One of the most common questions that we receive from organizations here at The CP Journal is how they can deliver our Tactical Analysis training program to their entire team using our online learning platform at https://academy.cp-journal.com. Because we get this question often, we want to share this post to outline how organizations can implement our online learning platform into their existing processes whether they currently use technology-based learning or not.

For those of you that are unsure if our program and platform are right for you, we encourage you to spend more time on our blog to better understand our methodology and training foundations. If you are already familiar with our training tenets, but have not yet seen our online platform, you can check out the first few modules for free by choosing a version of the course towards the bottom of this page. Assuming you have decided that you want to incorporate our course into your training curriculum, we have three main requirements to scale the content to everyone:

1. Each student must have a unique, valid e-mail address in order to be properly enrolled in the course.
2. Each organization must allow communication between The CP Journal and their teams via e-mail so that we can send instructions and make ourselves available for support as needs come up.
3. Each student must have access to the Internet to access the course material. Because we continually make updates and enhancements to the courses, we house all of our materials in our Virtual Academy, which requires Internet capabilities to stream.

While we have become the first online learning platform for Continue reading »

In a recent post on The CP Journal Blog, “How to Leverage Our Content for Your Team,” we highlighted how organizations use our online courses as continuing education for their entire teams. In that post, we mentioned the dashboards and reports that we offer to organizations with large teams participating in our online Tactical Analysis Training Program®.  Since then, we’ve received some questions about ways in which organizations can keep track of their team’s progress and course results while training with us. We wanted to go ahead and share how the dashboards and reports are built, what they can include, and the way teams are using them to ensure everyone in the program is improving their skills in behavioral analysis.

The dashboards that we build, customize, and provide for our online clients at The CP Journal are a compilation of course results for each user going through the modules within our training courses. For every team that chooses to train with us that also wants dashboard capabilities, we set up access to a shared database that shows the team user list and their progress through the program.  Some of the content is automatically fed onto the page, and course results are included once people complete the modules within the courses.  The details on each user can be as basic or as detailed as our clients want, and the course results can include results from any or all quizzes and tests embedded in the program. These features make the dashboards highly customizable and easy to understand because we only include the information that each client really wants.

These dashboards were originally created at the request of Continue reading »

Here at The CP Journal, we’re often asked how protectors can leverage our content to make it effective and actionable for teams of people within their organization. More specifically, they are looking at how best to take the education of an individual person and scale it to a larger team and, in some cases, their entire organization. Because of the frequency of this question, we’ve outlined some of the most popular ways here. If you have other ways that you’re scaling our content out to your entire team, please let us know so that we can share that information with the rest of our audience and empower even more people to learn the skills that we teach.

First and foremost, many organizations purchase our online Tactical Analysis Program® for their entire team.  The benefits that our clients see in using our online course for their teams is that they know they can trust that everyone is seeing and hearing the same message, that individual team members can view the content on their own time and re-watch any modules as often as they like, and that leaders can see where there were deficiencies during the training that need reinforcement as an after action review. We offer organizational pricing and dashboards for leadership, making it more cost-effective and easier to get everyone on their teams trained efficiently.  Dashboards are customizable report cards that we share with team leaders to see who has been set up with access and who has completed the program. They also display course results to track how well everyone did on the quizzes and tests throughout the program.

If this is beyond the scope for your team, many organizations make Continue reading »

The question, “When is good, good enough?” was recently posed to readers in Brian Willis’ law enforcement and training related newsletter What’s Important Now? which focuses on ways to prioritize decisions in our lives. The question came from one of his readers who is training foreign police officers but is having trouble getting them to meet the standards of the training he is tasked with developing. Conversations about standards and the level of training needed for operators in any protector related profession are essential to have, yet they can often be frustrating. Without an objectively defined goal and end state for each person in your team or organization, it can be easy to be fooled into thinking that the progress you’ve made to get to the level of good, is actually good enough, when it truly isn’t. In this article, I’ll take a look at a few different aspects of what goes into a conversation about standards so that leaders can continue to advance their organizations in the face of constant change.

