We have studied hundreds and hundreds of failures, fines, lawsuits, tragedies and numerous other incidents that have occurred across multiple sectors and around the world.  In our studies, we have discovered some extraordinary details that nearly every failure, fine, lawsuit, tragedy, incident had in common: 

• Most incidents and consequences were preventable
• Nearly every preventable failure, fine, lawsuit, tragedy, incident, etc. that was not prevented was due to gaps or disconnect in one or more of the following obligations:

Organizations and individuals did not do the right things and were not able to prevent expensive and embarrassing incidents because they:

Lacked the Right Tools…

To get the Right Information…

To the Right People…

In the Right Places…

At the Right Time…

So all appropriate individuals could Do the Right Things

This blog is the first of a multi-part blog that will break down each step and share valuable details that we have learned and helpful information on “HOW” your organization can improve prevention and equip all appropriate individuals to do the right things.

If you have would like to see real-world examples of early adopters who are equipping their people to do the right things, please visit http://www.awareity.com/public/news.asp

Everyone has seen a picture of an iceberg showing only the tip of the iceberg actually visible above water and the majority underwater.  

Prevention is sort of like an iceberg because the majority of actions that must be taken with regard to preventing incidents are not visible to most people. For example, if you work at a financial organization and you are striving to prevent fraud and the expensive consequences of fraud, or if you work for an educational institution and you are striving to prevent bullying and the expensive consequences of bullying, the biggest risks, consequences and costs are not always visible at first, but they cannot be ignored either.

Lessons learned show us if you focus only on the tip of the iceberg you are making a big mistake because you are missing the most dangerous risks and challenges that could cause the most embarrassing and most expensive costs to your organization or your educational institution.

Lessons learned also show us knee-jerk reacts to the tip of the iceberg can lead to BIG failures (Titanic, RSA, Virginia Tech, Penn State, Suicides, Lawsuits, etc.).  And we also know knee-jerk reactions seldom turn out to be the best overall or long-term solution and hardly ever address the core of more serious risks and threats. 

To give you an example, immediately after the Virginia Tech tragedy, a massive number of organizational leaders reacted to the tragic situation by rushing out to purchase mass notification systems.  Mass notification systems might be helpful for “reacting” once you have rammed into the “iceberg” (tragedy, incident, lawsuit, etc.), but lessons learned clearly reveal most tragedies and incidents were preventable.  To prevent, organizations need the right tools to get the right information to the right people in the right places at the right time so appropriate individuals could have done the right things so no mass notification was necessary.

Recent knee-jerk reactions include those related to mounting fraud in the financial sector, escalating bullying (and other alarming student safety trends) in the educational sector, as well as many other dangerous trends affecting several other sectors around the world.

In the financial sector, financial leaders are purchasing one-size-fits-all solutions that will hopefully notify them once their customer’s money has been fraudulently stolen.  In the education sector, school leaders are purchasing one-size-fits-all incident reporting solutions and hoping students, teachers, staff and parents will use them.  However, it is important to note that one-size-fits-all solutions like these offer little to no tools for preventing these incidents and preventing the escalating and expensive consequences related to fraud,  bullying and many other alarming risks and trends.

When it comes to fraud and bullying and many other risks, remember there are numerous risks, threats, challenges and consequences that may not be visible, so make sure you have the right tools to obtain the right information so you and others in your organization can do the right things to prevent the preventable.

“Talking” about Doing the Right Thing is not the same as “Doing” the Right Thing. 

Lots of news stories, government folks, celebrities and experts talk about doing the right thing.  Lots of “talk” appears on websites and in blogs, books, programs and laws.  But “Doing the Right Thing” requires taking action and more specifically taking proactive prevention-focused actions. 

Facts and lessons learned clearly show us that most incidents, tragedies, suicides and headlines were preventable.  So why are people not taking proactive and preventative actions and not doing the right things?

I had an idea for this blog a couple weeks ago and then I heard this scripture reading and I knew the blog was right on target and releasing the blog was the right thing to do. The scripture reading included the following: 

We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses to help?  Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.

Facts and lessons learned also show us words (laws, policies, procedures, checklists, general training, etc.) and speeches are not preventing preventable incidents from occurring.  Facts and lessons learned also reveal there are huge gaps with youth and with adults – awareness gaps, accountability gaps and tools gaps.  Based on these facts and lessons learned, it is crystal clear organizations and educational institutions must take immediate actions to empower youth and adults with situational awareness, with accountability and with the right tools to “Do the Right Things”.

If you would like to see a demonstration a “Prevention Platform” that schools, colleges, government and financial institutions are using, take action and visit http://www.tipsprevent.com.

Business Insurance reported that Penn State University’s expenses in response to the alleged child abuse by former assistant football coach Gerald Sandusky are mounting.  A Penn State statement said they are paying nearly $2.5 million for the services of two public relations firms.

The communication firms aim to work with Penn State’s public information officers to provide broad and transparent communications to key stakeholders and support the university through upcoming litigation, according to the statement. “Retaining these communications firms puts us more firmly on the path toward accountability, openness and preserving our reputation as one of the world’s leading research universities,” Penn State President Rodney Erickson said in the statement.

