We're Not Protecting Data—We're Protecting People

The Origin: Cybersecurity as a Core Value

Dan Pitre: So we got here by a discussion that you and I had about cybersecurity. And honestly, I didn't see cybersecurity as a core value. I think I viewed it like most people do—that's an IT function.

Bob Shannon: And after our conversation about that, I realized that this is something that employees and the organization need to have as a psychological contract with their people, which leads it towards the core value. Because it's not just an IT function, it's an everybody function.

Dan Pitre: Exactly. And to kind of take a step back, the conversation stemmed from a tabletop exercise that you participated in that I was leading. We had a pseudo scenario going on, walking different people who have different roles in their organizations through what an organization might go through when they experience a breach.

Bob Shannon: And that's the whole goal with organizational culture—get people to understand how it fits and what the organization's trying to be. Especially in those data-driven, high-risk industries where they're at risk of always being attacked. The sophistication around those attacks today, how it's amplifying because of AI and how everything looks so real.

Dan Pitre: And that's where that came from. The question in my mind was, well, what if cybersecurity was a core value? A lot of times those core values are often overlooked for how powerful they are.

Bob Shannon: What was so special about the write-up you shared with me—you took this thought and you worked on putting those ideas into language. It was so strong at instilling the message of the impact of integrating this into the core value. So for me, it took it from this conversation around culture, and then realizing that translates into core values, and then taking it to the phrase that I love: developing that psychological contract.

Core Values and Leadership

Bob Shannon: When we go in and work with an organization, it's not just "here's your core values." It's: What are your core values? What do they need to be? And then how do we develop the leadership and the personal team and organizational levels to embrace and model those behaviors?

Dan Pitre: You shared a story about way back when you first started and how core values actually shaped your career.

Bob Shannon: When I was recruited to Silicon Valley by an IT outsourcing organization, one of the things that really helped shape my work ethic was a set of core values that they had defined. These were not just core values for the sake of core values—they were lived by the leadership team. They demonstrated those core values. The first set of awards I received in my career mapped to those core values, recognizing what I'd demonstrated that aligned with them. And now, some 30 years later, those first two awards are right behind me on my desk.

Leadership Beyond the Title

Dan Pitre: It's not just the C-Suite that demonstrates leadership. Any role that you're in, you can demonstrate these leadership skill sets.

Bob Shannon: Absolutely. Personal leadership—everybody in an organization has to start with personal leadership. Do my core values align with this organization's core values? When you do that, it decreases tension within the organization. It increases accountability and engagement because everybody knows what the expectation is.

We're Not Protecting Data—We're Protecting People

Bob Shannon: When you said "we're not protecting data, we're protecting people"—that really resonated. I'm all about working the people side of things.

Dan Pitre: You're right. We're protecting people within the organization, our clients, and even their clients. One of the things we talked about is how easily a breach can be systemic across not just our organization but other organizations.

Bob Shannon: To me it resonates well as a core value, just like in some organizations—safety above all. That's important especially in construction, high-risk industries, aviation, petrochemical, hospitals, healthcare. I see it as safety and security. Cybersecurity is just part of that as well.

Dan Pitre: It all comes back to the people. Leadership is about the people. That's why there's so much synergy across all of these concepts. It all aligns with the bottom line, which is the people of the organization.

Empowerment and Trust

Dan Pitre: One of the key themes is empowerment and enablement. As leaders, we have an obligation to remove barriers for our team members. It's important to trust our team members to make critical decisions. That's really key when it comes to the cybersecurity world.

Bob Shannon: We work with organizations on trust because it's paramount in every relationship—within the organization, with your clients, with your customers. Trust is found around three key things: competency, compassion, and integrity. If someone on your team clicked on something and the natural reaction is "uh oh, don't say anything"—well, the integrity model is "hey, I clicked on something. It might be a phish. I better take that next step."

Dan Pitre: And that naturally segues into the other key topic: building a culture of trust and resilience.