Are you achieving successful, repeatable results with your security program? How do you, your boss, and your organization each define success in security? Can you make it all work without burning yourself and your team out? Information security professionals are not known for their “soft skills”, so let’s discuss some practical guidance for Blue Teams who want to improve the quality of their work and efficiency of their communication.

1. You Caught Me
Monologuing
Effective Communications in Security

2. Overview
• Why Does This Matter
• Communicating with Your Colleagues
• Communicating with Your Team
• Communicating with Your Boss
• Communicating with Your Executives
• Communicating with Everyone Else

3. About …

4. About Me

5. @pjbeyer

15. photo credit: vibramfivefingers.com

19. About Expectations

20. Not an Expert

21. Not Comprehensive

22. Not a Lecture

23. About Communication

24. “The most important thing
in communication is
hearing what isn't said.”
- Peter Drucker

25. It isn’t About

26. It isn’t About
• Your role
• Your thoughts
• Acting alone

27. It is About

28. It is About
• Your actions
• Taking initiative
• Working with others

29. About Effectiveness

30. “Most people do not listen
with the intent to
understand; they listen with
the intent to reply.”
- Stephen R Covey

31. 7 Habits of Highly
Effective People

32. Effective
Communication Habits
• #4 Think Win-Win
• #5 Seek First to Understand, Then to be
Understood
• #6 Synergize

33. Why Does This
Matter

34. “Two monologues do not
make a dialogue.”
- Jeff Daly

35. Practical Guidance

36. Practical Guidance
• Simple tools for everyone
• Use everyday around the office
• What has worked in your career… let’s
discuss

37. Personal Value

38. Personal Value
• Be more effective in your role
• Be more valuable as an employee

39. Realize Your Vision

40. Realize Your Vision
• Great work requires vision
• Vision requires execution
• Communication is the means

41. Communicating with
Your Colleagues

42. “If you make listening and
observation your occupation,
you will gain much more
than you can by talk.”
- Robert Baden-Powell

43. Foster Cooperation

44. Foster Cooperation
• Correct dysfunctional teamwork with simple
tools
• Make meetings effective
• Understand your colleagues’ behavior

45. Teamwork Tools:
Goal

46. Teamwork Tools: Goal
• Focus on a clear team goal
• Is the team goal second to personal agendas?
• Discuss the worst-case scenario
• Is the team goal second to interpersonal
relations?
• Articulate the goal at the outset

47. Teamwork Tools:
Activities

48. Teamwork Tools:
Activities
• Identify the decision-maker and delegate roles
• Are decisions dictated by dominant members?
• Identify existing skills and experience
• Are roles not clearly defined?
• Delegate the roles your team needs

49. Teamwork Tools:
Participation

50. Teamwork Tools:
Participation
• Balance criticism and support
• Are ideas aggressively sold or is there excessive
criticism?
• Encourage a balance of both approaches
• Are members hesitant to contribute or support
others?
• Directly solicit participation

51. Manage Meetings

52. Manage Meetings
• Have an agenda
• Stick to the agenda
• Be on time
• Take notes… handwritten?
• Participate!

53. Understand Behavior

54. Understand Behavior
• DiSC is an instrument
• Behavioral styles are not personalities
• Helpful in deciphering communication (written
and spoken)

56. DiSC
Dominance

57. Dominance
• Emphasis on accomplishing results, the
bottom line, confidence
• Sees the big picture
• Can be blunt
• Accepts challenges
• Gets straight to the point

58. DiSC
Influence

59. Influence
• Emphasis on influencing or persuading others,
openness, relationships
• Shows enthusiasm
• Is optimistic
• Likes to collaborate
• Dislikes being ignored

60. DiSC
Steadiness

61. Steadiness
• Emphasis on cooperation, sincerity,
dependability
• Doesn't like to be rushed
• Calm manner
• Calm approach
• Supportive actions

62. DiSC
Conscientiousness

63. Conscientiousness
• Emphasis on quality and accuracy, expertise,
competency
• Enjoys independence
• Objective reasoning
• Wants the details
• Fears being wrong

64. Communicating with
Your Team

65. “The single biggest
problem in communication
is the illusion that it has
taken place.”
- George Bernard Shaw