Avoiding Predictable Pitfalls While Talking About Standards

Before we begin to talk about what should go into a discussion about performance standards, the first thing a leader needs to decide is who will be involved in the conversation. In our work with our clients in the military, law enforcement and security industries, the number one pre-event indicator to an ineffective meeting about ways to elevate an organization through training is when the person leading the meeting has not given deliberate consideration to who will be taking part in the process. While the desire to want to cast a wide net and include many different people in a conversation about performance standards is natural and can be seen as a safer option than only including a few people, the decision to do that is far riskier than it may initially appear.

When evaluating and working to improve an organization through training, there will be two groups or people involved in the process. There will be the people involved in the defining of performance standards and there will be the people responsible for doing the planning to make that a reality. While the planners and support personnel (administrators and trainers) can be in the meeting where standards are defined, it is important that they understand they play a supporting role to the person who is in the room to talk about the operational requirements of the men and women in the organization. The involvement of administrators and trainers should only begin once the standard has been defined and set by the leader of the organization.

The reason why failing to distinguish between these two groups of stakeholders is such a problem is because support personnel have different professional responsibilities, priorities and concerns than the operationally focused person does. As a result, the planners and administrators can have a tendency to bring a conversation to the specifics of what it will take to do something before the end-state is clearly defined, leading to distractions and frustrations from everyone involved. To keep a meeting on track and focused on the essential parts of establishing the standards, the next section will highlight the four key components of a performance related standard.

Establishing Standards: The Four Operation Focused Factors

To talk about the standards of excellence that members of a team should meet in order to be successful in an operational setting in a rational and objective way, there are four distinct factors that should be considered.

The first is: Continue reading »

One of the questions that we often get from online students before they choose to train with us is in regards to viewing and reviewing the individual training modules included in our training programs.

One of our primary goals at The CP Journal is to get the information, content, and materials that we have built and continue to enhance into the hands of the people that truly need it and want it.  Because of that, we make our online training modules and courses reviewable as often as the individual student would like.

Early on in the feedback process we heard from online students that they often felt the need to rewatch certain modules over and over again to really internalize the material and get to the understanding of being able to implement the behaviors in their own day-to-day lives. With this feedback in mind, once you purchase an online training course from us and choose to train in our online learning environment, we want to make sure you have the flexibility to rewatch any lessons as often as you would like.

As we continue to enhance our courses and add new material, you will continue to have access. If you are unsure whether there have been updates since last you logged in, you can visit our Course Road Map and see if there have been any updates to the materials.

Thank you to our online students who continue to incorporate our training programs into their larger initiative to improve situational awareness and understanding of human behavior. Please continue to direct any questions pertaining to our online learning programs to: training@cp-journal.com

We’ve gotten a few questions recently from our students who have purchased our Basic course and wish to add the Advanced content before they finish the Basic course.  We thought it might make sense to share a short post about the current status of that option, the rationale for why it is set up that way, and the steps to get all of the content that you want.

At present, you can choose to train with us either in our Basic or Advanced online programs before purchasing any program.  The Basic program includes eight hours of our Level 1 content with relevant scenarios for the version that you choose.  The Advanced course includes all of the content from Basic and a second level of eight-hour content to take the training a step further.  If you choose to begin training with us in our Basic course, at present, we only make available the option to add Level 2 (Advanced) content at the conclusion of the course.

We don’t make the individual Level 2 course add-on available on our purchase page because of the pre-requisite course requirements that are set up with our online training software.  Because we offer different programs for the different client markets that we operate in, some people may purchase Level 2 of a different course, and be thoroughly confused as to why the content isn’t lining up.

At the conclusion of Level 1, you will see the option to add-on Level 2 and continue training with us.  We trust that you will continue to find the content engaging, so much so that you will still want to purchase Level 2 when the option presents itself.  We are continuing to make content and course experience enhancements to our training and greatly value the feedback that we receive from our online students.

Please continue to send us feedback on your experiences and never hesitate to let us know any time you have any other questions. We are glad to help.  We can be reached directly via e-mail at training@cp-journal.com

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Last week, I had the privilege of conducting a webinar with the Boston Chapter of the FBI’s Citizen’s Academy Alumni Association, where I could talk about how security professionals and concerned citizens could enhance their situational awareness to proactively recognize threats and get left of bang. In case you missed it or would like to learn more about our behavioral approach to recognizing violent people before an attack begins, you can watch the video here.