As of Feb 29, Penn State has spent $7,577,643 in legal fees and consulting fees and the legal cases are just getting started.

The majority of the incidents and liabilities at Penn State could have been prevented had PSU invested in a “prevention platform” that would have equipped victims, coaches, supervisors, administration, legal, law enforcement with prevention tools rather than crisis response and other reactive approaches.

In a recent blog I shared how the Virginia Tech tragedy (also preventable according to Virginia Tech Review Panel Report) has cost VT and taxpayers $48.5 MILLION. 

“Prevention platforms” cost your bottom line a whole lot less, they help protect reputations and they save lives.  Does your organization have a Prevention Plan (to complement your Crisis Response Plan), a Prevention Team (to complement your Incident Response Team) and a Prevention Platform?  If you want to be proactive and prevention focused, click here.

Earth Day has been celebrated since 1970 and was created to broaden the support for environmental programs and community awareness to promote environmental citizenship. 

So in honor of Earth Day…I am offering everyone a tip that can help your organization with “going green” and “saving lots of green”.

Wouldn’t be great if your organization could eliminate:

• Paper-based handbooks (employee, student, vendor, etc.)
• Paper-based manuals (policies, procedures, plans, etc.)
• Paper-based documentation (acknowledgements, agreements, etc.)
• Paper-based training
• Paper-based memos and alerts
• Paper-based updates
• Paper-based incident reporting
• Paper-based investigations
• Paper-based incident management
• Paper-based CYA

And just think about all of the labor-intensive cost savings your organization could reap…

 If you are serious about Earth Day and serious about cost savings…click here to see how early adopter organizations are taking a leadership role in environmental citizenship with innovative ways to more effectively prevent expensive and embarrassing results.

Did you see the recent report from the Center for American Progress?  The report estimates that the Virginia Tech tragedy cost the university and taxpayers $ 48.2 million.  And this cost does not include the “costs” associated with the loss of lives and lives that were changed forever.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and I hope all school and university administrators are paying close attention to this wisdom and this new report. 

According to the report, the university was responsible for most of the costs – $ 38.77 million – and the state of Virginia paid around $ 8.87 million and rest was covered by local government and the federal government in the form of grants.

How the $48.2 million breaks down is shown in this Campus Safety article.

http://www.campussafetymagazine.com/Channel/University-Security/News/2012/04/13/Report-Va-Tech-Massacre-Cost-48-2M.aspx?goback=%2Egde_1836305_member_107786480  

 Today is the 5^th anniversary of the Virginia Tech massacre that resulted in 32 deaths and another 25 wounded.  According to the Virginia Tech Review Panel report (which cost $ 465,000), this tragedy could have been prevented and the report provided nearly 100 recommendations for university leaders to implement.

So why do we continue to see incidents, headlines and tragedies in schools and universities?

The facts are pretty clear that most schools and universities are still very “reaction focused”.  Most schools and universities have Crisis Plans and Emergency Response Plans, but few have a Prevention Plan.  Most schools and universities rushed out to purchase Mass Notification Systems after the VT tragedy, but few schools and universities invested in Prevention platforms to equip their students, faculty, staff, Safety Teams, law enforcement, legal, compliance and community resources with tools to “connect-the-dots, silos, red flags and suspicious actions” or the tools to get the right information to the right people in the right place at the right time so the right people can do the right things, which is the most efficient and cost effective way to intervene and prevent expensive and embarrassing tragedies.

To learn more about Awareity’s innovative and proven Prevention platforms and tools, click here.

Time is our greatest asset, time is limited and we all have the same amount of time.

What we do with the time we have is critical to each of us and to those around us too.  And unlike movies, cartoons and commercials…in real life we cannot go back in time.

We cannot go back in time and listen to an at-risk student that committed suicide. 

We cannot go back in time and prevent bullying or cyberbullying that already took place.

We cannot go back in time and prevent violence, drug abuse and sexual assaults that already took place.

We cannot go back in time and give a student the safe learning environment they needed to succeed.

We cannot go back in time and improve a student’s achievement potential.

With so many alarming trends in schools, everyone seems to agree improving student achievement and building and maintaining a safe learning environment in our schools and colleges is an urgent need.

We cannot go back in time and change all of the alarming trends and dangerous incidents occurring in our schools and colleges….so for the sake of all students and for the sake of time…now is the time to take action, not tomorrow, next semester or next year.

To learn how you can do the right thing and equip everyone in your school or college to take action now…click here.

Awareity is proud to announce that one of our very own TIPS Administrators was awarded the LGBTQIA Educator of the Year Award at last weekend’s CESCaL conference! 

Below is an excerpt from Tenna’s nomination:

Some of the greatest leaders in history find opportunities for helping others during times of adversity. Tenna Whitsel is one of these great leaders. As the Student Services Coordinator for Secondary Schools at Tulsa Public Schools (TPS), Tenna sees daily the tremendous challenges students, personnel, parents and communities are facing in building and maintaining a safe learning environment.  Tenna has been a champion of student and human rights in the Tulsa community. 

