Preparing for the Unexpected

Handling communications during a crisis can be a challenge for most organizations. I'm joined by internationally recognized risk and crisis communications professional, Sheena Thomson. During our talk we touch on: 1. Identifying and defining a stakeholder, 2. Stakeholder management, 3. Preparing communications, 4. Using legal in communication, 5. Winning (or loosing) the social media war, 6. The spokesperson, 7. Do's and don'ts of communications, 8. Messaging (and staying on that message), and 9. Crisis communication tips. Sheena provides some great insights on how to develop, implement, and manage a successful crisis communications strategy - prior to a crisis and during a crisis. Don't miss what Sheena has to share. Enjoy!

Join me as I talk with the National Director of Business Continuity for Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits, John Luizzi. We talk about crisis leadership during a ransomware event. During our chat John talks about: 1. Defining Ransomware, 2. How Ransomware is different from other cyber events, 3. Detecting and event, 4. Patch Management, 5. Manual processes 6. Employee education 7. How to escalating the ransomware issue when discovered, 8. The crisis management team and activating appropriate internal/external response teams, 9. Recreating data, 10. Who's in Charge? 11. Legal team involvement, 12. Bringing in the BCM and DR team (and others), 13. Communications, 14. The FBI and other law enforcement, 15. Don't underestimate the risk, impact, and threat...and more! A ransomware event provides organizations allot of challenges and John share some great insights on how to manage a ransomware event should your organization be unlucky enough to experience one. Enjoy!

Join me as I speak with internationally recognized operational security and technology executive, Steve Hindle, as we talk about data...lots and lots of data. We talk about how organizations need to protect their data because many aren't quite doing it correctly. During our chat Steve touches on: 1. Defining data, 2. Classifying data, 3. Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability (CIA), 4. Where does your data really reside? 5. What type of data do you have and is it accurate? 6. The biggest threat to data? 7. Internal and external threats, 8. Espionage, 9. Cyber threats, 10. Who is more innovate - the attacker or the defender? 11. Security / cyber budgets, 12. Ransomware as a Service (RaaS), 13. Focus on fundamentals...and more! Steve shares some very insightful - if not downright scary - insights when it comes to our data and what organizations might be forgetting. Don't miss what Steve has to share. Enjoy!

Join me as I talk with recognized Business Continuity & Resilience industry thought leader, Shane Mathew. We talk about the nuances of decision-making during a crisis, but also how we prepare our Crisis Team members and decision-makers before a crisis occurs. 1. The importance of good decision-making, 2. How the Chernobyl disaster triggered the conversation of decision-making, 3. Fear and decisions, 4. The 'Netflix Dilemma' (you gotta hear this), 5. Phases of Decision Making, 6. Social Media impacts to decision-making, 7. Knowing stakeholders, 8. Know your values, 9. How stress impacts decisions, 10. How to make better decisions, 11. The 'Point Guard', 12. Frameworks, 13. Decision-making tools, 14. Practice!...and much more. Shane takes a step back from not just talking about decision-making during a crisis, but how we can prepare ourselves to make decisions before a crisis ever occurs. That's something that doesn't get talked about enough. Share shares some great insights you don't want to miss. Enjoy!

We live in uncertain times, and not matter what you might believe, at some point our businesses, communities, and our lives will be impacted by events around the world. I'm joined once again by crisis management and resilience industry leader Regina Phelps. We talk about: 1. Regional wars, 2. Autocratic Alliances, 3. Civil unrest, 4. Aging infrastructure, 5. The increase in cyber attacks (you don't have to be a large organization to experience one)...and more. Once again Regina shares some insightful ideas on how events around the globe can - and has - impacted our work and personal lives...and what we can do about it as business leaders and resilience professionals. Enjoy!

Join me as I talk with internationally recognized resilience trainer & consultant Daman Sood, as we talk about how Insider Risk Management and how to safeguard our organizations from insider threats. It's a topic we've not touched on before. During our discussion, Daman talks about: 1. Defining Insider Risk Management, 2. Who is an insider? 3. Access Management & Permissions, 4. Corporate espionage, 5. External manipulation, 6. Various ways an insider can do harm, 7. Political threats, 8. A real-life case of Insider Risk Management playing out in India (and a personal story that will surprise you), 9. Social Media (a Boom and a Bain), 10. Leadership and governance involvement (and loosing faith in leaders), 11. How to assess insider risk, 12. Role-based Risk Assessment (RBRA), 13. Background check, 14. HR and other groups' involvement...and more. Daman delves into a topic not many have discussed prior, and his insights will really shine a light on this topic. Enjoy!

