In this episode of our BryghtCast edition of the Managing Uncertainty Podcast for the week of October 7th, 2019,  Bryghtpath Principal & CEO Bryan Strawser and Consultant Bray Wheeler take a look at current risks and upcoming events:

BBC: Russia vows to prevent Turkey-Syria clashes

NBC News: U.S. troops to withdraw from northern Syria as ISIS supporters escape amid alleged Turkish atrocities

BBC: Brexit talks continue amid claims deal close

Star Tribune: Protests around Target Center escalate, from peaceful chants to fire and impasse with police

Episode Transcript

Bryan Strawser: Hello and welcome to the Managing Uncertainty podcast. This is Brian Strawser, principal and CEO here at Bryghtpath.

Bray Wheeler: This is Bray Wheeler, consultant here at Bryghtpath.

Bryan Strawser: And this is our BryghtCast edition for the week of October 14th, 2019. And I think the biggest story on the minds of most around the world when it comes to large disruptions that are impacting companies and the world, and that is what has gone on over the last several days in Syria following President Trump’s decision to remove the United States from at least northern Syria, although now he’s talking about a broader.

Bray Wheeler: Full-blown.

Bryan Strawser: Full pull out of the country. The details of that remain to be seen, but Bray, what’s happened in Syria over the last couple of days?

Bray Wheeler: Yeah, there’s been a lot of kind of a lot of breakdown in kind of the status quo of what’s going on in Syria. Turkey has moved into the northern border and shaken up quite a bit of the stability in that region. Syria has also reasserted itself also in that area. There’s the potential for kind of a tricky Syria confrontation somewhere in there. Russia has joined in saying that they’ll mediate, they’ll help keep people separate and have cooler heads prevail.

Bryan Strawser: And I think Russia said that they would not allow fighting between Syrian forces and Kurdish forces.

Bray Wheeler: Yeah.

Bryan Strawser: Interesting.

Bray Wheeler: They’ve definitely asserted themselves kind of in that region. Reports are essentially, perspective is that the Russian military has essentially replaced what the US was doing there. However, Russian interests and US interests in that area are very different.

Bryan Strawser: Aren’t the same.

Bray Wheeler: However, that role, they’ve sort of taken the place of the US.

Bryan Strawser: There’s a couple of big complexities going on here. Syria for a long time, prior to the last couple of years was very aligned with Russia and even back to the old Soviet Union in terms of, they were never part of the Iron Curtain or the Warsaw Pact, but they definitely were buying military equipment from the Soviet Union and from Russia. They aligned themselves closely with those interests as opposed to being aligned w

In this episode of our BryghtCast edition of the Managing Uncertainty Podcast for the week of October 7th, 2019,  Bryghtpath Principal & CEO Bryan Strawser and Consultant Bray Wheeler take a look at current risks and upcoming events:

* BBC: Russia vows to prevent Turkey-Syria clashes

* NBC Ne

An OSHA report from 2018 notes that nearly two million US workers were the victim of workplace violence in recent years. A similar study from 2014 from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics pointed out that in 2014, 409 individuals were fatally injured in work-related violent attacks that year. Workplace violence was the third leading cause of death in a wide range of professions that year, including healthcare, education, media, and the legal profession.

In this episode of the Managing Uncertainty Podcas

In this episode of our BryghtCast edition of the Managing Uncertainty Podcast for the week of October 7th, 2019,  Bryghtpath Principal & CEO Bryan Strawser and Consultant Bray Wheeler take a look at current risks and upcoming events:

BBC News:  Brexit: Deal essentially impossible, No 10 source says after PM-Merkel call

BBC News:  Turkey boosts troops on Syrian border after operation warning

BBC News:  NBA boss Adam Silver defends freedom of speech amid China row

Washington Post: Republicans deliver rare rebuke of Trump, slamming his Syria withdrawal decision

Episode Transcript

Bryan Strawser: Hello. Welcome to the Managing Uncertainty Podcast. This is our BryghtCast edition for the week of October 7th, 2019. I’m Bryan Strawser, Principal and CEO here at Bryghtpath.

