Fact or Fiction with Tweets and Web Sites

The battle of the megaphones…it’s on!

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) has launched a web site to target misinformation and offers a way to let its members, employees, employers and others keep up with issues in national health care reform, pension investments and security.

CalPERSResponds.com is the new web site that will also link to its social media posts on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

According to Patricia Macht, CalPERS director of external affairs, “There’s a lot of information and misinformation about CalPERS” and “We hope this site will help separate the facts from fiction and provide some education, insight and clarity to these issues.”

So now that multiple social networking sites are here to stay, are other organizations also planning to build a bigger microphone so they can shout over the top of the other microphones? 

Megaphones – especially bigger and louder ones – are they really the most effective or efficient solution for communicating information to trusted members, employees and partners when information overload is already a serious problem?

Law To Require Implementation of School Security Plans

Great news! A pending New Jersey bill would mandate that all public and nonpublic schools conduct monthly school security drills for non-fire evacuation, lockdown and active shooter response.  Why is this great news?

Currently, most schools probably have emergency security plans in place, but due to lack of implementation many schools are not comfortable with their level of preparedness.  They have a plan, but because they are not actively implementing and practicing their plans, confusion exists regarding roles and responsibilities and what do actually do if an incident were to occur. 

The status quo methods outlined below are not working:

You have an Emergency Plan.

You have a Message Blasting Notification System.

You have some cool Technology products.

You did some General Training.

SO WHAT?!  

TJ Maxx, CVS, Heartland Payment Systems, New Orleans, Virginia Tech, FEMA and many others along the way had plans; unfortunately their plans were not implemented….

Lessons Learned have shown that a lack of implementation (lack of practice) can lead to critical gaps that can lead to expensive and embarrassing incidents.  Just because a school or organization has a plan in a binder or does once-a-year general training, does not mean that the plan has been implemented.  People (faculty, students, staff, partners, contractors, vendors, etc.) must understand and accept responsibility for implementing plans and policies so they can become a layer of security and preparedness rather than a gap or a weak link.

By requiring schools to implement monthly security drills, administrators will help to eliminate panic and confusion for students, faculty, staff, parents and third-parties. 

As risks and threats, including campus violence, pandemic flu, terrorism, etc. continue to increase, schools must ensure that all appropriate individuals are aware and accountable for their individual roles and responsibilities.   Serious challenges can lead to safety incidents, emergency situations, lawsuits, fines, breaches, damaged reputations, etc. and the cost of preparedness and prevention is far less than the costs related to the consequences and recovery.  

Is your organization implementing your plans and Lessons Learned at the individual-level?

White House Provides Lesson Learned – Lack of Implementation

A recent story made headlines in The Washington Post, providing an excellent example of how a lack of implementation can lead to embarrassing headlines and illegal and costly results.

This story came up because of a previous story The Washington Post (and other media outlets) reported involving Obama officials being invited to intimate dinners at the home of Post publisher Katherine Weymouth, each sponsored at a cost of $25,000.

In response to the initial story, White House counsel Greg Craig reportedly sent out an e-mail (megaphone management) with the 9-page White House policy attached that covered dos and don’ts involving gifts, relationships and invitations to events.

Lessons Learned from White House’s Failure to Implement:

• Just because a memorandum is blasted out does not mean that anyone read it or understood it
• Just because an e-mail with an attachment is blasted out again still does not mean anyone read it or understood it
• Blasting out memorandums and e-mails provides little or no accountability with individuals
• Blasting out memorandums and e-mails provides little or no audit-ready documentation if an employee or vendor or partner violates the policy
• Not including key partners and vendors can lead to serious compliance and legal liabilities
• Not including key partners and vendors lacks accountability, transparency and audit-ready documentation
• What about personnel that started after March 20, 2009 and missed the memorandum blast?
• What about personnel that will start after July 02, 2009 and missed the e-mail blast?

The GAO Congressional and Presidential Transition page states the following:

Although agencies have made progress in improving their operations in recent years, they often lack the basic management capabilities needed to address current and emerging demands. Accordingly, GAO has identified key government wide capacity building and management challenges.  These challenges must be addressed to effectively and efficiently implement new policy and program initiatives.

The lack of implementation is obviously a very serious challenge facing managers today.

Smart managers use proven implementation tools…smart managers click here.

President Obama’s 10-point Cybersecurity Action Plan – Part 8

Step 8 of President Obama’s 10-point action plan is:

Prepare a cybersecurity incident response plan; initiate a dialog to enhance public-private partnerships with an eye toward streamlining, aligning, and providing resources to optimize their contribution and engagement.

