Have you begun to question traditional best practices in business continuity (BC)? Do you seem to be concentrating on documentation rather than preparedness? Compliance rather than recoverability? Do your efforts provide true business value? If you have these concerns, David Lindstedt and Mark Armour offer a solution in Adaptive Business Continuity: A New Approach. This ground-breaking new book provides a streamlined, realistic methodology to change BC dramatically. After years of working with the traditional practices of business continuity (BC) – in project management, higher education, contingency planning, and disaster recovery – David Lindstedt and Mark Armour identified unworkable areas in many core practices of traditional BC. To address these issues, they created nine Adaptive BC principles, the foundation of this book: Deliver continuous value. Document only for mnemonics. Engage at many levels within the organization. Exercise for improvement, not for testing. Learn the business. Measure and benchmark. Obtain incremental direction from leadership. Omit the risk assessment and business impact analysis. Prepare for effects, not causes. Adaptive Business Continuity: A New Approach uses the analogy of rebuilding a house. After the initial design, the first step is to identify and remove all the things not needed in the new house. Thus, the first chapter is “Demolition” – not to get rid of the entire BC enterprise, but to remove certain BC activities and products to provide the space to install something new. The stages continue through foundation, framework, and finishing. Finally, the last chapter is “Dwelling,” permitting you a glimpse of what it might be like to live in this new home that has been created. Through a wealth of examples, diagrams, and real-world case studies, Lindstedt and Armour show you how you can execute the Adaptive BC framework in your own organization. You will: Recognize specific practices in traditional BC that may be problematic, outdated, or ineffective. Identify specific activities that you may wish to eliminate from your practice. Learn the capability and constraint model of recoverability. Understand how Adaptive BC can be effective in organizations with vastly different cultures and program maturity levels. See how to take the steps to implement Adaptive BC in your own organization. Think through some typical challenges and opportunities that may arise as you implement an Adaptive BC approach.

Through a wealth of examples, diagrams, and real-world case studies, this groundbreaking book provides a streamlined, realistic methodology to change business continuity dramatically and shows you how you can execute it in your own organization. --

You have the knowledge and skill to create a workable Business Continuity Management (BCM) program – but too often, your projects are stalled while you attempt to get the right information from the right person. Rachelle Loyear experienced these struggles for years before she successfully revamped and reinvented her company’s BCM program. In The Manager’s Guide to Simple, Strategic, Service-Oriented Business Continuity, she takes you through the practical steps to get your program back on track. Rachelle Loyear understands your situation well. Her challenge was to manage BCM in a large enterprise that required hundreds of BC plans to be created and updated. The frustrating reality she faced was that subject matter experts in various departments held the critical information she needed, but few were willing to write their parts of the plan. She tried and failed using all the usual methods to educate and motivate – and even threaten – departments to meet her deadlines. Finally, she decided there had to be a better way. The result was an incredibly successful BCM program that was adopted by BCM managers in other companies. She calls it “The Three S’s of BCM Success,” which can be summarized as: Simple – Strategic – Service-Oriented. Loyear’s approach is easy and intuitive, considering the BCM discipline from the point of view of the people in your organization who are tasked to work with you on building the plans and program. She found that most people prefer: Simple solutions when they are faced with something new and different. Strategic use of their time, making their efforts pay off. Service to be provided, lightening their part of the load while still meeting all the basic requirements. These tactics explain why the 3S program works. It helps you, it helps your program, and it helps your program partners. Loyear says, “If you follow the ‘Three S’ philosophy, the number of plans you need to document will be fewer, and the plans will be simpler and easier to produce. I’ve seen this method succeed repeatedly when the traditional method of handing a business leader a form to fill out or a piece of software to use has failed to produce quality plans in a timely manner.” In The Manager’s Guide to Simple, Strategic, Sevice-Oriented Business Continuity, Loyear shows you how to: Completely change your approach to the problems of “BCM buy-in.” Find new ways to engage and support your BCM program partners and subject matter experts. Develop easier-to-use policies, procedures, and plans. Improve your overall relationships with everyone involved in your BCM program. Craft a program that works around the roadblocks rather than running headlong into them.