Join me as I talk with Chief Energy Officer of Synergy Brain Fitness, and NY Times best selling author, Dr. Heidi Hanna, as we talk about mastering stress for resilience. During our chat we talk about: 1. Defining and describing stress, 2. How stress impacts us, 3. Acute and Chronic stress, 4. Removing stressors, 5. Reactive avoidance, 6. Emotional triggers, 7. Meditation and the Monkey Mind, 8. Leadership, 9. Physical characteristics of stress, 10. Coaching, 10. Communication and digital wellness, 12. Burnout, 13. Addressing fear, 14. Hierarchy of power, 15. Building capacity, 16. Humor...and much more! It's a very insightful discussion with DR. Hanna, who shares insights into stress and how we recognize it, manage it, and be able to become stronger as a result of experiencing it. Don't miss what Dr. Hanna has to share. Enjoy!

Join me as I talk with experienced crisis management professional and a pioneer in the efforts to integrate traditional war-gaming with computerized platforms, Dotan Sagi. We talk about the decision-making process and the behavior of people during crises and disasters...and hot to analyze and measure performance for better response. During our chat we touch on: 1. How war games differ from exercises (and their benefits), 2. Challenging assumptions, 3. Company procedures vs real-life responses, 4. Strategic plans vs tactical plans, 5. What are KPIs/anchors and metrics (with examples), 6. Predicting KPIs (& challenging them), 7. Resilience & Situational Awareness, 8. How decision are made (and who should be making them), 9. Changes in people behavior, 10. Tools to help with decision-making, 11. Changing protocols (why and when), 12. Artificial Intelligence (AI), 13. Understanding decision consequences, 14. Practice! Practice! Practice!...and more. Dotan shares allot of great insights around decision-making during disasters. Don't miss what Dotan has to share. Enjoy!

To face the scope and threats of the 21st century challenges, today's leaders must possess potent powers for logic, reason, discernment and strategic forecasting. Yet, they must also be empathic and therefore embodied, grounded and intuitive. (From book cover). I'm joined by transformational leadership expert and author or 'Leader to Healer', Nicholas Janni. This is a very inspirational discussion on leadership, and not one many will have considered before. Nicholas touches on: 1. Defining resilience, 2. Being vs Doing. 3. Leader as an Executor vs a Leader as a Healer, 4. Self-awareness, 5, Defining ones purpose (personal and as a group), 6, The importance of emotions, 7. Tips to begin making a transformative change...and more. Nicholas is very inspirational and offers some very interesting insights into how leaders can find answers to some of their challenges - during crises, disasters, and other situations - by looking inwards to make transformative change happen. You don't want to miss this episode. Enjoy!

To face the scope and threats of the 21st century challenges, today's leaders must possess potent powers for logic, reason, discernment and strategic forecasting. Yet, they must also be empathic and therefore embodied, grounded and intuitive. (From book cover). I'm joined by transformational leadership expert and author or 'Leader to Healer', Nicholas Janni. This is a very inspirational discussion on leadership, and not one many will have considered before. Nicholas touches on: 1. Defining resilience, 2. Being vs Doing. 3. Leader as an Executor vs a Leader as a Healer, 4. Self-awareness, 5, Defining ones purpose (personal and as a group), 6, The importance of emotions, 7. Tips to begin making a transformative change...and more. Nicholas is very inspirational and offers some very interesting insights into how leaders can find answers to some of their challenges - during crises, disasters, and other situations - by looking inwards to make transformative change happen. You don't want to miss this episode. Enjoy!

To face the scope and threats of the 21st century challenges, today's leaders must possess potent powers for logic, reason, discernment and strategic forecasting. Yet, they must also be empathic and therefore embodied, grounded and intuitive. (From book cover). I'm joined by transformational leadership expert and author or 'Leader to Healer', Nicholas Janni. This is a very inspirational discussion on leadership, and not one many will have considered before. Nicholas touches on: 1. Defining resilience, 2. Being vs Doing. 3. Leader as an Executor vs a Leader as a Healer, 4. Self-awareness, 5, Defining ones purpose (personal and as a group), 6, The importance of emotions, 7. Tips to begin making a transformative change...and more. Nicholas is very inspirational and offers some very interesting insights into how leaders can find answers to some of their challenges - during crises, disasters, and other situations - by looking inwards to make transformative change happen. You don't want to miss this episode. Enjoy!

