Managing Director | Consulting, Joe Zaccaria, was interviewed by SecurityGuyTV.com while attending the annual ASIS International Conference in Dallas, TX on September 26, 2017. Learn more insights on our knowledge base and offerings by watching his 5-minute interview!
How prophetic of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, during his inaugural address in 1933, when he uttered those famous words, “So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is…fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance…” While the context at the time was far different than our experiences today, these words aptly describe how workers are feeling in 2019. I have been fortunate to work in the public and private sector for over 30 years. Never in my career have I experienced the level of fear in the workplace I see today. While there is cause to be concerned about violence, the challenge for security professionals is mitigating this concern before it elevates to fear.
I believe there is little debate anymore about the impact of violence on the American worker’s psyche. The recent incident in Virginia Beach serves as yet another example of why American workers are frightened. While information is still being gathered, we know a “veteran city engineer” used a firearm to target people he worked with for years. If the investigation runs its typical course, facts and other information will surface that will provide some insight; but, like many incidents of this nature, will fall far short of painting a complete picture. Tragic incidents like this defy understanding and leave a lasting imprint in our minds.
Organizations, especially ones open to the public, feel the tension. I have directly experienced circumstances where fear becomes so compounded, some staff feel the need to go home even when the threat is benign. In other words, “…paralyzing the ability convert retreat into advance.” From my perspective, “instant” knowledge fuels this fear. For example, we immediately know when an active assailant has occurred. Due to mandated reporting laws in many states, we can also easily find out the latest trends in workplace violence. The perception of one’s safety can instantly elevate based on what is read online during lunch.
What can be done to provide workers comfort when they experience fear? Security professionals know some peace of mind can be found in a strong security posture and training. A properly trained and staffed security team serves as a deterrent to violence and enhances the overall feeling of safety. Conflict resolution training, a strong zero-tolerance stance on workplace violence, mandated reporting and active-assailant training are all helpful because it enhances communication, threat recognition, reaction time and response. Engineering strategies such as video systems, electronic access, employee identification, and duress alarms have preventative benefits as well. Unfortunately, these barriers can be easily defeated. For example, a threat received via the telephone instantly touches the interior of the organization and sends the message that the threat is close-by when it could be hundreds of miles away.
The challenge is providing comfort to people who are in fear based on what they have experienced, even if minor. Common and vague threats such as, “I’ll be back” or “I’ll make you pay” often produce terror and a leap in thought to they are definitely coming back with a gun. I have experienced staff who simply cannot work and need to go home because of the strong, but misplaced belief violence is about to occur. It is important as security professionals to seize this moment and leverage it to produce comfort.
The power of trust, credibility and comfort when trying to calm a fearful employee or when influencing an entire organization cannot be overlooked. A comparison can be found in healthcare. We can become very fearful when experiencing symptoms that could be serious. A subsequent examination by a physician leads to the conclusion that we have nothing to worry about. The doctor’s opinion gives us comfort because it is based on their experience and training. In other words, their word gives us comfort because we trust them. We trust the expert, and it is this trust that gives us comfort.
The challenge for security professionals is providing this same level of comfort when an employee or organization is experiencing fear. For security entities who provide a human behavioral threat assessment, we want the fearful employee to trust us, to believe in our opinion, based on science, (threat assessment software program, training, and experience) that the threat is minor. To develop this trust and to provide comfort, the security professional needs to:
For further information on how to build a strong and competent security team and how to have your word provide comfort, contact Premier Risk Solutions at www.premierrisksolutions.com.
Serving US: Seattle, Bellevue, San Francisco, San Jose, Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Fremont, Milpitas, San Mateo, Palo Alto, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, Las Vegas, Reno, Portland, Vancouver WA, Honolulu, Denver, Salt Lake City, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, Chicago, Columbus, Atlanta, Tampa, Orlando, Miami, Charlotte, Washington DC, New York City, Boston
Serving International: Vancouver Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, Panama, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Ireland, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Poland, Hungary, Turkey, Ukraine, Russia, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Algeria, Egypt, India, Bangladesh, China, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea
This webinar will examine how the workforce continues to evolve with the advancement of technology and sociocultural evolution tools available today.
Presenters on this panel include:
Michael Delamere, President | Premier Risk Solutions LLC
Jeffrey Harp, Head of Security | San Francisco Public Utilities Commission
Al Robinette, President | Career Path Consulting & Development
Listeners will gain a better understanding of approaches and philosophies to increase engagement of personnel working in or assigned within your team in corporate security programs of all vertical markets.