You designed your Business Continuity Plan to keep your business in business regardless of the forces of man and nature. But how do you know that the plan really works? Few companies can afford the recommended full-scale exercises several times a year. In The Manager’s Guide to Business Continuity Exercises, Jim Burtles, an internationally known expert, details the options for conducting a range of tests and exercises to keep your plan effective and up to date. Your challenge is to maintain a good and effective plan in the face of changing circumstances and limited budgets. If your situation is like that in most companies, you really cannot depend on the results of last year’s test or exercise of the plan. People tend to forget, lose confidence, lose interest, or even be replaced by other people who were not involved in your original planning. Jim Burtles explains: “You cannot have any real confidence in your plans and procedures until they have been fully tested...Exercises are the only way we can be sure that the people will be able to interpret the plans and procedures correctly within the requisite timeframe under difficult circumstances.” As you do your job in this constantly shifting context, Jim Burtles helps you to: • Differentiate between an “exercise” and a “test” – and see the value of each in your BC program. • Understand the different types of plans and identify the people who need to be involved in exercises and tests for each. • Use the “Five-Stage Growth Path” – from desktop to walkthrough to full-scale exercise -- to conduct gradual testing, educate personnel, foster capability, and build confidence. • Create a variety of unusual scenario plot-lines that will keep up everyone’s interest. • Identify the eight main elements in developing and delivering a successful BC exercise. • Select and prepare a “delivery team” and a “response team” for your exercise. • Make sure everyone understands the “rules of engagement.” • Use the lessons learned from exercises and tests to audit, update, and maintain the plan. You are well aware that a host of problems may crop up in any kind of company-wide project. These problems can range from basic logistics like time and place, to non-support from executives and managers, to absenteeism, to the weather, to participants forgetting their lines. Throughout the book, Burtles uses his decades of experience working with companies like yours to give you useful examples, case studies, and down-to-earth advice to help you handle the unexpected and work toward the results you are looking for.

As a security professional, have you found that you and others in your company do not always define “security” the same way? Perhaps security interests and business interests have become misaligned. Brian Allen and Rachelle Loyear offer a new approach: Enterprise Security Risk Management (ESRM). By viewing security through a risk management lens, ESRM can help make you and your security program successful. In their long-awaited book, based on years of practical experience and research, Brian Allen and Rachelle Loyear show you step-by-step how Enterprise Security Risk Management (ESRM) applies fundamental risk principles to manage all security risks. Whether the risks are informational, cyber, physical security, asset management, or business continuity, all are included in the holistic, all-encompassing ESRM approach which will move you from task-based to risk-based security. How is ESRM familiar? As a security professional, you may already practice some of the components of ESRM. Many of the concepts – such as risk identification, risk transfer and acceptance, crisis management, and incident response – will be well known to you. How is ESRM new? While many of the principles are familiar, the authors have identified few organizations that apply them in the comprehensive, holistic way that ESRM represents – and even fewer that communicate these principles effectively to key decision-makers. How is ESRM practical? ESRM offers you a straightforward, realistic, actionable approach to deal effectively with all the distinct types of security risks facing you as a security practitioner. ESRM is performed in a life cycle of risk management including: Asset assessment and prioritization. Risk assessment and prioritization. Risk treatment (mitigation). Continuous improvement. Throughout Enterprise Security Risk Management: Concepts and Applications, the authors give you the tools and materials that will help you advance you in the security field, no matter if you are a student, a newcomer, or a seasoned professional. Included are realistic case studies, questions to help you assess your own security program, thought-provoking discussion questions, useful figures and tables, and references for your further reading. By redefining how everyone thinks about the role of security in the enterprise, your security organization can focus on working in partnership with business leaders and other key stakeholders to identify and mitigate security risks. As you begin to use ESRM, following the instructions in this book, you will experience greater personal and professional satisfaction as a security professional – and you’ll become a recognized and trusted partner in the business-critical effort of protecting your enterprise and all its assets.

When the challenge is to get to the heart of a problem, you need a simple and efficient cause investigation methodology. And what would make a real difference would be an interactive map to lead you to the answer every time. Chester Rowe’s Simplifying Cause Analysis: A Structured Approach is your instruction book combined with the included downloadable Interactive Cause Analysis Tool you have been looking for. The author intends this book for professionals like you, who have some familiarity with cause analysis projects and are looking for a simple and efficient cause investigation methodology –is a more effective and insightful way of asking “why?” Introducing his multi-function event investigation tool, Chester Rowe says, “There are already many scientific tools to help us understand the physical causes for machine failures; the challenge now is to find a way of investigating human performance failure modes...humans are often a major source of slips, lapses, and mistakes.” Supporting his instructions with diagrams, charts, and real-world examples from companies like yours, the author takes you step-by-step through planning, completing, and documenting your investigation: Chapter 1 gives you a process to determine the level of effort that your investigation should encompass, assess the level of effort needed, and determine the rigor needed. Your investigation needs to be as risk-informed as possible. Chapters 2 through 5 presents a new and innovative structure –rigorous yet intuitively easy to remember – to identify the underlying causes for the event (Cause Road Maps) and conduct the investigation. Chapter 6 introduces conceptual human performance models and tells you how to begin focusing on the human behaviors involved. Chapters 7 and 8 present you with methods, tools, and techniques for carefully interviewing personnel. Chapters 9 through 13 “put the pieces together,” showing you how to analyze and model the event, determine corrective action, and document the investigations and findings. Chester Rowe developed the Cause Road Map over many years to provide a comprehensive taxonomy for every cause investigation. However, fully implementing the Cause Road Map requires the use of other tools to organize, analyze, and present the final results of your investigation. To get you started, Rowe includes his downloadable Interactive Cause Analysis Tool – an easy-to-use tool in familiar spreadsheet format – free with your verified purchase of the book.

