“What Are You Learning?” — The Fix

So I wrote this article some time ago. This was my attempt at starting a conversation about ways in which continuous education could be improved in asset protection because this improvement is desperately needed.

By design, the last article touched on some pertinent topics — the low-hanging fruit, so to speak. But then, I immediately started thinking about a structure for this learning as well as some relevant content. So here’s what I think could work.

Asset protection is really based on 6 key pillars of knowledge. They are:

1. Psychology (particularly psychology of behavior, decision-making, and leadership);
2. Design (specifically means and methods of making things and environments optimally well protected, desirable, and usable for humans based on scientific research in psychology of behavior and decision-making);
3. Operational controls (planning, policies, procedures, staffing, talent development, investigations, etc.);
4. Technological controls (video / audio surveillance, detection sensors, access control, lighting, etc.);
5. Physical controls (walls, doors, windows, site / building layout, space compartmentalization, barriers, pedestrian and vehicular circulation, etc.);
6. Incident management (specifically orchestration of readiness, response, and recovery).

Naturally, the last three pillars depend completely on a healthy blend of the first three.

At this time, our industry insufficiently covers domains 3 to 6 and doesn’t cover domains 1 and 2. Sadly, in 2008, when I had an opportunity to design my own academic course on asset protection, I didn’t have enough understanding about domains 1 and 2. Had I known then, the four additional books I’d have made my students read would have been:

• Daniel Kahneman’s “Thinking Fast and Slow”;
• Chip and Dan Heath’s “Made to Stick” and “Switch”
• James Clear’s “Atomic Habits”

The problem was that I had no idea about the ways of thinking proposed in these books because (a) I’d never heard of them in professional circles or during my academic studies, (b) only one of the books came out before 2008, and (c) even my wonderful and patient mentors and coaches didn’t address this.

As they say in Brooklyn, NY, “Whaddaya gonna do?!”

Getting back to the main point of this piece, the 6 pillars do have a common thread: ASSET. Being able to define clearly what needs to be protected, and in what form it exists, helps contextualize application of knowledge from each of the 6 pillars individually and from all of them collectively, thus leading to optimized protection.

Each asset protection practitioner, in order to solidify his or her professional status, should consider performing a self-assessment to determine the breadth of their knowledge relative to each of the 6 pillars as well as ability to define assets and prioritize them by criticality (operational, financial, and reputational). On the basis of this self-assessment, practitioners should engage in independent and guided study, comprised of reading materials, curated multi-media content, one-on-one coaching, and traditional seminars. As I mentioned in my previous article, it is important to apply positive skepticism to any educational content and anyone who delivers it in order to understand its value. Here are some questions you should consider to help evaluate such resources:

• What kind of research went into development of this content?
• What kind of experience (professional and academic) does the instructor / mentor / coach have in relation to the content I’m seeking?
• How does the content’s / seminar’s design address optimal retention of presented information?
• How easily can I organize my learning efforts around this type of content / presentation method(s) to optimally retain and apply new material / skills?
• How will this new knowledge enhance my professional abilities and make me more noticeable when compared with my peers?
• Will this new knowledge have lasting positive effects on my personal and professional life?
• Will this new knowledge help me better serve my clients and colleagues for the rest of my career?

For a long time I’ve been insisting that asset protection is teachable to anyone. I believe in it today more than ever before. As soon as our industry adopts this view and stops automatically bestowing professional recognition on former military and law enforcement folks without thorough re-training and / or validation — preferably using the structure above — it will be in much better shape.

Thank you for your attention.

Soar above mediocrity!

www.spherestate.com