To listen to the full session, please visit the Security Industry Association who hosted our event!
Serving US: Seattle, Bellevue, San Francisco, San Jose, Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Fremont, Milpitas, San Mateo, Palo Alto, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, Las Vegas, Reno, Portland, Vancouver WA, Honolulu, Denver, Salt Lake City, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, Chicago, Columbus, Atlanta, Tampa, Orlando, Miami, Charlotte, Washington DC, New York City, Boston
Serving International: Vancouver Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, Panama, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Ireland, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Poland, Hungary, Turkey, Ukraine, Russia, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Algeria, Egypt, India, Bangladesh, China, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea
Let’s start by advising that this is intended to be a high-level overview and not a state-by-state or metropolitan jurisdictional driven breakdown. However, if you are looking for such a thing, this is as decent a resource as one will find out on the net for information for a consolidated breakdown. Although we recommend going directly to the governmental entity in each respective state to elicit information directly from them as laws & statutes can change from year-to-year.
As a 2010 US Department of Justice funded research report points out, private security is an essential element of protecting persons as well as intellectual & physical property of business’ today. The private security industry has been experiencing consistent growth over the past approximate decade period of time as evidenced by a 2017 report by Statista detailing the global revenue forecast for private security to be approximately $96.3b by 2018. North America’s share of this is purportedly about 24%. Moreover, a Forbes article from August 2017 highlights that the US Department of Labor statistics claims there are over 1.1m private security officers in the US compared to 666,000 police officers. Buried within that number are that personnel operating in the Executive Protection industry as there is no separate line item for tracking this personnel specifically. The ranks within the Executive Protection segment of the industry however are growing rapidly. With each passing week/month/year there is more and more high net worth individuals coming into their own. This is causing the rapid growth within this segment of the private security services field and the need for professionalization, standards, and best practices now. With all of these moving parts in business growth, training, recruiting, hard skills, soft skills, operational tactics, etc. we cannot lose sight of our ethics. Our ethics define who we are. The French Philosopher, Albert Camus, is quoted as saying:
“A Man Without Ethics is A Wild Beast Loosed Upon This World“
There are numerous opportunities and temptations out there for any one of us to let our ethics slide. This is however a very slippery slope. I would go so far as to say that a person’s ethics are exemplified as to what they do (how they act) when no one is looking or watching over them. Statutes, laws, regulations, licensing, best practices, etc exist for rules and creating/operating on a level playing field with each other. There are some who may wish to try to bend or break said rules. They’re out there today and they give all of us who make every attempt to operate above-board a bad reputation as their actions impact the industry negatively as a whole. It’s such actions that make the news, unfortunately. Take a look over the news reports on the private security monitor from the University of Denver and you will see news stories that are generally negative towards actions taken (negligent or otherwise) by private security personnel. Those that do follow the rules generally aren’t in the news. These are the entities and people that businesses desire to do business with, at least on the surface level of things (it will get you a “foot in the door”).
How does one operate ethically in private security? Here is a list of examples (not all-inclusive):
Ensuring that a vendor agency as well as an individual(s) are operating ethically (and legally) is a risk management strategy incorporated into operations for those who may hire or utilize them. If the agency or individual does not have a strong Code of Ethics or regularly practices a strategy of “cutting corners” it will eventually catch up with them in the long term. As our industry continues to grow and expand our people operating within it will as well…let’s be sure to pass along strong operational ethics to ensure their longevity!
Serving US: Seattle, Bellevue, San Francisco, San Jose, Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Fremont, Milpitas, San Mateo, Palo Alto, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, Las Vegas, Reno, Portland, Vancouver WA, Honolulu, Denver, Salt Lake City, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, Chicago, Columbus, Atlanta, Tampa, Orlando, Miami, Charlotte, Washington DC, New York City, Boston
Serving International: Vancouver Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, Panama, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Ireland, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Poland, Hungary, Turkey, Ukraine, Russia, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Algeria, Egypt, India, Bangladesh, China, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea
Today we continue our discussion on Acumen Capacity in the protection industry series. In this article, we will focus on the third of six dimensions “Systems Judgement”.
Systems Judgment is the development of the capacity to recognize systems and order in the world. This might include activities such as thinking and planning, concepts and idea development, authoritative order (laws, policies, rules, and procedures), and understanding big picture & long-term objectives.
