Security Learning Cultures
In the West today, most change occurs in organizations through fear or desperation. Here are real problems with this. First, it means that change is inevitably episodic. When things are bad, you can get some change. As soon as the perception of imminent doom fades, so does the engine of change. Second, the more obvious human problem is that a lot of people in companies today are in a state of continual crises. Many organizations operate this way. It’s tough, it’s pretty stressful. It’s not the way most of us would choose to live our lives.
Peter Senge, MIT
Globe and Mail, December, 1992
Peter Senge, MIT
Globe and Mail, December, 1992
Overview
What has changed since Senge's 1992 comments? The realty might be that conditions have worsened as stress continues to rise in the workplace and everything that goes with that...from more aggression, less ability to focus and depleted resilience to temptations.
For several years the hot multi-media button and government hyperbole was terrorism. This buzz has quietened, which affects (emotions) levels of vigilance, but the threat is still there. Lately its cyber security and active shooters. These layers of threats pile on top of age old problems including: occupational fraud, theft, corruption and environmentally induced behaviors such as workplace sabotage, workplace violence and environmental conditions which provide rationalizations and excuses when insiders are tempted to do bad things.
ATRiM Group principles and associates know from experience with search conferences how passionately insiders engage, contribute and cooperate when they are given voice. Stephen Covey once observed, insiders have never been more educated and less listened to. Once engaged, the challenge shifts to keeping people passionate and engaged as technocratic and hierarchal road blocks hit them in the face. This is no-more-so the case than with security efforts. Decision makes don't see transactional, tangible results from investing in security, and it takes a certain type of gumption and discipline to stay vigilant, as results are not immediately evidenced as reinforcement for one's effort.
For several years the hot multi-media button and government hyperbole was terrorism. This buzz has quietened, which affects (emotions) levels of vigilance, but the threat is still there. Lately its cyber security and active shooters. These layers of threats pile on top of age old problems including: occupational fraud, theft, corruption and environmentally induced behaviors such as workplace sabotage, workplace violence and environmental conditions which provide rationalizations and excuses when insiders are tempted to do bad things.
ATRiM Group principles and associates know from experience with search conferences how passionately insiders engage, contribute and cooperate when they are given voice. Stephen Covey once observed, insiders have never been more educated and less listened to. Once engaged, the challenge shifts to keeping people passionate and engaged as technocratic and hierarchal road blocks hit them in the face. This is no-more-so the case than with security efforts. Decision makes don't see transactional, tangible results from investing in security, and it takes a certain type of gumption and discipline to stay vigilant, as results are not immediately evidenced as reinforcement for one's effort.
Begin with the end in mind & always sharpen the saw
Stephen Covey (1989)
Why do organizations seem to get cultural amnesia and then go about reinventing the wheel - often using a different language in new research papers around the same concepts? Why are we loosing sight of simple principles and age old "rules of thumb" learned about human behavior over centuries and now lost in technocracy? The ATRiM Group does not have all the answers. The challenge looking back has been mastery of the forces of resistance to inertia generated by passionate leaders with organizations falling back to old habits on their departure. In the case of security, this is the story of sustained mindset.
The ATRiM Group has long memories about past dialogue and actions by inspired leadership whose lessons are still valid. On top of this, it is likely more answers are yet to be found in a journey of discovery at critical infrastructure, when insiders experience re-discovery of old wisdom, that is combined with new science.
The ATRiM Group has long memories about past dialogue and actions by inspired leadership whose lessons are still valid. On top of this, it is likely more answers are yet to be found in a journey of discovery at critical infrastructure, when insiders experience re-discovery of old wisdom, that is combined with new science.
Search Conferences
Our 2.5 day Search Conference opens with selection of up to 30 employees across all levels of an organization and learning about turbulent and uncertain global security environments. This is stuff of nonlinearity - the world allied with the sciences that come out of quantum physics discoveries. Next, they evaluate the present state of their security systems with its myths inherited from classical physics and economics and its fallibilities. They are then introduced to new science and methodologies for designing a more effective and desirable security future state based in learning cultures. Finally they develop a Phase 1 action plan to take their ideas back to their critical infrastructure, and with the personal relationships to sustain inertia.
Those who did not participate in the search conference have no emotional connection to work of the conference. An option is our film production capacity to produce upscale videos that capture the emotions and discoveries of the conference for viewing by non-participating employees back at the office, and for orientation of newly onboarded employees which captures the essence of your security mindset.
Those who did not participate in the search conference have no emotional connection to work of the conference. An option is our film production capacity to produce upscale videos that capture the emotions and discoveries of the conference for viewing by non-participating employees back at the office, and for orientation of newly onboarded employees which captures the essence of your security mindset.
Planning-in-Action Workshops
"The conventional approach to planning, with its rigid time frames, its breakdown of planning tasks into sectors and regions, and its centralized and technocratic perspective on plan formulation and implementation is most unlikely to be effective in an increasingly turbulent environment."
Francisco Sagisti, Chief of Economic Planning, World Bank
Francisco Sagisti, Chief of Economic Planning, World Bank
Business cultures, communities and countries in the 1990s, perhaps brought on in part with the closing of one Century and the advent of another, began to adapt an innovative approach to planning. designed to accelerate progress during turbulent times. Inspirational leaders in many domains were recognizing that what is appropriate for the future is no longer simply some form of the past repeated.
Planning-in-action is analogous to running a marathon that always includes a series of sprints, sometimes over unknown terrain but with the end in mind, or climbing a mountain into the clouds and adapting to new conditions. Sometimes one can only plan the stretch that is immediately ahead and making adjustments, while keeping the vision in mind. There is an old saying: "It you don't want things to go wrong, stay at home on the couch and don't do anything." With security, potential breakdowns must be identified and declared early on; viewed as an opportunity to learn and grow.
ATRiM Planning-in-Action is a strategic prevention science methodology for helping your insiders tackle security problems with knowledge and confidence, mindful of critical infrastructure as complex systems with many inter-related parts that influence each other. Our facilitators provide information from experience and science in a timely fashion to-the-need. We strive to create those "aha" moment of self-discovery that stick, while problem-solving team members are in the struggle to find future-state solutions in a security learning culture.
Planning-in-Action planning has a number of specific advantages:
Planning-in-action is analogous to running a marathon that always includes a series of sprints, sometimes over unknown terrain but with the end in mind, or climbing a mountain into the clouds and adapting to new conditions. Sometimes one can only plan the stretch that is immediately ahead and making adjustments, while keeping the vision in mind. There is an old saying: "It you don't want things to go wrong, stay at home on the couch and don't do anything." With security, potential breakdowns must be identified and declared early on; viewed as an opportunity to learn and grow.
ATRiM Planning-in-Action is a strategic prevention science methodology for helping your insiders tackle security problems with knowledge and confidence, mindful of critical infrastructure as complex systems with many inter-related parts that influence each other. Our facilitators provide information from experience and science in a timely fashion to-the-need. We strive to create those "aha" moment of self-discovery that stick, while problem-solving team members are in the struggle to find future-state solutions in a security learning culture.
Planning-in-Action planning has a number of specific advantages:
- It provides an opportunity for reflection.
- It brings people together generating sustainable cross-silo relationships.
- It clarifies objectives within the framework of the designed security future state
- It builds consensus.
- It creates post conference engagement, ownership and accountability.