Preparing for the Unexpected

Join me Thursday, November 30/23 at 1pm EST, as I talk with author and globally recognized resilience and crisis management expert, Regina Phelps. We talk about the current global situation from a crisis management perspective and how it impacts our organizations, leadership, and our own well-being. During our chat we touch on: 1. Vocabulary of the moment, 2. Polycrisis, 3. Recurring historical themes (distrust, blame, fraying of society, conspiracy theories, rise of workers), 4. Executives and resilience, 5. Asking questions of leaders, 6. Leadership concerns and expectations, 7. Seizing opportunities, 8. Executive training, 9. build the bench, 10. The impact of chronic persistent crises...and more. It's another insightful discussion with Regina Phelps you don't want to miss. Enjoy!

Risk Management - it's a really hot topic right now. I'm joined by long-time management consultant, the inventor of Applied Information Economics (AIE), and author of 'The Failure of Risk Management: Why It's Broken and How to Fix it', Douglas W Hubbard. During our chat, Douglas talks about: 1. The challenge with Risk Assessments, 2. Probability defined (not as easily defined as you think), 3. Problems with the traditional risk matrix and matrices (sure to surprise you!), 4. Analysis placebo, 5. Using information incorrectly, 6. The long definition and short definition of risk management, 7. The 4 responses to risk action...can be ...a little murky, 8. Risk neutrality, 9. Changes in risk tolerance, 10. Risk and impact, 11. Value Statistical Life (VSL), 12. Tips to chat current risk practices. Effective risk management plays an essential role in effective decision-making. By applying the insights Douglas provides, you'll find yourself (and your organization) making smarter decisions based on techniques that have shown measurable benefit. (Adapted from the back cover sleeve). Enjoy!

Operational Resilience is a key area of focus of many organizations. I’m joined my seasoned security strategist and specialist Steve ‘Stitch’ Hindle, as we talk about Security & Operational Resilience in terms and perspectives different from the usual run-of-the-mill chatter. During our chat we touch on: 1. Disruptive events, 2. It’s OK to fail, 3. People empowerment, 4. Driven by the top, 5. Operational Resilience (Defined), 6. Bringing people together, 7. Experiencing resistance, 8. Feedback (it flows in both directions), 9. 3 Pillars of Cyber Security (People, Technology, Process), 10. Testing it all, 11. Embedded assumptions, 12. Using technology the right way, 13. Making lives better...and more. Don’t miss Steve’s take on these topics, as they will provide you and your organization some amazing insights into Security & Operational Resilience. Enjoy!

Understanding our environments, either in the workplace or out in public, can help us mitigate risks and increase safety, and to help achieve that we must understand situational awareness. I'm joined by longtime security & risk management expert, Michael White. During our chat we talk about: 1. Defining situational awareness, 2. Self-awareness, 3. Decision-making, 4. Communication skills, 5. Understanding your environment, 6. Practice-practice-practice (!), 7. Changing perceptions and biases, 8. Awareness in the workplace, 9. Overthinking and over-analyzing, 10. Starting situational awareness early...and more. Michael provides some wonderful insights on how we can become better at understanding our environments, our workplaces, our colleagues, and ourselves, by understanding and practicing situational awareness. You don't want to miss this. Enjoy!

Obtaining and maintaining executive support for you Resilience or Business Continuity Management (BCM)program can be tricky; something many people struggle with. In fact, it's one of the key challenges faced in the industry. I'm joined by John Luizzi, a long time BCM and resilience, Crisis Mgmt., Emergency Mgmt., and industry leader, to talk about what we can do to obtain executive support, especially if that support seems to be a challenge. During our chat we touch on: 1. Why executive support is important, 2. The problem of antiquated program delivery, 3. Measurement and metrics, 4. Situational awareness, 5. 'Build the village, 6. Looking for opportunities, 7. Actually learning from lessons learned, 8. How COVID impacted BCM/Resilience (and the people in the roles), 9. Making executives a part of your program, 10. Dealing with assumptions, 11. Sitting on the other side of the table...and much more. John gives some great insights on how to deal with executives to obtain and maintain their support for your resilience, BCM, Crisis Mgmt., and Emergency Mgmt. programs. There's allot of great advice you don't want to miss. Enjoy!

