Preparing for the Unexpected

Being a corporate business leader can be tough. Mishandled crises can devastate businesses, lives and livelihoods (Hemus, 2020) I talk with internationally recognized crisis leadership expert and author, Jonathan Hemus, as we talk about what good leaders need to understand, know, and react, when disasters and crises strike.

We talk about:

1. The challenging risk landscape (health, economies...)

2. Securing executive buy-In

3. What organizations need have - and do - pre-crisis?

4. How to create a Crisis-Resilient Culture

5. The common flaws in crisis response

6. The golden rules for a successful crisis response

7. Michael McCain's response to the Maple Leaf food crisis, and more.

It's an informative discussion about a serious subject, and yet very open and accessible to people that might not be fully versed on crisis leadership. We might even have a comment or two about Aston Villa. 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!

Join me as I talk with resilience industry thought leader Jason Hoss, as we talk about employee engagement. During out discussion we touch upon: 1. The culture of an organization, 2. BIAs and BCPs, 3. People focus and involvement, 4. Process vs people resilience, 5. Testing and exercising, 6. 'Chaos Monkey', 7. Building confidence...and more! Jason and I share our thoughts and ideas tor building, maintaining, and increasing employee engagement to help establish resilience. Enjoy! NOTE: This was one of our contributions to the 2024 BCI Business Continuity & Resilience Awareness Week.

I'm joined by resilience industry thought leader, Jason Hoss, as we talk about Community Resilience. During our chat we touch on: 1. Micro Approach: individual, households, fire plans, social networks, local businesses, one's influence, insurance, self-risk assessments, and more, 2. Macro Approach: cities/towns, engaging stakeholders, inclusive plans, assumptions, and more. Jason and I share many thoughts on community resilience you don't want to miss. NOTE: This was one of our contributions to the 2024 BCI Business Continuity & Resilience Awareness Week.

Join me as I with with leading resilience and risk expert, Terry Lee. During today's discussion we touch on 3 key important topics: Operational Resilience, Vendor Risk Management, and Enterprise Risk Management. 1. Operational Risk ( Defining OpR, Leadership confidence, Risk as an opportunity, Who 'owns' OpR, Where OpR resides in an organization...and more!) 2. Vendor Risk Mgmt. (The difference between supply chain mgmt. and vendor risk mgmt., Regulatory standards, Vendor assessments, NDAs and obtaining necessary information, Testing with vendors...and more!) 3. Enterprise Risk Mgmt. (BCM and ERM, Changing Cultures, risk registry, Risk in motion, Model risks...and more!) Terry shares a wealth of great information and insights that all business leaders and contingency/resilience professionals can benefit from. Don't miss what Terry has to share. 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!

Join me as I talk with renown Crisis Management, Business Continuity, and Resilience expert, Regina Phelps. We talk about the recent Microsoft/CrowdStrike outage that has - and continues to - cripple many organizations and institutions. During our chat we talk about: 1. The outage, 2. Timelines, 3. Who is to blame? 4. The impacts, 5. When is enough, enough? 6. Testing and complacency, 7. What do you do when you have nothing? 8. What's in the Business Continuity Plan? 9. Asking hard questions, 10. How do you deal with data loss? 11. Verifying data integrity...and more. Regina shares what we know about the CrowdStrike outage and some great questions we need to ask ourselves when we find our organizations impacted by such events. You don't want to miss Regina's insights. Enjoy!

Join me as I talk with experienced Operational Resilience and Business Continuity professional, Yusuf Ukaye, as we talk on the topic of Starting a BCM Program from Scratch. During our discussion we talk about: 1. Asking the right questions (What are we protecting? and more), 2. Impacts of not doing what you do, 3. Feeling about risk, 4. Good governance, 5. RACI, 6. It's NOT a project, 7. Everyday BC usage, 8. Building roadmaps, 9. Articulating needs, 10. Standards and guidelines, 11. Stakeholders, 12. Soft Skills, 13. Escalate and communicate w/ leaders, 14. Looking for support, 15. Listen more, 16. Be aware of the human element, 17. Validating you're on the right track, 18. Understanding assumptions and dependencies, 19. Communications...and more! Yusuf provides lots of great insights for those new to the field to help them get started, but also some insights to those that might be wondering why their program isn't as effective as it could be. Don't miss what Yusuf has to share. Enjoy!

Join me as I talk with Entrepreneur, Leader, Coach, Consultant, and Practitioner and author of 'The Anti-Fragility Edge', Si Alhir (Sinan Si Alhir). We talk about agility, resilience, and anti-fragility, and how understanding these concepts - and how they relate to each other - will help transform you and your teams. During our chat we touch on: 1. Defining Agility, Resilience, and Anti-Fragility, 2. The 'sacred triad', 3. Controlling reality and navigating events, 4. Complexity muscle, 5. Stress, 6. 4 levels of thought, 7. Order and dis-order, 8. The challenge of fear, 9. External influences, 10. The human aspects of agility, resilience, and anti-fragility, 11. The 9 C's (you really have to hear this), 12. Engagement and impact, 13. Communications and helping people, 14. Ecosystems (a world view), 15. Risk and risk navigators, 16. Working with teams...and much more! Don't miss the incredible insights with Si Alhir - it will definitely help you, your team, and your business. 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!