Keywords in Step 8 include: Prepare, Initiate, Dialog, Partnership, Streamlining, Aligning, Optimize.

Preparing an incident response plan is a great idea and can play a critical role in the success of a cybersecurity action plan, however a lot organizations have incident response plans that are not producing much if any feedback.  

Why are traditional response plans not working?

Problems with traditional incident response plans lack anonymity on the front-end and they lack innovative tools to manage Dialog, Partnerships, Streamlining, Aligning and Optimizing on the back-end.  As incident response incidents become more sophisticated, more sensitive and more regulated by federal and state mandates, organizations will need more innovative tools to manage the entire incident reporting and response process while also building trust and ensuring confidentiality. 

Lessons Learned include the DOJ incident where human error exposed the email addresses of approximately 150 employees who had used a House Judiciary Committee whistleblower website to submit tips about “alleged politicization” at DOJ.

I hope the incident response plan that the new Cybersecurity Adviser prepares is more like Awareity’s new incident reporting services and not just another toll free telephone number that is blasted out in a national public awareness campaign or printed on bumper stickers.

Awareity’s next generation incident reporting solutions are coming soon…stay tuned!

Swine Flu Preparedness…White House Megaphone vs. Twitter Megaphones

This past Sunday I was watching and listening to DHS and HHS officials talk about the Swine Flu Alert. During the announcement I found it interesting that Secretary Napolitano made a special point to clarify the declaration of emergency by saying she wished they could call it a declaration of emergency preparedness, because that is really what it is in this context.

I agree with Secretary Napolitano that a declaration of emergency preparedness is needed because most organizations are not well prepared for a Pandemic flu outbreak….but that is another topic for another day.

Then I came across a headline on CNN about Twitter causing controversy as some of the Twitter micro-blogging is propagating fear, unnecessary hype and misinformation about the outbreak while others comment that the Twitter buzz is a good sign that people are talking about the issue.

No matter what you think about Twitter, everyone using Twitter has a megaphone to use however they want. 

So, are there any Lessons Learned involving megaphones?  Remember what happened when Orson Welles went on the radio in October 1938 and presented a series of simulated news bulletins that suggested an actual Martian invasion was in progress?  The radio show created panic and widespread outrage with some calling the event cruelly deceptive.

So, what happens if an ‘Orson Welles’ or terrorists decided to use Twitter to create panic or spread hype and misinformation about the outbreak?  Is your organization prepared to address rumors, hype and misinformation from Twitter and other megaphones?

What happens if your employees stayed home from work because of misinformation?

What happens if ‘bad guys’ or ‘competition’ use Twitter to create panic with your customers and your partners?

Does your organization have a way to securely communicate accurate and sensitive information with your employees? With your partners? 

Can your organization ensure integrity and accountability for information at the individual level?

Lessons Learned clearly show megaphones can create complex problems and megaphone management is a dangerous trend that is creating expensive and massive “pains” for organizations of all sizes. 

In today’s world of megaphones, organizations need tools that can deliver the right information to the right people in the right place at the right time with accountability and auditability.

Leaders Must Learn From Others’ Mistakes Too

Learning from our mistakes is popular advice and I find it interesting that the majority of the advice and the majority of experts’ quotes have two common themes:

• If YOU are taking risks and moving forward, YOU will make mistakes.
• When YOU make mistakes, the key is not to make the same mistakes twice.

Good advice but not updated for today:

• Today’s challenges include serious economic challenges, accelerating threats and constant changes.
• Today’s leaders will not live long enough to make all the mistakes on their own so today’s leaders must do a better job of learning from the mistakes of others.

Headlines, lessons learned and case studies seem to be occurring almost every day and the incidents are showing alarming and dangerous trends in two key areas:

• Bad guys are taking advantage of known gaps and weaknesses that organizations are not proactively addressing
• Individuals (at all levels) and organizations are making the same mistakes over and over leading to expensive and embarrassing results

While a lot of leaders are saying a lot of the right things when it comes to mistakes and lessons learned, it is time for today’s leaders to take proactive steps to implement and maintain customized knowledge based on their own lessons learned as well as lessons learned from mistakes made by others.

Another good reason to learn from the mistakes of others is impressive ROIs!  If it is someone else’s mistake then your costs are $0 and if your proactive efforts reduce, eliminate or prevent thousands or millions of dollars in expenses, fines and lawsuits…why wouldn’t you?