Today I talk with globally recognized Crisis Management specialist, Regina Phelps. During a very enlightening discussion - intense and scary at times – We talk about: 1. A few comments about COVID being ‘over’ 2. What is a polycrisis? 3. Did 2012 predict today’s troubles? 4. Economic Risks & Impacts 5. Societal Risks & Impacts 6. Geopolitical Risks & Impacts 7. Evacuating Employees from troubled areas 8. Potential global and economic impacts if China attacks Taiwan 9. Expanding the BCM professionals focus As always, a very enlightening discussion with Regina. There are some insights here you do not want to miss. Enjoy!

I'm joined by recognized risk management, security, resilience expert, and author, Robert Hall, as we talk about his new book 'Building Resilient Futures'. It's a fascinating discussion where we touch on: 1. Resilience and technology, 2. People and resilience, 3. Facing adversity, 4. Societal engagement (This topic is well worth the listen), 5. Engaging communities, 6. Creating a 'spirit', 7. Focusing on consequences rather than causes, 8. Agility and adaptability, 9. Utilizing existing resources, 10. Fight, flight, or freeze...and much more. It's a very insightful discussion focusing on key concepts contained in Roberts' new book. It will give you a new way to think of resilience, and perhaps discover that the silver bullet we're all looking for with regards to resilience, is ourselves. Enjoy!

Ransomware! Not a day goes by we don't hear about the challenge this organization's face. I'm joined by Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) Advisor, Agnidipta (Agni) Sarkar who provides practical advise about Ransomware. During our chat we touch on: 1. Defining Ransomware and it's multiple phases, 2. The big issues in ransomware, 3. Investing in observability, 4. Recognizing when you have an issue, 5. Tools to help prevent issues in the first place, 6. What hackers do once they're in, 7. Roles & responsibilities, 8. Working with other teams (Crisis Mgmt., ITDR, BCM...), 9. Performing the analysis/assessment, 10. To pay or not to pay, 11. Testing. Agni does a great job of providing valuable practical insights into the ransomware topic, and yo don't want to miss some of his in-depth knowledge. You'll benefit from it! Enjoy!

Today's business world has allot of challenges and sometimes the answers to problems aren't as simply as one might want. I talk with employee & customer engagement, leadership, and mental resilience professional, Marc Rowley. During our chat we focus in on two key areas: The Importance of Engagement and Mental Resilience. 1. THE IMPORTANCE OF ENGAGEMENT a. Engagement defined, b. engaging employees and leadership, b. Active listening, c. Dealing with different personalities, d. Building trust and relationships, e. Using equity; 2. MENTAL RESILIENCE a. Understanding the journey, b. Addressing the inner chatter, c. What we can do for ourselves to get us started on the journey, d. Emotional intelligence, e. Influencing others (the team, the organization), f. Empathy and self-awareness. Marc does a great job of outlining how we can engage our peers, teams, and leaders to address some of the challenges organizations face. He provides some great advice on how we can get ourselves started on a journey of resilience by focusing on ourselves and our mental resilience. Enjoy!

Political Risk and Supply Chain Management are two important topics in today’s world. I talk with the founder of LeanPM LLC and author of “Political Risk Management and the Global Supply Chain”, Ralph Kliem. In our talk we touch on: 1. Defining Political Risk, 2. Political risk drivers, 3. Key components of managing political risk, 4. The risk register and what information it should contain, 5. The skills and knowledge required to manage political risk, 6. Risk reporting and audit, 7. The Political Risk Management Plan, 8. Political biases in political risks, 9. Monitoring the supply chain and maintaining the risk register, 10. Risk triggers, 11. Identify political risks that can impact you supply chain. Ralph offers allot of great insights into political risk, and by understanding and monitoring political risk, you can help manage your supply chain. A great discussion you won’t want to miss. Enjoy!

