your world, especially if you must rely on the outcomes of their service or duty.

When someone or something you pay for, does not meet a series of positive results, you begin to question your decision to utilize the service or receive the product for use.

Unfortunately for many people and businesses, this word “Reliable” is not considered or even measured on a consistent or measurable basis.

"Over the course of time in your life, think of one person or business you could say was truly reliable."

Think of this one person or business you have utilized for more than ten years that is reliable.

In any professional capacity, becoming reliable takes many years of practice and substantial learning. It requires the development of people, processes, systems and real innovation.

Now, think about someone or an entity (business, product, government agency) that you have lost faith in.

The people or businesses that you have stopped interaction with, have become “Unreliable” for your particular requirements or expectations of quality of service.

How would our world change for the better if there was more learning and focus on being “Reliable”?

How can you as a person or business become top of mind, when someone is asked “Who would you recommend” to: _________________?

You too, can become truly reliable…

Navigator: Trusted Journey...

Looking out over the horizon, what visual geographic point will you navigate towards in order to achieve your mission objective?

Navigator noun

Nav-i-ga-tor

:one that navigates or is qualified to navigate

We looked at the map and wondered what obstacles we would encounter across the challenging journey ahead of us.

We were planning as a team of two, to travel to a place together that we had never been before.

As we looked across the table from each other, with our data and imagery on the laptop screen before us, we laughed.

Your mission together will also be epic. It may require hours and days or weeks of effective planning, yet the most vital tool, will be how you are communicating to your partner.

You both clearly know the objective and the destination. You know the deadline.

Now, how will you “Navigate” to reach that place, you have both dreamed about together?

Weeks later, this particular journey was over and we knew ahead of our launch, that the navigation and the communication was going to be unpredictable.

Perhaps most important. What did we learn together?

Whether it was navigate left or right, navigate up or down, navigate to these precise coordinates at this altitude or depth, there was one thing we truly learned.

You have to trust your navigator 100%.

Yes of course there will be continuous questions and answers along the journey. Timely and effective communication is vital.

The only way to build that “Trust Factor” to 100% is more time together in practice.

Discovering what failure looks, feels and sounds like.

Learning together, means that you are well on your way, to future achievements you could never have dreamed about.

Who is your single trusted “Navigator”...