Editor’s note: Shawn Rhodes, TEDx Speaker and a nationally syndicated columnist, will be the opening keynote speaker at the GRC conference 2021, a hybrid event taking place in Denver, Colorado, USA, as well as virtually, from 9-11 August. Rhodes, who leveraged his former life as a war correspondent to become an international expert in how to pivot when change enters our plans, recently visited with ISACA Now to discuss the evolving risk landscape, managing change and more. The following is a transcript of the interview, edited for length and clarity:
ISACA Now: You have authored books entitled, Pivot Point: Turn on A Dime Without Sacrificing Results, as well as Universal Export: A Guide for Overachievers in Working Less And Enjoying More. What do you consider to be the biggest pivot point in your life?
The biggest pivot point for me was undoubtedly finding myself on the front lines of the largest urban assault the US military has ever conducted. As I’ll share during my keynote, I was the least likely person anyone would expect to find there, and I had to quickly learn how to take the training I received with the team around me and actually get ahead of the rate of change to survive.
ISACA Now: GRC covers a lot of risk management topics. What were the risks and rewards you weighed in choosing to become a war correspondent?
Being a war correspondent comes with the risk of injury, of course, but it wasn’t the risk I was most concerned about. Because I was tasked with the sacred duty of witnessing heroic deeds on the battlefield and sharing them with the world, the biggest risk was not being where the action was happening and having those stories go untold. As for rewards, when I joined, I thought it would be cool to see my byline across news outlets like TIME, CNN and MSNBC. While I was able to experience that as a young man, the greater reward wasn’t being famous. Instead, it was hearing from the Marines I traveled with that someone from their hometown had seen them featured in a story I had written. Nothing could have made me prouder than seeing those Marines recognized by their own friends and families.
ISACA Now: How has the pandemic recalibrated the risk-reward equation for enterprises thinking about making major changes?
Risk and reward have always been an equation that enterprises had to factor before making large decisions, and I haven’t seen the importance of that change since the pandemic. What we have seen since the pandemic and social movements is that the impact of change has accelerated. Instead of change being something we had to wait until the end of a fiscal quarter to see, we now see the impact of change occur immediately across social media and in profits. That’s why it’s become more critical than ever that we do everything we can to eliminate small changes today so we have the bandwidth and resources to deal with the big changes we can’t see coming.
ISACA Now: Looking ahead, which aspects of the post-pandemic business climate intrigue you the most?
We’re very interested to see how the sales environment is changing in a post-pandemic world as in-person meetings and offices remain in flux. Because of the increasing transparency of business, we’re interested in seeing how all aspects of an organization (including their risk managers) impact the top and bottom lines in more impactful ways.
ISACA Now: The GRC conference will both be in-person and also virtual – what challenges and opportunities do you foresee for organizations who are seeking to connect with customers in both traditional and new ways going forward?
Companies are going to have to stop hoping they catch up to the power technology offers across communication channels. Instead, they’ll have to leverage omni-channel communication to connect with customers. That doesn’t rule out in-person meetings, but the steps used to drive those meetings will need to meet customers where they are, and that is an increasingly digital world.
