This article is a culmination of 44 years of frontline security management experience from a Propriety Security Officer to Manager with General Motors, then senior corporate security positions with Levi Strauss & Co., Kimberly-Clark, Cardinal Health and CSO with Temple-Inland in Austin, TX. I emphasise the word frontline because there is no other way for site leaders to know, like and trust you – three foundational components to the Art of Human Connection and your journey to building a security culture that business leaders and employees understand and embrace. Regardless of your position in your security department constant human connection should be an innate desire – from a friendly smile and good morning passing in the hallway or parking lot, to delivering executive level briefings to time-constrained business leaders, to incident/crisis management communications or workforce security training events.
A company’s overall culture – and ultimately its profitability – can be strengthened by embracing a security culture philosophy. Employees are either the weakest or the strongest link in the success of any security programme. The deciding factor is often the human aspect of business: what influences employees to be engaged with their work and colleagues each day, and how much discretionary effort, care, productivity, teamwork and innovation they choose to contribute.
Artificial Intelligence is also reshaping how security departments protect employees at work, while travelling on business and even at home. The most innovative security professionals are extending that value beyond traditional security functions by partnering with departments such as facilities management to help monitor fire detection and suppression systems, as well as wider smart building technologies. Security leaders who remain solely in their ‘security lane’, rather than looking for opportunities to support other business functions, risk missing valuable opportunities to contribute to the organisation’s broader objectives. After all, the business mantra is simple: you are either making money or saving money.
Affordable modern-age security technology has existed for over 75 years now – technology that was developed and applied was leveraged by Security Departments at facilities and it met their needs at that time. Security technology in general has evolved constantly over those years up to the current domain of artificial intelligence. Just one example is how security video cameras evolved in 1950 with the Vidicon tube camera systems, then three decades later, solid-state CCD (Charge-Coupled Device) chip cameras arrived, followed by CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor) sensor technology. In the last decade, embedded software then AI software made security departments exponentially more efficient and effective.
AI products are benefiting almost every aspect of physical security, supply chain security, travel risk management and area event monitoring, but not direct human connection and that means positively influencing a leader’s or employee’s feelings (emotion) and cognitive understanding in the moment. An AI-generated person can imitate human emotion, but people quickly recognise the difference. Automated voices and virtual faces rarely create genuine trust or empathy. A security professional’s greatest advantage still begins with a smile, a greeting and a positive first impression.
The first few seconds of any interaction can define how security professionals are perceived. A professional smile, a courteous greeting and genuine eye contact may seem like small gestures, but they are often the foundation of trust. Whether meeting a visitor for the first time or greeting a colleague at the start of the day, these moments demonstrate a uniquely human quality that technology cannot replace, and remain central to effective security.
AI can provide extremely beneficial services for the security department’s challenges of immense data sorting and analytics, activity and pattern recognition, condensing data for leaders and speed.
Striving to earn and develop trust
A security professional who says, “I’m going to get business leaders to trust me and support our security programme, just watch!” is often approaching it with the wrong mindset. Business leaders and employees need to know you and like you first. Only then can you begin the journey of earning their respect (they value you) and, ultimately, their trust. Trust is theirs to give, not yours to claim, and it is built gradually through one interaction after another.
Defining security culture
Security culture is often misunderstood. Two common definitions illustrate why:
“The security department instills security culture in all employees’ DNA”
This is a top-down enforcement mindset. It views culture as something forced onto people from the outside, rather than cultivated from within each employee’s understanding that by supporting the security programme, “I will be helping to keep me and my co-workers safe”. Furthermore, claiming security is in the DNA is usually corporate buzzword-speak that pretenses a lack of true employee buy-in.
“We train the employees to protect the company and it’s part of the company culture”
This is compliance-driven and transactional. Training is an event (a checkbox); culture is a continuous pattern of behaviour. When people feel protected by the site culture, protecting co-workers and the business becomes a natural byproduct.
Business leaders and the workforce determine if a security culture is established. It has taken me over four decades of studying human interaction focused on the art of human connection, psychology and neuroscience to define a security culture.
A security culture in four simple concepts
A security culture is achieved when employees:
– Feel safe and secure;
– Protect each other;
– Give you information to protect them and the business;
– Have leaders and employees that trust you.
Corporate and site general culture before security culture
The level of success in developing a security culture depends on the overall company culture and how employees are treated by leadership and each other. Are employees treated with respect and dignity consistently from day one? Is there a sense of fairness and accountability?
Many security professionals focus on building relationships with the C-suite, and gaining executive support is critical. However, it is just as important to engage with site and operational leaders. Each site leader is the CEO of their own operation, responsible for business performance and shaping the local culture.
When a security issue, incident or investment decision arises, the C-suite will value your expertise, and will likely place significant weight on the views of trusted peers. Building strong relationships at every level of the organisation is therefore essential to influencing decisions and achieving lasting security outcomes.
More on human connection: what are your personality traits or character attributes? What has worked well in establishing human connections with leaders and the workforce? What would you like to develop to do even better? These eight-character attributes have been my foundation in the human connection journey in my Security Culture Professional’s Attributes ModelTM – fairness, innovation, tenacity, respect, credibility, vulnerability as well as being perceptive and engaging. And each of these eight have multiple deeper critical aspects.
The two sides of security
Science (Process)
The science side includes all the core services we provide, for example:
- Policies/procedures
- Security technology (video, access, intrusion, artificial intelligence)
- Intelligence
- Risk mitigation and crisis management
- Investigations
- Staffing
- Workplace violence prevention and response
- Travel risk management
- Insider threat programmes
- Supply chain security
- Assessment/auditing
- Training/awareness
- Executive protection
- Intellectual property rights
All these specialties are complex and challenging and require significant time to learn and develop solid expertise and the final achievement of wisdom (making and learning from my mistakes and those of others along the way). Seasoned front-line practitioners that have accumulated many corporate scars know they are precious achievements to be proud of.
The art of human connection (People)
I believe this part is in general the harder of the two because it deals with humans. This security culture journey is non-linear, perpetual, difficult, discouraging and frustrating. Yet, exhilarating and invigorating when achieved – and the above eight-character attributes can help you succeed. When you combine those with self-care for your physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health, you will better understand the ebb and flow of successful human connections.
www.empathicsecuritycultures.com
This feature appeared in issue 149.
