In my experience, the more we explore the tradecraft of our profession, the more we position ourselves for career success. For me, this means a lifelong study of communication – verbal and written – blended with human ecology and the fundamentals of security. It’s an odd mix, but with my focus on Awareness that Works™, [...]
Guest Post: Why and How to Invest in Yourself
May 27, 2010 By
This is a guest post from Jill Van Zelfden - a friend of our practice and a passionate professional. Initially connected through twitter, our conversations have demonstrated her zeal for our field, as well as her insights. When I offered the Catalyst Career Compass – Jill jumped at the opportunity and captured this post as [...]
Invitation to engage: Catalyst Conversation Starters
April 7, 2010 By
Questions are the catalyst to conversations; conversations hold the key to understanding. As a believer in the power of asking questions and engaging in conversation, I am starting a new monthly series: catalyst conversation starters. The idea is simple: ask a short question, share some thoughts, then open it up for everyone to participate through [...]
Leading from the Front: Casting Vision – The Foundation of Effectively Disrupting the Organization
March 31, 2010 By
The Solution: Leading People, Managing Objects, and Accomplishing Goals
January 19, 2010 By
by Martin Fisher Those who know me have come to expect me to “correct” them whenever they say “manage people”. “Objects are managed, people are led,” is my usual retort. Sometimes I am met with a blank look, sometimes with a exasperated grimace, and sometimes (and not nearly often enough) by a questioning stare. “What?” [...]
Securing the Toughest Times
October 29, 2009 By
by Ron Woerner Whether you call it lay-offs, downsizing, rightsizing, redundancies, a reduction in force, or whatever, a reduction in staff stinks. Downturns in the economy often translate to a reduced volume of business, resulting in a correlated reduction in staff. One of the hardest jobs in Security is ensuring that those who are asked [...]
Playing games
October 22, 2009 By
by Jeff Kirsch Recently, my son told me a story about how he played chess with a friend at school. In his story, he said his friend executed a certain move; my son then asked me if I had ever tried that move. I was a bit confused; I’ve played chess on and off for [...]
Getting rid of your best people
October 13, 2009 By
by James Costello A friend of mine recently had a very Dilbertesque experience at work. The company my friend works for has been acquired twice in the last three years and all of the dust seemed to be settling. Sort of… Locally there were four offices under the corporate umbrella, each a legacy of the [...]
Career Advice for Security Geeks, Part 2
May 6, 2009 By
by Bill Pennington Maybe you didn’t see my last post in time to save your job, and you are now out on the street looking for one. I have been hiring people for close to 10 years now, and hiring today is a lot different than it was 10 years ago. These tips are based [...]
Do you know why virtual teams fail? Take 5 minutes to help some grad students understand
October 30, 2007 By
One of the areas I have been interested in is how teams can effectively work in a virtual environment – and in a way that protects information. I like to work virtually, and it’s the only way I can effective support the growing team of professionals behind the security catalyst (we have nearly 10 people now). I was recently contacted by a group of grad students from Johns Hopkins studying virtual teams. They wanted to pick my brain on the topic of what kills virtual teams, talk a bit of security, and then buttered me up to ask if I would produce a podcast of their results by interviewing an expert.
Innovative business school curricula taught by expert faculty and prominent business leaders, based on the Hopkins model of combining theory and practice.The class:Building Teams and Developing TeamworkThis course is designed to teach students to benchmark the qualities, characteristics, and structures that lead to high performance teams. They examine the similarities and differences among interdisciplinary work teams, multidisciplinary work teams, cross-functional work teams, and virtual teams. Models of team development and organizational culture are applied to diagnosing, consulting, and facilitating team success.The project:Bring new knowledge to the field of work team behaviorA group of five Hopkins graduate students were charged with bringing new knowledge to the field of teaming. This group elected to research the world of virtual teaming and in doing so there is a great body of literature on what makes virtual teams successful, but little written about what causes them to fail or at least be sub-optimized. This brief, six question survey addresses potential problems related to virtual teaming and will be used in conjunction with data gather by conducting a series of structured interviews with subject matter experts to examine “virtual team killers.”
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