What does a threat management framework or process look like?

What are some key steps we should take when a threat is received or observed by our teams?

In this episode of the Managing Uncertainty podcast, Bryghtpath Principal and CEO Bryan Strawser answers these questions as he describes the model Workplace Violence and Threat Management Framework that is used at Bryghtpath. Topics discussed include initial threat actions, escalating issues to law enforcement, assessing a threat, creating plans for threat mitigation and personal safety, and long-term monitoring of threats.

Episode Transcript

Hi folks, Bryan Strawser, principal and CEO at Bryghtpath, and welcome back to the Managing Uncertainty podcast. Over the last couple weeks, we’ve been talking about workplace violence and threat management programs. And today we’re going to walk through the workplace violence and threat management framework that we use here at Bryghtpath.

You will want to look and follow along with the graphic that’s available with this podcast for free. You can get that at Bryghtpath.com/43, and you’ll be able to download a one-page version of our workplace violence and threat management framework that you can follow along with as we narrate through this podcast. If you’re looking at the framework that we use here at Bryghtpath for workplace violence and threat management, I’m going to start to the left and kind of move through the graphic.

We start with the actual threat incident. Something has happened. A threat has been made and received, and it’s been reported into whatever your defined threat management process is. Here we provide a set of risk factors to local leaders. We envision this happening in a larger organization, of course.

Perhaps you’ve got a branch, and a branch manager is the one that receives this initial report, and we’ve trained and provided them with some risk factors and categorization. And that is the threat incident risk factors that we talked about two episodes ago, now. And it is the severity levels that allow them to make an initial evaluation. And, really, their immediate evaluation takes us in one of a couple directions.

First, that the threat is a, it’s a low-risk threat, or it’s just simply unwarranted. Like, it’s been reported, but it turns out that the facts were not correct. There’s not an actual threat that’s been made. But an unwarranted or low-risk threat, basically, you skip all the way to the end of the process, and you move to monitor. We’re going to continue to monitor for newer developments. You should probably require this to be entered in some kind of case management or incident management system so that it’s reported, but there’s really no follow up. It goes into just this long-term monitoring mode until something else comes up.

The opposite of that is that this is a high-risk threat, or it’s an emergency. Like, it is quite clear that something serious has happened, many risk factors are present, or it’s dangerous to the point that you need to take immediate action.

For example, a bomb threat that is specific. You’re not going to wait. You’re going to call 911 here in the U.S. or the international equivalent of that. You’re probably going to evacuate the building. You’re going to take immediate action to ensure life safety.

The other immediate action that you’re going to take is if it’s a high-risk threat. It’s clear that there’s been an immediate threat made. This person is at high risk for suicide. They have access to weapons. There’s four or five risk factors present. We’re not going to wait and go through a threat management process. We’re going to contact law enforcement and emergency serv...