Personal Security

This week took me to Northern Ireland’s rolling fields and Georgian streets cloaked in fog and the sweet aroma of peat, where I had the great pleasure of meeting with Security Officers to talk about risk management.

These were great men and women from all walks of life and industries - the prison service, armed forces, corporates, manufacturing, education… united for the first time in one honorable cause – the protection and safeguarding of people and property.

With the subject matter of risk and how to manage it, it’s easy to get swept up in the hysteria of worse case scenarios and spiral down into fear and negativity, so it’s important to keep a balance.

It is of course important to have structure and tried and tested processes in place when preparing against risk scenarios. But many people make the error of not allowing adequate space and time to accommodate unforeseen eventualities and enable dynamic assessing, fresh perspectives and creative thinking. Also and crucially, it’s important to maintain an optimistic outlook and invite the best possible scenario to manifest.

Together we looked at best practice approaches to managing risk and as we proceeded to review case studies, it was apparent that we each had our unique perspectives, borne from our unique life experiences. For some, these differences created doubt in the validity of their own standpoint.

Was what they knew enough? Was it okay to not know how to deal with every possible eventuality? Was it okay to consult with other subject matter experts or might this be seen as a sign of weakness? Was it okay to have an opinion different to the others?...

Part of the pleasure for me as the facilitator of these sessions is encouraging each person to be authentic in a group setting and witness as contrasts provide clarity and form new ideas in the group that could never have been attained by one person alone.

Each of us comes with our own perspective that no one else will or could ever fully comprehend and it’s important that each of us brings this to the table for the purpose of mutual expansion. If you suppress your perspective, you risk growth.