Book Review: Blindsided
Virtually every day we hear about a new emergency or crisis. Hacking, identity theft, disease, natural disaster, terrorism—the list seems endless and the impact is often tragic. Preparing for and responding well to such challenges doesn’t just happen, and the stakes are always high.
Now security professionals have a reference to help them both prepare for and respond to these situations effectively and with confidence. The second edition of Bruce Blythe’s Blindsided: A Manager’s Guide to Crisis Leadership provides helpful insights useful in both strategic and tactical preparation, as well as thoughtful prescriptions for the human side of crisis response.
The book is full of checklists, case studies, response guides, and resources to minimize the impact of crises and to help personnel deal with unavoidable adversity. Each chapter includes an action checklist or response guide, along with stimulating questions to help in thinking through particular situations. The combination forms a helpful addition to the case studies and real-life examples with which the book is replete.
Security professionals and their organizations can’t always avoid crisis, but Blindsided will help them be ready to deal with any that occur on their watch.
Reviewer: Mayer Nudell is an independent consultant on crisis management, contingency planning, and related issues. He is also an adjunct professor at Webster University and a member of ASIS. Nudell is coauthor of The Handbook of Effective Emergency and Crisis Management.