66. Be a Better Manager

67. Be a Better Manager
• Conduct weekly 1-on-1 meetings
• Provide frequent feedback (positive and
negative)
• Use coaching for skill development
• Delegate, delegate, delegate

68. Invest in Your People

69. Invest in Your People
• Defend the training and conference budget
• Use THE development question…
• What do YOU think?
• Find a mentor for each of them

70. Set Goals and
Measure Progress

71. Set Goals and Measure
Progress
• SMART
• Make goals Measurable
• Track progress
• Make goals Time-based
• Report success/failure throughout the organization
• Hold your team accountable

72. Communicating with
Your Boss

73. “The art of conversation
lies in listening.”
- Malcolm Forbes

74. Management is Hard

75. Management is Hard
• Disclaimer: YMMV
• Behavior tends toward assertiveness and
task-focused
• Responsible for Results and Retention

76. Be Succinct

77. Be Succinct
• Your boss doesn’t need every detail for every
task
• Your boss doesn’t necessarily need to hear
from you every day
• Provide enough detail, and the opportunity to
ask for more

78. The Unspoken
Commitment

79. The Unspoken
Commitment
• Proactively communicate project/task in
jeopardy
• No communication is assumed to be GREEN

80. Communicating with
Your Executives

81. “You cannot truly listen to
anyone and do anything
else at the same time.”
- M Scott Peck

82. Attend to the Details

83. Attend to the Details
• Agenda
• Timeliness
• Attire
• Language

84. Know Your Business

85. Know Your Business
• Spend time outside of your department
• Understand the business impact of a loss
event
• Learn about risk from their point of view

86. Know Your Industry

87. Know Your Industry
• Understand the landscape of your industry
• Be familiar with the dominant market forces
• Learn from the examples and experiences of
peers

88. It’s a Business
Decision

89. It’s a Business Decision
• You are not the decision-maker
• Act as an advisor
• Inform leadership, so they make good
decisions
• Own the results

90. Set Reasonable
Expectations

91. Set Reasonable
Expectations
• Share enough details to get the point across
• Incidents are a reality in every environment
• If you don’t yet have the data, be careful what
you assert

92. Communicating with
Everyone Else

93. “In the last analysis, what
we are communicates far
more eloquently than
anything we say or do.”
- Stephen Covey

94. Attitude

95. Attitude
• Your attitude is more effective than your words
• Cynicism is a lousy strategy
• Inspire and influence to get the desired effect

96. Thinking Errors

97. Thinking Errors
• Black/White Thinking
• Generalization
• Emotional Reasoning
• Minimizing
• Deflecting
• Magnifying

98. Cognitive Bias

99. Cognitive Bias
• Daniel Kahneman - “Thinking, Fast and Slow”
• System 1 vs System 2
• Heuristics
• Biases

100. Call to Action

101. Establish a Habit of
Interdependence

102. Manage Well

103. Talk Less, Listen More

104. Resources

105. @pjbeyer

106. Productivity

107. Productivity
Resources
• Todd Henry
• “The Accidental Creative” / “Die Empty”
• @toddhenry http://www.toddhenry.com/
• Michael Bungay Stanier
• “Do More Great Work”
• @boxofcrayons http://www.boxofcrayons.biz/
• David Allen
• “Getting Things Done”
• @gtdguy http://gettingthingsdone.com/

108. Effectiveness

109. Effectiveness
Resources
• Gerald Weinberg
• “The Secrets of Consulting”
• http://www.geraldmweinberg.com/
• Stephen Covey
• “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Covey

110. Thinking

111. Thinking
Resources
• Article: Thinking Errors
• http://blogs.psychcentral.com/caregivers/
2015/03/3072/
• Daniel Kahneman
• “Thinking, Fast and Slow”
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Kahneman

112. Management

113. Management
Resources
• Mark Horstman & Mike Auzenne
• “Manager Tools” (podcast with detailed notes)
• @mahorstman @mauzenne http://www.manager-tools.com/
• Peter Drucker
• “The Effective Executive”
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Drucker
• Harvard Business Review
• https://hbr.org/

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