The capacity to understand how the world around you fits together along with the cause and effect is not universal. Some individuals with high clarity can quickly and easily see patterns, understand the why behind actions, and make better decisions. The benefits of systems judgment capacity can be seen throughout the law enforcement industry for example. There are a large number of departments who use training simulators to help officers improve their systems judgment skills (Basich, 2016). The use of these training simulators allows the officers to experience various scenarios increasing their knowledge base and more quickly react and apply better judgment in decision making.
*Enjoys and depends on structure and order
*Understands the need for laws, policies, rules, and order
*Genuine willingness to cooperate
*Objectively evaluates ideas, plans, and theories
*Open, two-way communication with authority figures
This describes someone with negative bias and good clarity. This becomes a major obstacle for teams. This consistent alternatives to get his or her way and someone being a lone wolf slows down the team, the project, and puts the principal at risk. Many assignments depend greatly on everyone being on the same page and the same schedule to successfully complete the assignment.
Low Clarity with Negative Bias: Someone with this combination would very likely be confrontational, have alternatives to all directives, and generally believes he or she knows more or knows it better than the boss. This also can indicate someone with low levels of knowledge or highly specialized knowledge limiting their knowledge outside of the specialization. If the individual follows direction, they will likely not understand the rationale behind it.
High Clarity with Positive/Neutral Bias: The benefit of selecting the right professional for this assignment with high clarity and neutral or positive bias includes values structure, identifies with the company, and will respect authority & processes
This is where Premier Risk Solutions has developed its Personalized Culture Fit Model™ to ensure the selection of the right professional for the right assignment.
Let’s take a little deeper look into this dimension of Acumen Capacity™.
The Systems Judgement dimension is evaluated in two ways first is the clarity and second the individual’s bias. The clarity tells us how well the individual can discern values in situations in the outside world. Bias provides additional insights how the individual see the world around them.
Premier Risk Solutions LLC has developed a Personalized Culture Fit Model™ that measures this dimension to match clients and specialists creating a truly best-in-class experience.
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out and contact us!
co-authorized by Michael Delamere
Works Cited
Basich, M. (2016, December 7). Advancements in Judgement Simulators. Retrieved from Police The Law Enforcement Magazine: https://www.policemag.com/channel/careers-training/articles/2016/12/advancements-in-judgment-simulators.aspx
Serving US: Seattle, Bellevue, San Francisco, San Jose, Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Fremont, Milpitas, San Mateo, Palo Alto, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, Las Vegas, Reno, Portland, Vancouver WA, Honolulu, Denver, Salt Lake City, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, Chicago, Columbus, Atlanta, Tampa, Orlando, Miami, Charlotte, Washington DC, New York City, Boston
Serving International: Vancouver Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, Panama, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Ireland, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Poland, Hungary, Turkey, Ukraine, Russia, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Algeria, Egypt, India, Bangladesh, China, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea
Today we continue our discussion on Acumen Capacity in the protection industry series. In this article, we will focus on the first of six dimensions “Understanding Others”. This is a critical aspect of assessing your specialist for assignments and matching the principal’s needs. It sounds like a simple concept, yet a large number of professionals either cannot or choose not to develop their ability to understand others. The definition for “Understanding Others” is the individual’s ability to identify uniqueness and individuality in others around them. The goal for understanding your specialist’s level of clarity and bias on this is to provide you the insight to align your specialist with the needs of the assignment. This results in an overall improved client experience.
Each of these show up in different ways for your organization, your client, and principal themselves. If we think about the day to day tasks and responsibilities associated with protection details you certainly can recall situations where these helped or hurt the assignment. This can range from a specialist who is unable to be flexible and adapt to the strong behavior style of a principal in one assignment to the extremely detailed behavior of the next.
You might even think about a prior situation where you had multiple specialists on an assignment and not everyone was able to work together. You may have that one person who the rest of the team does not like working with or can’t get along with no matter what you have tried.
When one team member does not see the value in his or her teammates and is disengaged it can be a distraction to the entire team putting the principal at risk. When the team has high clarity in understanding others they have the ability to connect easier and work more cohesively as a unit. This results in successful assignments, happy clients, happy principal, and even happy specialists who conducted the assignment.
Let’s take a look at a very common scenario for executive protection specialists.