Bray Wheeler: This is Bray Wheeler. I’m a consultant here at Bryghtpath.

Bryan Strawser: As everyone knows during this edition we take a look at some hot topics and things that are going on or that we think are going to happen around the world and talk about their impact on the business and nonprofit community. I think we’re going to start today with some discussion about the European Union and the United Kingdom. Bray?

Bray Wheeler: Everybody’s favorite topic, Brexit. The reason we’re mentioning this week and to kind of be brief, but some developments that have happened here at the beginning of this week the United Kingdom is kind of active in discussions with the EU and some of those partners to try and negotiate their way out of Brexit. They’re hoping that the EU will give some kind of latitude or make some concessions in the debate, and the EU is holding pretty firm.

Bray Wheeler: The notable event that happened this week was a call between German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and prime minister Boris Johnson of the UK. They had a pretty frank discussion by all accounts. Boris was trying to lay out his plans. Chancellor Merkel was having-

Bryan Strawser: None of it.

Bray Wheeler: … none of it. They really didn’t end up with any kind of an agreement between the two of them. To kind of pile onto that the European Council President, Donald Tusk, also today, we’re recording this on Tuesday, mentioned… had some pretty stark words for Mr. Johnson over what the UK is planning to do. His quote in I believe his tweet was, “What’s at stake isn’t winning some stupid blame game, at stake is the future of Europe and the UK as well as the security and interests of our people.” You don’t want a deal. You don’t want an extension. You don’t want to revoke.

Bryan Strawser: They’re just going to leave.

Bray Wheeler: Yeah.

Bryan Strawser: Right?

Bray Wheeler: Essentially my impression is Boris is putting on a show. Prime Minister Johnson is putting on a show with no real intent to re

In this episode of our BryghtCast edition of the Managing Uncertainty Podcast for the week of October 7th, 2019,  Bryghtpath Principal & CEO Bryan Strawser and Consultant Bray Wheeler take a look at current risks and upcoming events:

* BBC News:  Brexit: Deal essentially impossible, No 10 source says after PM

In this week’s edition of the Managing Uncertainty Podcast, Bryghtpath Principal & CEO Bryan Strawser, along with Consultant Bray Wheeler, talk about some of the common mistakes we’ve seen during a critical moment during our consulting and professional careers.

Related Episodes & Blog Posts

Episode #4:  The Crisis Team

Episode #17:  Lessons Learned from the 2017 Hurricane Season

Episode #23:  Crisis Management is not a Pickup Game

Blog Post:  Looking back at the 2017 Hurricane Season

Blog Post:  Making Decisions in the Midst of a Crisis

Episode Transcript

Bryan Strawser: Hello, and welcome to the Managing Uncertainty podcast. This is Bryan Strawser, principal and CEO here at Bryghtpath.

Bray Wheeler: This is Bray Wheeler, consultant at Bryghtpath.

Bryan Strawser: And today we’re going to talk about some common mistakes we’ve seen in the critical moment in a crisis during our consulting and professional careers and we both been at crisis management for quite some time, almost 30 years for me.

Bray Wheeler: Not quite that long for me.

Bryan Strawser: I have more gray hair.

Bray Wheeler: I’m getting there. I also have more hair.

Bryan Strawser: But what we want to talk about is just we’ve been inside of a lot of companies, and we’ve been in a lot of situations on our own with a lot of different teams across really around the world. And we want to talk about six or seven common mistakes that we’ve seen, and a little bit about what leads to those mistakes. And I’m just going to start off with the first one for me, a big one, and that is just the overreacting that happens.

Bryan Strawser: The emotional response in a crisis, particularly a crisis that has personal implications for an individual or for a team. Usually where someone’s been hurt, or you have this just really the extreme reputational situation, like a data breach. Things are going to have material consequences for your organization or for an individual, and just this emotional response. And this one’s particularly near and dear to my heart because I so value emotional intelligence when it comes to folks that work in crisis management.

Bray Wheeler: Yeah.

