Astronomy with Pin and Paper

Ring of Fire, not so much...

Here in Minneapolis we were not on the path of today's annular eclipse.  But between the yard work and the house work we took time to observe the partial eclipse visible to us in Minnesota.  Not having any eclipse glasses on hand we pricked a pinhole in a piece of card board and projected the image on another.  Our implementation of the technique was neither high tech nor high rez, but it sufficed.

One Tough Mudder

I followed the kids to Somerset, Wisconsin this morning...

This was their first Tough Mudder.  A fine time was had by all.  The event is well and truly named.  The Tough Mudder is about all completing the 12 mile obstacle course as a team, intact and in good spirits.  I have been invited to join their team next year.  Sounds like fun.

Godspeed, SpaceX Dragon!

Today is the day!

It's just a cargo delivery run to low Earth orbit and the ISS, but it's the first such flight by a commercial spaceflight company!  What's more, all it takes to make the reusable Dragon cargo capsule a crew module is the installation of up to seven seats.  Ending an era in which crew safety was compromised in pursuit of mission objectives, the Dragon capsule rides on top of the stack, has a launch abort system, and has a reentry heat shield that won't be rendered useless by running into a chunk of foam.   The future is here.

UPDATE: The future will have to wait.  This morning, in the moment between "all engines start" and "liftoff" a fault was detected by on board systems and the launch was automatically aborted.  Rats.

REUPDATE: Looks like they'll make repairs and try again Tuesday 22 May 2012.  Cool.

Mindsets and Toolkits

Thinking Positively About Security...

After walking the Secure360 trade show floor and listening to the talks I moderated on Day One of the conference I went home and rewrote my presentation keeping in mind that my audience was not going to be physical security professionals, but those working in logical security, audit, compliance, and business continuity.  My talk became became a sort of autobiographical, editorial essay.  

NOTE: These are the text and images used to frame my presentation.  For the whole story you had to be there.

IN ADDITION TO...

• Logical security
• Information protection
• Audit
• Compliance

THERE IS ALSO...

• Physical security

WHY SO SERIOUS?

Physical security managers have personal, professional, and institutional biases that affect the way we see the world, evaluate hazards, and communicate risk.

We’re frequently more conservative, more hierarchical, and more risk averse that the executives who rely on us to guide their business decisions.

Often we’re so focused on making sure bad things don’t happen we forget we are also responsible for making sure the right things do.

THE UNEXAMINED LIFE

Let’s examine the means by which we can approach the security process with a sense of corporate responsibility, critical thinking, and resist using fear as a lever. 

Let’s look behind the headlines for important clues for how our mindset is reflected in the way we approach the services we offer and look at skills we can add to our personal, professional, and institutional tool kit that make us more effective business partners.

WE COME FROM DIFFERENT PLACES

Many physical security practitioners come to the private sector from law enforcement

• Public law enforcement is about maintaining public order and investigating crime

And we increasingly come from the military

• The military is about protecting national interests and projecting power

While many of us have always worked in the private sector

• Business is about the bottom line

Images http:/commons.wikimedia.org/

WITH ENOUGH SHOTGUNS

“You can’t have enough off duty cops with shotguns.”

“Your job is to make sure nothing bad happens!”

“I can’t tell you what security is, but I’ll let you know when you’re getting it.”

“When all you have is a hammer all your problems look like nails.” – Abraham Mazlow

Image http://www.remington.com/products/firearms/shotguns/model-870/model-870-express-tactical.aspx 

MORE USEFUL PHILOSOPHIES

Our job is not only to make sure nothing bad happens, but to make certain the right things do happen.

Security is a people business: We work with people, to protect people, from other people. 

ISSUES FOR PHYSICAL SECURITY
 

• We are late adopters
• It can be difficult to demonstrate the effectiveness of our programs
• We treat risk wrong
• We tend to take the side of power
• We protect the status quo
• We are prone to lead with emotion, especially fear and anger
• We struggle to align our programs with the business

 CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

• Cognitive perception of risk
• Cognitive dissonance
• Confirmation bias
• Using fear as a lever
• Creative problem solving
• Enterprise risk management
• Servant leadership

TOPICS WE DISAGREE ON 

• Social roles
• Workplace violence
• Role of private security in Homeland Security and the Global War on Terror
• Surveillance
• Prosecuting criminal suspects
• Use of force
• Profiling
• Concealed carry and shall issue laws

CULTURAL COGNITION OF RISK

AKA “Conservative White Male Effect”

“The ‘cultural cognition of risk’ refers to the tendency of individuals to form risk perceptions that are congenial to their values.” – Kahan

Image http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/05/02/did-may-day-save-occupy-wall-street.html

It looks like so…

Photo http://www.culturalcognition.net/  

Which means we disagree like so...

Photo http://www.culturalcognition.net/  

COGNITIVE DISSONANCE

  

It is psychologically uncomfortable to hold contradictory cognitions. This dissonance, being unpleasant, motivates a person to change his cognition, attitude, or behavior, by

• acquiring new information or beliefs that will increase the existing consonance and thus cause the total dissonance to be reduced; or,
• changing one or more of the beliefs, opinions, or behaviors involved in the dissonance;
• forgetting or reducing the importance of those cognitions that are in a dissonant relationship

We tend to deal with beliefs that conflict with the evidence by the more familiar concepts of rationalization, self-deception, irrational faith, confirmation bias, and overestimation of one's intelligence and abilities.