Avoid being “blindsided” by an unexpected emergency or crisis in the workplace – violence, natural disaster, or worse! Bruce Blythe’s The Manager’s Guide to Quick Response in a Crisis: Effective Action in an Emergency offers the time-tested skills that prepare you to act effectively – on behalf of yourself and your co-workers – in the face of threat and chaos. Blythe uses real-world case studies, examples, and checklists to help you be the top-notch leader the situation requires. “Hope for the best and prepare for the worst” sums up Blythe’s philosophy. This short book is the essence of the basic practical counseling that he would give if he were sitting next to you at your desk. To help you figure out what to do next, he offers real-world examples of what has worked – and not worked – in his 30+ years of experience with companies just like yours. With Blythe’s advice, you can act fast to: Find out the accurate facts you need to strategize and implement a response. Compile a checklist of immediate action items. Create a crisis command center (CCC. Select the best people for your action team and determine action steps. . Understand how to make good decisions in a crisis or emergency. . Handle the human side of a traumatic incident. . Set priorities in multiple timeframes. . Establish a “new normal” as everyone phases back into productive work after the incident. To help you take the actions that will make a difference, the book includes: Practical forms, checklists, cases studies, and real-life examples. “Quick Use Response Guide” at the end of each chapter – all four can form a handy pocket guide.

You know by now that your company could not survive without the Internet. Not in today’s market. You are either part of the digital economy or reliant upon it. With critical information assets at risk, your company requires a state-of-the-art cybersecurity program. But how do you achieve the best possible program? Tari Schreider, in Building Effective Cybersecurity Programs: A Security Manager’s Handbook, lays out the step-by-step roadmap to follow as you build or enhance your cybersecurity program. Over 30+ years, Tari Schreider has designed and implemented cybersecurity programs throughout the world, helping hundreds of companies like yours. Building on that experience, he has created a clear roadmap that will allow the process to go more smoothly for you. Building Effective Cybersecurity Programs: A Security Manager’s Handbook is organized around the six main steps on the roadmap that will put your cybersecurity program in place: Design a Cybersecurity Program Establish a Foundation of Governance Build a Threat, Vulnerability Detection, and Intelligence Capability Build a Cyber Risk Management Capability Implement a Defense-in-Depth Strategy Apply Service Management to Cybersecurity Programs Because Schreider has researched and analyzed over 150 cybersecurity architectures, frameworks, and models, he has saved you hundreds of hours of research. He sets you up for success by talking to you directly as a friend and colleague, using practical examples. His book helps you to: Identify the proper cybersecurity program roles and responsibilities. Classify assets and identify vulnerabilities. Define an effective cybersecurity governance foundation. Evaluate the top governance frameworks and models. Automate your governance program to make it more effective. Integrate security into your application development process. Apply defense-in-depth as a multi-dimensional strategy. Implement a service management approach to implementing countermeasures. With this handbook, you can move forward confidently, trusting that Schreider is recommending the best components of a cybersecurity program for you. In addition, the book provides hundreds of citations and references allow you to dig deeper as you explore specific topics relevant to your organization or your studies.

As a manager, you can usually handle disruptive employees. But sometimes, their emotional states foster workplace tension, even making them a danger to others. Your own confidence is at risk. In The Manager’s Guide to Bullies in the Workplace: Coping with Emotional Terrorists, noted counselor Dr. Vali Hawkins Mitchell gives you sensible advice for keeping the bully from dominating the workgroup and destroying productivity – and maintaining your own healthy emotional balance at the same time. Sometimes the difficult person is an overt physical bully, which makes it easy to simply fire the person. Much of the time, however, the problems are more subtle and build up over periods of time. They undermine your ability to manage your team – and they can spread to the rest of the team, destroying teamwork and productivity. In this short book, Dr. Vali helps you to: Recognize the types of upsetting work situations that bullies exploit to their own advantage, such as change, grief, and violence. Understand why emotional terrorists make it so difficult for you, as a manager, to deal with their behavior. . See the symptomatic tools and techniques of the emotional terrorist, such as harassment, lying to supervisors, tampering with documents, etc. . Conduct training to help other managers and team members recognize and handle the signs of impending emotional conflict – you will love the “Snakes in the Schoolyard” exercise. . Know exactly what to say and not say when you must have a one-on-one interview with someone you consider to be a bully. . Be an effective manager in a world of challenges – protecting and preserving the mental health of your employees and yourself. . Dr. Vali uses realistic examples and humor to help you handle the challenges you face – and to show the degree to which she really understands your situation. With her guidance, you will be more comfortable with knowing when you can handle the situation through simply being the good manager, when you need to call in an outside mental health professional, and when you need to call 911.