The specialist’s ability to understand people and connect with others is critical to achieving this goal. This might be the manager at a restaurant or club that you need to influence to get your principal into the location or get a reservation short notice. This may include the ability to build rapport with local security or law enforcement to park in a specific area for your principal not normally allowed.
Those with strong clarity in this area will successfully navigate this situation and result in a positive client and principal experience. Those with low clarity will likely fail and result in a negative client experience and possibly lose the client. Granted this request by the principal may or may not be part of the original scope of work. However, it is now being asked of them and the specialist’s ability to successfully navigate this request is essential.
Let’s take a little deeper look into this dimension of Acumen Capacity™.
The Understanding Others dimension is evaluated in two ways first is the clarity and second the individual’s bias. The clarity tells us how well the individual understands the uniqueness of others and connects with people. Bias provides additional insights into the individuals world- and self-views. Does the individual have the capacity to see the other person’s perspective?
Psychologist Sherri Campbell shared with Entrepreneur.com “Success in life and business boils down to effective interactions, humility, self-awareness and the all-important skill of perspective taking. These elements are the keys to success of any kind” (Campbell, 2016)
Premier Risk Solutions LLC has developed a Personalized Culture Fit Model™ that measures this dimension to match clients and specialists creating a truly best-in-class experience.
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out and contact us!
Co-Authored by: Michael Delamere
Works Cited
Campbell, S. (2016, May 12). Understanding the Other Person’s Perspective Will Radically Increase Yours. Retrieved from Entrepreneur: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/275543
Today we continue our discussion on Acumen Capacity in the protection industry series. In this article, we will focus on the second of six dimensions “Practical Thinking”.
According to a study by the U.S. Army Research Institute for Behavioral and Social Sciences “Practical thinking is based on natural ways of thinking such as considering multiple perspectives, adapting thinking to situations, looking for hidden assumptions, and following guidelines for reasoning”. (Fallesen, Michel, Lussier, & Pounds, 1996). It is the capacity for common sense in decision-making and problem-solving to achieve goals.
Practical Thinking can also be thought of as street smarts, using the knowledge and experience you have and applying that to achieve a goal. This capacity is not about learning new information or analyzing. It is the capacity to use existing knowledge to achieve a goal in a common sense way. It has been said many times “common sense is not always common”. We have a proven process for discerning an individual’s capacity for practical thinking.
So the answer to today’s question…
“Does the way we think really matter” is ABSOLUTELY YES!
The way we think has a direct correlation to how we behave, perform, communicate, learn, listen, and interact with others. This collectively has a direct impact on your personal career and your organizations business results.
In the protection industry, I am sure you can see the value and importance of Practical Thinking to achieve assignment goals. In the ever-changing environment, shifting priorities, and the unexpected events which occur adapting and practical problem solving is a must have for any successful professional.
How many times have you worked with someone who seems to do things the hard way? This is often a lack of clarity for practical thinking. The individual may lack the ability to adapt or be open to other possibilities. They may be stuck in his or her own mind or routine and not see other alternatives.
Let’s consider for a moment an individual performing Protective Intelligence or Risk Analysis tasks.
Low Clarity with Negative Bias: the individual is likely to rush through the process resulting in missed details. This individual might also struggle communicating the intelligence work and plan created. Lastly, this individual may leave too much to chance and be reactive versus the proactive planning required. This increases the potential for a failed assignment or critical event.
High Clarity with Positive/Neutral Bias: The benefit of selecting the right professional for this assignment with high clarity and neutral or positive bias includes, proactive approach, more effective communication, quality results, and a more engaged professional.
This is where Premier Risk Solutions has developed its Personalized Culture Fit Model™ to ensure the selection of the right professional for the right assignment.
Let’s take a little deeper look into this dimension of Acumen Capacity™
The Practical Thinking dimension is evaluated in two ways first is the clarity and second the individual’s bias. The clarity tells us how well the individual can discern values in situations in the outside world. Bias provides additional insights into how the individual sees the world around them.
Premier Risk Solutions LLC has developed a Personalized Culture Fit Model™ that measures this dimension to match clients and specialists creating a truly best-in-class experience.
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out and contact us!
Co-Authorized: Michael Delamere
Works Cited
Fallesen, J. J., Michel, R. R., Lussier, J. W., & Pounds, J. (1996, January). Practical Thinking?: Innovation in Battle Command Instruction. Retrieved from Defense Technical Information Center: www.dtic.mil/get-tr-doc/pdf?AD=ADA309755