If Tiger Woods Can’t Do It…What makes you think you and your employees can?

As good as Tiger Woods is at golf, even Tiger could not take 8 months off and then perform at the level he needed to be successful and win this past week’s tournament.

So here’s a question…

Why in the world would management think their employees can make winning decisions for their organization if they have training every twelve months??

While Tiger’s results help, the results we are seeing in the headlines today (fines, breaches, lawsuits, losses, layoffs, etc.) clearly show that organizations are not proactively training and preparing their people (management, employees, contractor, partners, vendors, etc.) to win.

An organization’s success and ability to win have a lot in common with winning at golf including:

• Practice is the key to success in golf and business
• Using the right tools (clubs) in different situations is the key to better results
• 18 holes of golf today is not the same as 18 holes of golf tomorrow
• You need to practice all types of “decisions/shots” to be ready for your round
• A caddy with good “course knowledge” can make all the difference

 If organizations want to win, they must become “the caddy with customized knowledge” and help all personnel to be better prepared with proactive training to ensure better knowledge and more repetition to ensure better decisions as situations and challenges change from “shot-to-shot”.

President Barack Obama’s Inauguration Speech

January 20^th, 2009 was great day!  And for many reasons, January 20^th, 2009 will long be remembered as a very important day in the history of the United States of America.

As USA Today reported, President Obama’s speech mixed promises with rebukes of former President Bush.

I do not want to get into the rebukes, but I would like to take this opportunity to highlight a few of President Obama’s comments and promises regarding accountability, responsibility and knowledge.

Accountability -  And those of us who manage the public’s dollars will be held to account – to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day – because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.

Responsibility – What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility – a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.

Knowledge – This is the price and the promise of citizenship. This is the source of our confidence – the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny.

I really like President Obama’s promises, but getting real results will require a different approach than using “big megaphones and big jumbotrons” in front of a couple million people or “TV and radio megaphones” blasted out to several million people. Organizational leaders must be empowered with next generation knowledge management tools to ensure that every American and every person that manages the public’s dollars understands their organization’s “customized knowledge” that is specific to their organization’s goals, strategies and obligations.

Time and time again, lessons learned have shown that individuals are easily overwhelmed if they have to sort through entire binders, e-mails, intranets or portals of general information to figure out where their individual roles and responsibilities begin and end and where someone else’s responsibilities take over. These types of broadcasts and megaphone management have not worked and will not work and now is the perfect time to make changes.

President Obama’s speech was great and the President’s promises sound great…so I have a promise too… I promise to do my part in helping every American and every organizational leader to learn how next generation knowledge management tools can help them the same way we are helping other organizations to more effectively manage their “customized knowledge” and ensure accountability and responsibility (and profitability) for their organizational, departmental and individual-level needs and obligations.

God Bless America!

2008 vs. 2009 and Information vs. Knowledge

One thing you can bet on this time of year is “resolutions”.

And now that 2008 is behind us, experts, leaders and politicians are offering all types of information. Some offer top 10 events of 2008 and some provide lists of past and future incidents and challenges that organizations will need to manage and oversee more effectively in 2009 and beyond.

There is no doubt that these experts, leaders and politicians mean well and there is no doubt they are attempting to offer valuable information to help organizations more successfully address escalating challenges especially now due to limited budgets and limited resources. But…(yes I know saying but after a comment can sometimes nullify the previous comment)…But to actually help organizational leaders take proactive steps I must share the following advice:

1) A bunch of Information is not Knowledge.

2) Megaphone Management is not working.

In my previous 27+ years of experience, I have experienced 27 different “new years” and at least 27 different versions of New Year’s resolutions. Unfortunately most organizational leaders take a ‘bunch of information’ and broadcast it out to employees, partners and others and expect everyone to understand what the information means and how to implement all the information so decisions and results are better in the new year.

I think we can all agree that this status quo approach is causing a lot of the problems we are now facing in 2009 and beyond.

For “a bunch of information” to be usable, the information needs to be translated into customized knowledge for your organization so your people can use this knowledge to make better decisions.

And “megaphone management” is not working because when you blast out information in e-mails and memos and binders and on intranets, organizations have no idea if the right people got the right information and no idea if anyone understood what, why, where and how the information should be utilized.

In future blog comments, I will provide examples of incidents, events and lessons learned that will help explain how next generation knowledge management efforts will be a key to success in 2009 and beyond.