We ran out of time at the end of the presentation preventing a live Q and A with the attendees, so we have answered all of the questions that we received during the webinar here as well. We received some incredible questions, which allowed us to talk about how behavioral analysis supports acceleration through the OODA loop, learning where and how to begin your search for violent people, and the decisions that are available to people once they have recognized a criminal trying to hide amongst the crowd.

With nearly 20 questions that we answered and a transcript of an hour long presentation, this post became quite long, so we have put together a table of contents here so that you can find the section you are searching for. If our responses to the questions below creates follow on questions, please feel free to let us know by contacting us.

If you prefer to read a transcript of the talk instead of watching the video, scroll to the section below the last question labeled “Transcript” to be at the beginning of the speaking notes.

A Note On Questions

As we consolidated the questions that were asked, we realized that a number of them were about related topics, so if you don’t see the exact question that you asked in the following list, look for a related topic as it was likely rolled into that question.

• Question #1: Of the four pillars of behavior, what is the 4th one?
• Question #2: As a concerned citizen one of the main things I am interested in is identifying a threat that might be selecting me for a violent attack. How would you use these concepts to do this?
• Question #3: How would the concept of Left of Bang blend with the OODA Loop?
• Question #4: What is the first or series of steps to take should you feel that something is moving toward bang? More specifically, what exactly can I do if I assess a threat?
• Question #5: Would you shoot to kill an active shooter in a mall or office if you had a good chance to do so?
• Question #6: Is there a way to use the Six Domains after a baseline is established to narrow down what we are looking at to just aggressive clusters?
• Question #7: How can organizations get more information, schedule a presentation or receive additional training?
• Question #8: There is always a concern about the cost for prevention and how to quantify the need for budgeting/spending on prevention measures, how do you address this concern?
• Question #9: Can you comment on how law enforcement feels about having citizens with a CCW trying to assist?
• Question 10: Can you apply the “Four Pillars of Observable Behavior” to the Colorado movie theater shooting?
  • Question #11: Would the person leaving the theater have been the “alarm” or the noteworthy behavior? If so, what could have been done?
  • Question #12: If you can address the Colorado shooting would that person have been paying attention to the screen or be having a different attitude or clear visual that we would look for.
• Question #13: Are there specific things we can use in event/large public venue situations?
• Question #14: Where can we obtain a copy of the book?
• Question #15: Which of the courses offered by The CP Journal are most appropriate for concerned citizens?
• Question #16: What if the threat is the one nearest to you, e.g., a best friend of 30 years?
• Question #17: How long will it take for a person to become proficient at behavioral analysis?
• Question #18: How fast can anomalies be recognized in a crowd?
• Question #19: If I have a question after I read the answers to the questions that were provided, how can I ask that question in the future?

Continue reading »

We are honored and excited to be included as part of the FBI Citizens Academy Alumni Association’s upcoming Threat Preparedness Webinar Series.  On February 25th, we will be presenting the one-hour webinar, “Getting Left of Bang”.  The purpose of the session will be to share insights on improving situational awareness by applying the skills and concepts written about in the book, “Left of Bang” and taught through our training programs at The CP Journal.

The session is offered complimentary by the Boston Chapter of the FBI Citizens Academy Alumni Association.  They have successfully conducted multiple in-person active shooter/threat workshops in the past are now offering many of their guest speakers through this Threat Preparedness Webinar Series.  Here is some more information on the organization and the web-based series.

All security related professionals in business, education, retail, and healthcare, local, state and federal law enforcement and concerned citizens are welcome to attend this complimentary webinar presented by Patrick Van Horne, co-author of Left of Bang: How the Marine Corps Combat Hunter Program Can Save Your Life, US Marine and co-founder of The CP Journal.

Here are the details on the event and please don’t hesitate to share this link with others that you feel can benefit from the session.  Thank you, as always, for your continued support for the work that we are doing.