Join me, as I talk with long-time insurance control expert, Chris Snider. Insurance in the Resilience/BCM industry has been a topic I've wanted to cover for a long time and Chris does a great job of explaining how insurance really works, using understandable and relatable language. All corporate leaders, business continuity and resilience professionals need to understand how insurance policies and providers work with you, rather than assuming how they work or believing that by having a policy in place you're protected. During our chat, Chris touches on: 1. Myths of insurance, 2. Working through risk assessments, 3. Insurance Policies, 4. Asking 'What if..., 5. Insurance providers and risks, 6. Incorporating emergency risks, 7. Including insurance as a member of your BCM steering committee (and the benefits of doing that), 8. What organizations can do to keep premiums low, 9. Proactive vs reactive, 10. Bill S211 and the impact upon insurers and organizations, 11. Bill S211 and its relation to supply chain management...and more. A very insightful discussion where Chris clarifies how insurance providers can actually help you BCM and resilience programs. Don't miss what Chris has to say. Enjoy!

Join me Thursday, March 14/24 at 1pm EST, as I talk with internationally recognized Business Resilience, Crisis Management, Risk/Crisis Communications, IT Disaster Recovery and Crisis Leadership expert and consultant, Dr. Steven Goldman. During out discussion, Dr. Goldman talks about: 1. The difference between a drill and an exercise, 2. Why exercises are important, 3. Getting others involved (e.g., vendors, 1st responders...), 4. Exercising people AND plans, 5. Exercises and politics (and how to deal with it), 6. Knowing roles, 7. Uncovering assumptions during drills and exercises, 8. Shift Management (a staggered approach), 9. Observers and evaluators, 10. The Planning Checklist, 11. Dealing with checklist thinking, 12. Unannounced drills, 13. Lessons Learned (and what to do about them), 14. Measuring successes and failures during exercises...and much more! Dr. Goldman does a great job of sharing personal experiences with drills and exercises, providing some great insights in how we can make our own exercises effective. Don't miss what Dr. Goldman has to say. You can reach him at goldman@mit.edu. Enjoy!

I'm joined by long-time Emergency Management professional and the author of 'Promoting the Dog Sitter, and Other Principles from Leading During Disasters, Edward L Conley. During my talk with Ed we touch on: 1. Crisis Leadership, 2. Social Media impacts (and the bad actors involved), 3. Emergency Management defined, 4. Lessons from history, 5. Being able to ensure you can 'respond' well before anything else (and why), 6. Five core values and principles, 7. Showing up vs Showing off, 8. Blame, Hide, or Own (and recognizing the difference in leaders), 9. How the title 'Promoting the Dog Sitter' came about, and how this story evolved (It's a heart warming and inspirational story you've got to hear)...and much more. It's a very interesting chat with Ed, as it's all based on his own hand-on experiences on Emergency Management, rather than about theoretical aspects of Emergency Management. Lots of insights you don't want to miss. Enjoy!

I'm joined once again by renown Crisis Management expert Regina Phelps, as we talk about her recently published article Leadership in Times of Crisis. During our back-and-forth discussion, we touch on: 1. Situational Awareness, 2. Thinking of sustained technical outages (What do I do? How to deal with data loss? How to validate when tech becomes available?) 3. Improvise, 4. Be creative and adaptable, 5. Act decisively, 6. Tests and exercises, 7. Take action, 8. Communications (Who writes? Who edits? Who approves?) 9. Re-evaluate...and more. Another insightful discussion with Regina who shares some great thoughts about Crisis Management, and I even share quite a few of my own experiences in this one. Don't miss what Regina has to share. Enjoy!