Resilience is a journey, and I'm joined by longtime Resilience and Business Continuity expert, and author or 'The Continuity Moment Insight: The Catalyst in Your Resilience Journey', Harsha Sastry. During our talk we touch on: 1. The Continuity Moment Insight (Harsha's new book) 2. Resilience as a 'journey', 3. Episodes vs chapters or segments, 4. What Experiments means in resilience, 5. What Relevance means in resilience, 6. Innovation in resilience, 7. Changing perspectives, 8. Seeing the value in business continuity and resilience, 9. Collaboration, 10. The differences between business continuity and resilience, 11. BEIPGAS (you'll have to listen to know how this will help you), 12. What comes first, business continuity or resilience? (I love Harsha's response). Harsha share a wealth of knowledge from his new book, but also from his extensive work experiences. You don't want to miss Harsha's insights and what he has to share. Enjoy!

I’m joined by recovering lawyer, an SME on national security and disaster preparedness / response, and the author of “How to Not Kill Your Business”, Erika Andresen, CBCP, JD, MPA. We talk about the relationship between Business Continuity and the Legal Team (it’s not what you’re thinking) and how Business Continuity contributes to Community Resilience. We touch on such subjects as: 1. Engaging the Legal Team 2. Regulatory & Compliance 3. The Board and Shareholders 4. Force Majeure issues 5. Building relationships with the legal team (and how they help BCM) 6. Linking BC principles to community resilience 7. Validating and testing plans 8. Community relationships and working together 9. How communities come together during disasters, and the small things that help Erika does a great job of placing new light on Business Continuity by discussing how it can work with the legal team, and how the principles of BC helps to increase community resilience. Some great insights you don’t want to miss. Enjoy!

I talk with award-winning IT, Continuity, Resilience, Risk and Security professional and noted resilience expert, Modebola Olowu. Modebola talks about personal resilience and how we can cultivate a practice the will work effectively at home and in the workplace. We touch on subjects such as: 1. What is resilience and the difference between the workplace and home, 2. Characteristics of personal resilience? 3. The art of Kintsugi? (This is a great analogy for resilience and I urge everyone to go find your gold!!), 4. Cultivating Resilience, 5. The Me Strategy, 6. The Proactive Strategy, 7. The Community Strategy, 8. Crises and their Opportunities, and 9. Ways to identify opportunities in crisis (e.g., change your perspective, find the 'loophole' etc.). It's clear that Modebola is quite passionate about personal resilience, and it comes across during our discussion. With allot of resilience talk focusing on technology, processes, and systems, Modebola teaches us how to take a step back and look at ourselves...our gold. Enjoy!

Today I talk with creative learning and knowledge management specialist, Stephanie Barnes. We talk about a topic that can radically change your workplace for the better increasing employee (and management) creativity and innovation. You might call it radical knowledge management. We touch on: 1. Defining Radical Knowledge Management (RKM) 2. Brainstorming 3. Neuroscience and RKM 4. Creativity 5. Art-based Interventions (ABI) 6. Trust & Resilience 7. Artificial Intelligence 8. How we've had the 'creativity educated out of us' It's a very different way of thinking and a very inspiring way of building teams and lighting that spark of innovation and creativity that many organizational leaders are separately searching for. Don't miss what Stephanie has to say - you won't be disappointed. Enjoy!

I'm joined by award-winning Business Continuity and Crisis Management expert, Charlie Maclean-Bristol, as we talk about building a framework for writing Business Continuity Management (BCM) test objectives, and testing practices overall. Charlie touches on: 1. Testing vs exercising 2. How COVID has impacted testing 3. 4 key components to consider when writing test objectives 4, Testing purpose 5. Measuring success and SMART considerations 6. Pre-test planning 7. Building capabilities 8. Post-exercise assessments, observations, and recommendations What started as a rather short discussion turned into a long chat about testing, and he shares some great insights into how we can improve our own testing capabilities. You don't want to miss Charlie's insights. Enjoy!