Date: Thursday, February 25, 2016

Time: 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm EST

Cost: Free

Location: Online (web-based, pre-registration required)

Registration Link: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/896605924886715138

Test yourself to see how much of the information from the book you retained and can apply in your life. This multiple choice quiz contains questions stemming from the material in each section of the book and highlights some of the most important elements of a behavioral analysis approach to threat recognition.

After the quiz is over, see how you stack up against others who have taken the quiz by viewing the leaderboard.

To take the quiz – head over to our Academy

We always hope to improve our courses by making them as specific to the audience we are teaching them to as possible. To continue to improve our classes and to keep them as recent and relevant to current events as possible, we need your help. If you have a video, a story, or an experience, that you would be willing to share that also includes the following elements, please reach out to discuss it with us.

Stories and Experiences:

1. We are looking for stories and experiences about times when you faced a non-routine event.
2. We are looking for stories and experiences about when events didn’t go as planned.
3. We are looking for stories about situations that required special experience.
4. We ask that this story happened to you personally, or that you introduce us to the person who did experience these events, so that the examples are firsthand and an accurate account of the situation.

Videos:

1. We are looking for videos of areas typically visited for the purpose of establishing baselines. We prefer that the video length is at least five minutes long so that an observer has sufficient time to analyze the behavior of the people within the area. It is better when the camera is held steady (as opposed to being panned from one side of the area to the other) for that entire time. The focus for these videos is to master the process of establishing a baseline.
2. Videos of crimes or attacks. We prefer videos where there is footage of the criminal or attacker for at least a few seconds before the attack begins so that we can analyze the pre-event indicators. The longer the criminal is in view before the attack, the better. The focus is on the anomaly.
3. Videos that are used to assess people using any of the fourteen assessments that goes into the Tactical Analysis program. View a full list of behaviors and assessments here. The focus is on the behaviors themselves.

While preparing to release our new online version of the Tactical Analysis Basic Course, which became available to the public last week, we rebuilt our course from the ground up so that we could quickly incorporate new events, case studies and examples into the program. Our goal was to increase the speed at which current events could be added into the program so that our students could learn from them. As the nature of threats and violence continues to change around the world, staying current and providing relevant examples to those who voluntarily go into harms way is important to us.

Last weekend, a long time friend of The CP Journal sent us an email with information about the attack on the U.S. Ambassador, Mark Lippert, in South Korean. Since I hadn’t yet had the opportunity to research the attack, almost all of in the information in the email was new to me, but I quickly saw why our friend chose to pass it on to us. Even though this person wasn’t giving a first hand account of the attack, because the information related to situational awareness and behavioral analysis in a real life example, we immediately saw how it could benefit our students. Only a few days after receiving the email we recorded a new version of module 3-1, “A Case Study In Threat Recognition,” using the attack and updated the online programs for our private security and military clients. It is because of the relationships we have built with some outstanding professionals that we are able to continue to get the feedback and suggestions necessary to make improvements and updates to our courses.

If you would like to help develop members of the military, police officers and those concerned about their own security, please drop us a line to let us know. We look forward to talking with you.

Throughout March and April, we will be in the following cities teaching the Tactical Analysis Course and working with our clients to help them get left of bang. If you are interested in incorporating a behavioral approach to threat recognition into your existing training, get in touch with us so that we can schedule a meeting to learn to more.

• San Diego, CA
• Los Angeles, CA
• Seattle, WA
• Tacoma, WA
• Tampa, FL
• Boston, MA
• Providence, RI
• Dallas, TX
• Fort Worth, TX
• New York, NY
• Poughkeepsie, NY
• Grand Junction, CO

With the opening of the Academy, we have decided to close down the Training Center.  While the Training Center was originally designed to provide follow-on training and practice to our students following their completion of a course, we believe that there are better ways we can accomplish that goal.  Many of the videos that were in the Training Center have been added to our newly released Basic Course and soon to be released Advanced Course.  For the remainder of videos and analysis that were done for Training Center subscribers, we have decided to make those publicly available on our blog.  Here are the links to the new blog articles and analysis:

– Breaking down the behavior of the UC Santa Barbara Shooter

– Identifying Anchor Points and Insiders With Violent Intent

– Identifying people who are familiar and unfamiliar with their surroundings

– How I Break Down a Video