Image http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fox_and_the_Grapes 

CONFIRMATION BIAS

 

• We are rationalizing animals
• We prefer evidence that supports what we already believe
• It’s why we do double blind studies and submit to peer review
• External attempts to change our beliefs frequently result in reinforcement of the belief

Image http://sacemaquarterly.com/methodology/why-does-medical-research-sometimes-get-it-so-wrong.html

SELLING THROUGH FEAR

 

• “The time for urgency is now!”
• “Do something!”
• “Workplace violence is an epidemic!”

Image from http://usopenborders.com/ 

“TWO FATALITIES A DAY”

HOMICIDE VS SUICIDE

TYPE II, III, AND IV

CLIENTS, CO-WORKERS, AND INTIMATES

WORKPLACE HOMICIDE RATES

Image from http://www.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/cfoi/cfch0009.pdf

 

WORKPLACE ASSAULTS

Image http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/wv09.pdf

SERVANT LEADERSHIP

 

• Serve yourself
• Serve your team
• Serve your company
• Serve your profession
• Serve your community
• “Leaders don’t create followers, they create more leaders.” – Tom Peters
• Ask “What do you need more of from me? What do you need less of from me?”

Image http://jamesstrock.com/services/21st-century-leadership1/servant-leadership

 CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING

 

• Encourage creativity in problem detection and problem solving
• Cultivate your curiosity and interest
• Surprise your people
• “Creativity occurs at the edge of our comfort zones” - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
• Don’t forget to apply your solution, measure it, and adjust iT

Image http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mihaly_Csikszentmihalyi 

ENTERPRISE RISK MANAGEMENT

Convergence of physical and logical security has not happened

• And maybe it shouldn’t 
• Physical and logical security may not overlap enough

Assembles a variety of risk management disciplines under a single leadership executive

Physical and logical security, safety, environmental, emergency management, disaster recovery, business continuity, compliance, audit, risk, and maybe even legal

Manage risks to the business interest

• Not fighting crime for the public good
• Not waging a global war on terror

Learn to accept dynamic risk

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

 

• Cultivate our emotional intelligence
• Care for our teams
• Engage in appropriate influence
• Resist the urge to stage “Security Theater”
• Do not scare people – not deliberately, not accidentally
• Further the business interest

REFERENCES

ASIS International CSO Roundtable. (2010). Enterprise security risk management: How great risks lead to great deeds. The CSO Roundtable of ASIS International: Alexandria, VA. Retrieved from http://www.asisonline.org/education/docs/CSORT_ESRM_whitepaper_2010-04.pdf

Bodner, S. (2006). Servant leadership: The complexity of a simple idea. Pyramid ODI. Retrieved from http://www.pyramidodi.com/papers/servant.pdf

Bureau of Labor Statistics (2011). Occupational homicides by selected characteristics, 1997-2009. United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved from http://www.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/cfoi/work_hom.pdf

Carroll, R. (2011). Cognitive dissonance. The Skeptic’s Dictionary. Retrieved from http://www.skepdic.com/cognitivedissonance.html

Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries Charts, 1992-2010 (revised data) http://www.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/cfoi/cfch0009.pdf

 

Flaherty, J. (2005). Coaching: Evoking excellence in others, 2nd Ed. Elsevier: Burlington, MA. 

Leider, R. (2006). The leader in midlife, in F. Hesselbein & M. Goldsmith, Jossey-Bass (Eds.), The Leader of the Future 2; Visions, Strategies, and Practices for the New Era. A Wiley Imprint: New York.

Lennick, D. & Kiel, F. (2008). Moral intelligence: Enhancing business performance & leadership success. Wharton School Publishing: Upper Saddle River, NJ. 

Parker, P. (1999). Let your life speak; listening for the voice of vacation. Jossey-Bass: San Francisco.

Quinn, R. (1996). Deep change: Discovering the leader within. Jossey-Bass: San Francisco.

Schneier, B. (2003). Beyond fear: Thinking sensibly about security in an uncertain world. Copernicus Books: New York.

RESOURCES

http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2010/09/skeptics-discount-science-by-casting-doubts-on-scientist-expertise.ars

http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/wv09.pdf

http://blogs.cdc.gov/niosh-science-blog/

http://diyscholar.wordpress.com/best-webcasts-podcasts/

http://eclecticbreakfast.blogspot.com/

htTp://jps.anl.gov/index.html

http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/is907.asp

http://web.me.com/lskitka/styled-3/index.html

http://www.asisonline.org/

http://www.culturalcognition.net/

https://www.ncci.com/documents/Workplace_Research.pdf

https://www.securityexecutivecouncil.com/

Michael Brady, MA, CPP

Michael Brady is a life-long security leadership professional. He has provided security and safety services as a manager in high tech, as an independent security consultant, and as an executive for security service providers. Currently an account manager, consultant, and trainer for Hannon Security Services, Inc., Michael is also an adjunct instructor in the Security Management program at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota School of Graduate & Professional Programs. Michael recently completed his Master of Arts in Human Development degree where he focused on issues of leadership, team building, and problem solving.  He blogs at http://eclecticbreakfast.blogspot.com and can be reached at michael_brady_cpp@yahoo.com

God Against The Gods

The History of the War Between Monotheism and Polytheism...

 

God Against the Gods describes the unhappy and ultimately terminal interaction between monotheism and polytheism, especially as the latter waned under the influence of Constantine and later Roman emperors as Christianity became the state religion starting in the 4th century.  Jonathan Kirsch's book is uneven in spots, rich in others. He wears his biases on his sleeve, but writes well enough for the reader to overlook it most of the time. I'm getting to a point in my studies where I've seen a much of this books' contents elsewhere, but the manner in which the details are assembled here in a cogent whole makes God Against The Gods: The History of the War Between Monotheism and Polytheism a book worth reading.