Join me February 22/24 at 1pm EST, as I once again talk to experienced Business Continuity / Disaster Recovery professional, Ray Holloman. Today we talk about 2 topics. In Segment 1 we talk about 'Are your plans and exercises thinking about equity and inclusion?' where we touch on: 1. Consideration for people with disabilities in tests and exercises, 2. Having those tough conversations, 3. Increasing morale and productivity - making people feel they belong, 4. Addressing fear, 5. Universal Design, 6. Change the thinking, 7. Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) in exercise plans...and more. In Segment 2 we touch on the topic 'In Resilience, where does disaster recovery and high availability fit?' and talk about: 1. The difference between disaster recovery and high availability, 2. Critical conversations with various parties, 3. New approaches and ideas for DR and HA testing, 4. Resilience in DR and HA, 5. Difficult discussions about RTOs, 6. Selling 'resilience' to leadership, 7. Priorities - making sure you can recover first...and much more. It's another great conversation with Ray, who share many helpful insights DR, HA, BCM, and resilience professionals can use in their daily roles. You don't want to miss what Ray has to share. Enjoy!

Join me February 22/24 at 1pm EST, as I once again talk to experienced Business Continuity / Disaster Recovery professional, Ray Holloman. Today we talk about 2 topics. In Segment 1 we talk about 'Are your plans and exercises thinking about equity and inclusion?' where we touch on: 1. Consideration for people with disabilities in tests and exercises, 2. Having those tough conversations, 3. Increasing morale and productivity - making people feel they belong, 4. Addressing fear, 5. Universal Design, 6. Change the thinking, 7. Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) in exercise plans...and more. In Segment 2 we touch on the topic 'In Resilience, where does disaster recovery and high availability fit?' and talk about: 1. The difference between disaster recovery and high availability, 2. Critical conversations with various parties, 3. New approaches and ideas for DR and HA testing, 4. Resilience in DR and HA, 5. Difficult discussions about RTOs, 6. Selling 'resilience' to leadership, 7. Priorities - making sure you can recover first...and much more. It's another great conversation with Ray, who share many helpful insights DR, HA, BCM, and resilience professionals can use in their daily roles. You don't want to miss what Ray has to share. Enjoy!

Join me as I speak with a founding partner of the Resilience Think Tank and longtime resilience expert, Lisa Jones. For Operational Resilience (OpR) to truly flourish at any organizational leadership must give Operational Resilience a seat - and voice - at the c-suite table. During my chat with Lisa, we touch on: 1. Defining Operational Resilience (It should mean something to your own organization), 2. Understand your business, 3. Continuous monitoring and incremental changes, 4. Standards and guidelines, 5. Looking for the simple solutions, 6. Proactive vs reactive, 7. A change in thinking, 8. Socializing Operational Resilience, 9. Organizational culture and leadership, 10. Getting out of the 'silo thinking', 11. Getting to know the Enterprise Risk Group...and much more. Lisa provides some great insights on how to get that Operational Resilience voice to be heard and seen at the c-suite table; valuable information you don't want to miss. Enjoy!

Join me as I speak with a founding partner of the Resilience Think Tank and longtime resilience expert, Lisa Jones. For Operational Resilience (OpR) to truly flourish at any organizational leadership must give Operational Resilience a seat - and voice - at the c-suite table. During my chat with Lisa, we touch on: 1. Defining Operational Resilience (It should mean something to your own organization), 2. Understand your business, 3. Continuous monitoring and incremental changes, 4. Standards and guidelines, 5. Looking for the simple solutions, 6. Proactive vs reactive, 7. A change in thinking, 8. Socializing Operational Resilience, 9. Organizational culture and leadership, 10. Getting out of the 'silo thinking', 11. Getting to know the Enterprise Risk Group...and much more. Lisa provides some great insights on how to get that Operational Resilience voice to be heard and seen at the c-suite table; valuable information you don't want to miss. Enjoy!

I'm joined by long-time leadership and business resilience specialist, Cary Jasgur. We talk about what key areas organizations should be focusing with regards to their resilience programs. During our chat we touch on: 1. The 'new normal’ or the a 'different normal'? 2. Risk assessments...the right one, 3. Sharing with leadership, 4. The 'doom and gloom' guy (and changing that viewpoint), 5. BU engagement, 6. Understanding the business, 7, Supply chains, 8. Polycrisis & simultaneous disruptions, 9. Exercises & testing, 10. Training & awareness, 11. Balancing your program, 12. Relationship building, 13. Advice for those in resilience departments of 1 or 2 people, 14. Knowing when you're on the right track...and more. Cary shares some great first-hand experience and insights in how organizations can build stronger resilience programs. Don't miss what Cary has to share. Enjoy!