Bryan Strawser: That individuals are able to work through these situations in the moment. And to some extent, keep your emotions under control while you’re managing the crisis, and then you bring that out and experience it in its full when the crisis is over. And it’s such an important thing to me.

Bryan Strawser: And I think that we also get there not just through folks who have high EQ, high quotients in this area. But I think we also get there by practicing and having exercises.

Bray Wheeler: Yep.

Bryan Straw

In this week’s edition of the Managing Uncertainty Podcast, Bryghtpath Principal & CEO Bryan Strawser, along with Consultant Bray Wheeler, talk about some of the common mistakes we’ve seen during a critical moment during our consulting and professional careers.

Related Episodes & Blog Posts

*

In this episode of our BryghtCast edition of the Managing Uncertainty Podcast for the week of September 30th, 2019,  Bryghtpath Principal & CEO Bryan Strawser and Consultant Bray Wheeler take a look at three current risks and upcoming events:

* South China Morning Post: 

When a major national-scale disaster strikes, neither the public sector – or the private sector – can go it alone. For a private sector organization though, how do you make that first leap into public/private partnerships?  Do they really work? How can you get started?

In this episode, Bryghtpath Principal & CEO Bryan Strawser shares his experiences with public/private partnerships in emergency management as a private-sector emergency management leader. Topics discussed include Hurricane Dorian, Hurricane Sandy, United States Northern Command’s public/private sector office, FEMA’s National Business Emergency Operations Center, and more.

Related Blog Posts & Episodes

Blog Post: Public/Private Partnerships – An Overview

Blog post: Resilient Communities need Public/Private Partnerships to Survive

Episode #17: Lessons Learned from the 2017 Hurricane Season

Episode Transcript

Bryan Strawser : Hello, and welcome to the Managing Uncertainty Podcast. This is Bryan Strawser, principal and CEO at Bryghtpath and I’m recording this episode just before Hurricane Dorian approaches the United States East Coast and begins to scrape really North Eastern Florida up into Georgia, South Carolina, and potentially making landfall in North Carolina. So one thing that’s on my mind right now is the whole concept of public-private partnerships, particularly in the area of emergency management. But this area of public-private partnerships that I’m going to talk about is just as applicable to law enforcement at the local, county, state, and federal level. It’s relevant to the fire service. It’s relevant to emergency medical services. It’s relevant in other countries because what we’re talking about here is that sharing of information openly between the public and private sectors to achieve a more resilient community.

Bryan Strawser : And I’ve thought about this a lot in the last couple of days with Hurricane Dorian I was reminded of and I was sharing in some of our previous podcasts and videos something I’d learned a while ago that’s actually on a challenge coin from the United States Northern Command that supports emergency management response in the United States. And on the outer ring of this challenge coin, and we’ll post a picture in the show notes, it says, “When you need a friend, it’s too late to make one.” And the lesson here is that the time to make and establish those relationships for strong public-private partnerships is long before the disaster hits. It’s long before the active shooter situation hits your corporate headquarters. It’s long before the significant investigation where you need to work hand in hand with a cross-jurisdictional task force for a cybersecurity issue. It’s long before any of these bad things happen. It’s about forming these relationships upfront.

Bryan Strawser : So I want to go back to something that had happened seven years ago, almost seven years ago with Hurricane Sandy. At the time I was the head of global crisis management and business continuity and intelligence for one of the world’s largest retailers, and if you remember Hurricane Sandy, it came ashore as a category one hurricane on October 29th, 2012 in New Jersey. It was a slow, strong, slow-moving category one hurricane and in Sandy’s path that day were more than 200 retail stores, multiple distribution centers in two data centers that powered the E-commerce site for my employer. All were in harm̵

When a major national-scale disaster strikes, neither the public sector – or the private sector – can go it alone. For a private sector organization though, how do you make that first leap into public/private partnerships?  Do they really work? How can you get started?

In this episode, Bryghtpath Principal & CEO Bryan Strawser shares his experiences with public/private partnerships in emergency management as a private-sector emergency management leader. Topics discussed include Hurric