In 2011, she developed and disseminated mandatory training for all staff regarding the OCR “Dear Colleague Letters” issued to the nation’s districts regarding discrimination and harassment of students.   Tenna led the district in developing a comprehensive bullying and harassment policy inclusive of LGBTQ language and protection with emphasis on prevention and intervention.  She also created a comprehensive suicide policy focused on prevention and response systems, especially considering the high risk to LGBTQ population

As an outgrowth of TPS’s anti-bullying and safe school efforts, Tenna also set out to find better ways to equip TPS personnel to intervene and prevent incidents and improve the school climate while helping students connect with responsible adults to get the support they need.   She researched and procured funding from a community partner to provide the TIPS platform from Awareity, an anonymous incident reporting system for all students including LGBTQ students, all staff, and the community at large to report bullying and harassment, and other safety concerns such as weapons, suicide, child abuse etc.

Tenna is a true leader because she took steps above and beyond to lead the way in helping TPS build and maintain the safest possible environment for all TPS students.  Tenna Whitsel is a passionate super‐educator who is not waiting on Superman, but is becoming her own Superwoman.

To learn more about Tenna’s outstanding accomplishments, please tune in next Tuesday, February 28^th at 11:00 CST to hear Tenna’s live interview with Larry Jacobs on Education Talk Radio (www.education-talkradio.org).

As budgets grow tighter…how many school Superintendents would approve the following expense requests?

Expense Request A:

I am submitting a request to spend thousands of dollars to print up thousands of pages of information that no one will read…

Expense Request B:

I am submitting a request to spend thousands of dollars for software, hardware and personnel to support the software and hardware so we can upload documents on our intranet that no one will read…

Bottom lines are getting crunched because schools are still spending thousands and thousands of dollars on printing, distributing and updating Student Handbooks, Teacher Handbooks, Employee Handbooks, Department Binders, Code of Conduct Manuals, Emergency Plan Binders, Operations Manuals, Safety Manuals, Regulatory Manuals and others.  And after spending thousands of precious dollars, schools have no idea if anyone is reading them and even if individuals do read them, schools have no way of knowing or proving it.

Bottom lines are getting zapped even more thanks to software, hardware and personnel to create “digital handbooks” and “intranets”.  Once again schools are spending thousands of dollars and schools have no idea if anyone is reading the documents and even if individuals do read them, schools have no way of knowing or proving it.

And bottom lines continue to get robbed because schools will spend thousands of dollars on labor-intensive efforts to collect paper-based documents that have been signed by students, parents, teachers, staff, bus drivers and others.  Then schools will spend even more money on labor-intensive efforts to file the signed paper documents and ongoing efforts keeping track of who signed (or did not sign) with spreadsheets and home-grown databases.

Status quo training costs are also zapping bottom lines.  If a school adds up all of the labor-intensive efforts, training documents, training facilities, trainer expenses, overtime, travel time, re-training sessions, spreadsheets and paper-based documentation of attendance and other costs, the numbers can be shocking.  Unfortunately we human beings are not very good at remembering a lot of information delivered via a “fire hose” once or twice a year, which leads to mistakes, re-dos, fines, lawsuits and numerous other bottom line killers.

If you would like to see how your school can replace 20^th century approaches that are killing your tight budget, click here to see how TIPS is equipping schools with 21^st century tools to reduce and eliminate these costs.

If you missed part one of this blog, please click here for teachable moments and bullying laws…

Now that you have reviewed Part 1, my other concern with this story involves communities and their taxpayers.  Is the complaint by school administrators and this vote by the Council on Local Mandates putting communities and taxpayers in a more vulnerable situation with even more liabilities and costs? 

Do these school administrators know what happens when a school does not take appropriate actions by equipping everyone to report incidents, investigating all reports, intervening, preventing a hostile environment and documenting their actions?  Are the Council on Local Mandates and the school administrators for the school districts in Bergen County aware of multiple OCR Dear Colleague Letters that were sent to all schools?

All school administrators could benefit from takking a few minutes to review an Executive Briefing on the Federal Investigation of a school district in California that did not follow OCR Dear Colleague Letter mandates, click here to request your copy.

I also wonder if these school administrators realize that a New Jersey school district within the same Bergen County (Emerson Board of Education) recently paid $130,000 in a settlement of a lawsuit because the school failed to take appropriate actions to intervene and prevent bullying targeted at a student?  The NJ Attorney General said this about the school:

“There is sufficient evidence to support a reasonable suspicion that these incidents of bullying were either ignored or improperly handled by Respondent.”

And I wonder if NJ school administrators are aware there are two more similar lawsuits pending against New Jersey school districts in which students claimed administrators ignored their reports of bullying? 

As I mentioned in Part 1, I am passionate about student safety and because of my passion I bring attention to these stories to help school administrators take actions before it’s too late for even one at-risk student.  I like sharing successes from other school leaders who are reforming status quo, reducing costs and improving student safety and I was honored to receive the Risk Innovator Award for Education from Risk & Insurance Magazine and the Responsibility Leader Award too. 

Give me a call at 402.730.0090 as I am confident we can help you too!