You are welcome to tag along as my Secure360 talk takes shape...
Title (nine words maximum)
Mindsets and Toolkits: Thinking Positively About Security
Summary (150 words maximum)
Security managers have personal, professional, and institutional biases that affect the way we see the world, evaluate hazards, and communicate risk. We’re frequently conservative and 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. This sets us apart from peers in other business disciplines. We’ll examine the means by which we to approach the security process with a sense of corporate responsibility, critical thinking, and resist using fear as a lever. We’ll 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.
Bio (100 words maximum)
Michael Brady is a life-long security leadership professional. He has provided security, safety, and emergency management services at semiconductor and computer manufacturing firms, 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 and 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.
Friday, February 24, 2012
A Work in Progress
Labels:
critical thinking,
education,
ethics,
leadership,
risk,
security,
service
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Bill Whitmore's Book Has Hit the Bookstores
I note with concern that Mr. Whitmore is still using the raw numbers to make his case...
"Every day, on average, two people are killed and 87 injured as a result of a workplace violence incident, according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics."
In the mean time BLS 2010 preliminary workplace injury and fatality statistics read as follows...
There were 808 deaths due to "assaults and violent acts" (homicides, suicides, and animal attacks) at work in 2010.
http://www.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/cfoi/cftb0250.pdf
506 work-related homicides in 2010 (1.38 per day, on average).
http://www.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/cfoi/cftb0255.pdf
258 workplace suicides in 2010.
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cfoi.nr0.htm
Workplace homicides 2010 were at their lowest since 1992.
http://www.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/cfoi/cfch0009.pdf
Workplace suicides in 2010 were at their third highest since 1992 (2009 and 2008 were first and second highest, respectively).
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cfoi.nr0.htm
The very thorough NCCI 2012 report Violence in the Workplace provides more details...
69% of workplace homicides are committed during robberies.
https://www.ncci.com/documents/Workplace_Research.pdf
<2% of all workplace injuries are the result of assault.
https://www.ncci.com/documents/Workplace_Research.pdf
Perhaps Mr. Whitmore is using the raw numbers to shock consumers into buying his book so they have a chance to absorb his more positive and proactive leadership message. Perhaps he is concerned that readers would not be so strongly motivated if they knew that killings perpetrated by customers, coworkers, or intimate partners represented 157 deaths in 2010 (3% of all workplace fatalities).
"Every 2.3 days one person is killed in what most people think of as a workplace violence incident." is not nearly so catchy a tagline as one taken from the aggregated statistics (which include robbery-homicides and workplace suicides).
Once Mr. Whitmore hooks his reader does he break down the numbers into the multifaceted problems they represent? Does he address workplace suicide, which accounts for about a third of all workplace deaths due to assaults and violent acts? Does Mr. Whitmore address the 61% of workplace injuries caused by healthcare patients and residents of healthcare facilities? I'll have to buy Potential: Workplace Violence Prevention and Your Organizational Success and let you know.
Consider it added to my 2012 reading list...
UPDATE: On order 23 February 2012.
REUPDATE: In the mail 25 February 2012.
UPDATE: Arrived 27 February 2012. Snappy service; can't tell it was printed on demand.
REUPDATE: Submitted my review of the book to Security Management magazine for their consideration 4 March 2012.
LATEST UPDATE: Security Management had already assigned Whitmore's book to a reader - who has several months to complete it (which means you all won't see it there until later this summer sometime). Barry Nixon asked if he could publish it in the April issue of The Workplace Violence Prevention eReport, and so he shall.
Labels:
books,
critical thinking,
ethics,
leadership,
risk,
security,
service
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Silene Stenophylla
Time Traveler...
Ed Yong tells us in his Discover Magazine Not Exactly Rocket Science blog post that the seeds of this flowering plant have "been buried to a depth of 38 metres, and frozen for around 31,800 years" in Russian permafrost. Reports on the methods by which which this plant was revived from its thirty millennia of slumber are recounted in many media outlets.
What amazes me is how something so hardy could also be so delicate and beautiful.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
The 2012 Oscar Nominated Short Films
Are a special treat...
My daughter Cassandra suggested we see this year's Oscar nominated short films at the Landmark Lagoon Cinema.
Last week we saw the animated shorts:
- Dimanche/Sunday by Patrick Doyon
- The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore by William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg
- La Luna by Enrico Casarosa
- A Morning Stroll by Grant Orchard and Sue Goffe
- Wild Life by Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby
Of them, I probably liked the quirky and sad Wild Life the best.
This weekend we saw the live action:
- Pentecost by Peter McDonald and Eimear O'Kane
- Raju by Max Zähle and Stefan Gieren
- The Shore by Terry George and Oorlagh George
- Time Freak by Andrew Bowler and Gigi Causey
- Tuba Atlantic by Hallvar Witzo
I'm not sure I could pick a favorite from the live action short films, they were all so good.
Viewing these movies all in one sitting is a special treat I hope to repeat in the years to come. These anthologies can be found in a variety of theaters across the country and on iTunes and video on demand service. Make time to see these gems.
Enjoy.
Friday, February 17, 2012
I'll Be Speaking at Secure360 in May
"Mindsets and Toolkits: Thinking Positively About Security" is the working title...
I volunteered to serve as a backup speaker for the Secure360 conference being held at the River Centre in Saint Paul, MN, May 8-9, 2012. As the contracts were confirmed the coordinator came up short so they asked if I'd fill a programming slot. I'll be speaking May 9, at 1:30 pm. As currently and extemporaneously imagined my talk will present several examples which will demonstrate the importance of approaching the business security process with a sense of civic responsibility, critical thinking, and without using fear as a lever to advance the program. You know, the sort of stuff I'm always going on and on about. A detailed precis and my bio is due next Tuesday. Register today! Stay tuned for more details. The game is afoot...
Photo credit: www.photos8.com
I volunteered to serve as a backup speaker for the Secure360 conference being held at the River Centre in Saint Paul, MN, May 8-9, 2012. As the contracts were confirmed the coordinator came up short so they asked if I'd fill a programming slot. I'll be speaking May 9, at 1:30 pm. As currently and extemporaneously imagined my talk will present several examples which will demonstrate the importance of approaching the business security process with a sense of civic responsibility, critical thinking, and without using fear as a lever to advance the program. You know, the sort of stuff I'm always going on and on about. A detailed precis and my bio is due next Tuesday. Register today! Stay tuned for more details. The game is afoot...
Photo credit: www.photos8.com
Labels:
civics,
critical thinking,
education,
ethics,
law,
leadership,
politics,
risk,
security,
service
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