This week I'm joined by internationally recognized security intelligence and crisis management professional, and author of 'Strategic Corporate Crisis Management: Buildings an Unconquerable Organization, Brendan Monahan. During our discussion, we touch on: 1. The Plan: expectations, decision-making, delivering value, establishing triggers, assumptions, dealing w/ difficult people, testing/exercising 2. The team: membership, roles/responsibilities, support, policy, characteristics of a well-functioning team, keeping the team going, the often forgotten procurement team, cross-training 3. Resilience: Addressing silos, finding common ground, resilience in crisis mgmt., making connections, and what resilience means to your own organization It's a great discussion with insights that all organization's and professionals will learn valuable insights they can take back to their own places of business and help build that strategic - and tactical - direction needed during crises. Enjoy!

Today I talk with respected Sr. Program Manager and Enterprise Disaster Recovery expert, Ray Holloman, as we talk about tow (2) important subjects in today's business world: 'Disaster Recovery Testing in the Cloud' and 'Translating the Words, Rules, and Regulations of Resilience'. In our first segment we talk about 'Disaster Recovery Testing in the Cloud' and touch on such things as: 1. Testing approaches, 2. Reviewing your contracts and SLAs, 3. How to utilize the Cloud Data Centre/site, 4. How to talk with partners about your Cloud Testing (including audit questions), 5. Validating your needs and expectations...and more. For our second segment we talk about 'Translating the Words, Rules, and Regulations of Resilience' and touch on: 1. The Glossary and Terminology, 2. Understanding the differences in terminology, 3. Understanding regulations, 4. Audit / Compliance partnerships, 5. Characteristics of Resilience...and more. It's a great chat you don't want to miss. Enjoy!

Many organizations face challenges when it comes to applying creating emotional resilience for crisis situations. I speak with a founding member of the UK Psychological Trauma Society, internationally published author, Dr. Liz Royle. Dr. Royle talks to us about: 1. People before 'the plan', 2. People and trauma, 3. Fears, 4. The 3 R's (Resistance, Resilience, Recovery), 5. Crisis Team membership, 6. 'The Ripple Effect', 7. Areas of Risk...and lots more. Dr Royle provides allot of insight into how we can create emotional resilience by creating and utilizing some innovative human recovery processes during crisis situations. Some may believe having a disaster response plan is enough, but there's a human aspect that doesn't seem to get enough attention. Dr. Royle sheds light on what's missing and how we can address it. Enjoy!

Success for individuals, corporations, and communities comes from the creation of great teams. Though teams build success, they can also be misunderstood and under utilized. I talk with ER physician at Mount Sinai Hospital (Toronto), award winning host of CBC Radio’s White Coat, Black Art and The Dose, and bestselling author Dr. Brian Goldman about his latest book The Power of Teamwork. During our chat, Dr. Goldman talks about: 1. Defining a team vs a group, 2. Leadership, 3. How personalities can compliment a team, 4. The Dark Triad (Machiavellians, Sociopaths, Narcissists), 5. Introverts vs Extroverts, 6. Learning from mistakes (and why some refrain from pointing out mistakes), 7. Feeling unsafe in a team, 8. How to build teamwork (Visual Thanking Strategies, Improve?!?...), 9. The benefits of responding with Yes, and... vs Yes, but... 10. Tips to help kickstart your team building...and so much more. Dr. Goldman does an incredible job of discussing teamwork and how it's more than what many people perceive. He leverages his experience from his medical career to provide teamwork insights that apply to all organizations, industries, communities, and board rooms. You don't want to miss what he has to share. Enjoy!

Resilience - it's not just a buzzword. I talk with long-time respected Risk Management and international security expert, Robert Hall about Resilience. We touch on such things as: 1. Defining resilience 2. The need for societal engagement 3. Leadership 4. Risk 5. Community resilience 6. The UK Governments Resilience Framework (what it is, its strength, it's weaknesses, and it's future) 7. National Resilience 8. Building resilient futures 9. How volunteers can help with preparedness and response...and much more It’s a great conversation with some very interesting perspectives many people, organizations, and community leaders may not be thinking about. Enjoy!