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Getting Left of Bang
The CP Journal exists to help leaders prepare for uncertainty before it becomes a crisis. It is about getting left of bang.
The phrase comes from our book Left of Bang, originally written about helping deploying Marines recognize the warning signs that precede violence. Over time, that idea evolved into something much broader.
Today, “bang” simply represents the moment the effects of an event are first felt.
It might be a wildfire reaching a neighborhood, a cyberattack shutting down systems, an act of violence, a public health emergency, a market disruption, or even an opportunity your competitors haven't recognized yet.
The earlier you recognize change—and the earlier you act—the more influence you have over what happens next. That’s what operating left of bang means.
The Four Approaches
Many people associate getting “left of bang” with recognizing threats before they happen. Recognition is important, but it isn’t enough.
Over the past decade, our work has expanded into four complementary ways organizations can become proactive and operate left of bang.
Prevention: Recognize threats early enough to prevent them from occurring in the first place.
Operational Readiness: Building the plans, capabilities, and decision-making needed to effectively respond to, and recover from, situations when prevention isn’t possible.
Mitigation: Shape today’s environment so tomorrow’s disruptions have less severe consequences.
Organizational Readiness: Develop the people, culture, leadership, and systems that allow an organization to sustain the other three approaches over time.
Whether we’re writing about public safety, business, leadership, military history, disasters, cybersecurity, or organizational strategy, the question is usually the same:
How can we recognize change sooner and act while we still have options?
Everything we publish is intended to help answer that question.
Start Here
If you're new to The CP Journal, these articles provide the best introduction to the Left of Bang mindset and the frameworks you'll see throughout our work.
Understand the Left of Bang Framework
How the concept expanded from violence prevention into a broader framework for organizational readiness.
How organizations recognize change, make decisions, and act before impacts occur.
Develop Situational Awareness
Why awareness only matters when it changes decisions.
Why organizations often fail despite recognizing what is happening.
The observation and analytical skills that originally inspired Left of Bang.
Build Organizational Readiness
Our white paper on why, and how, readiness is built long before a crisis begins.
How leaders replace assumption with a clearer picture of organizational readiness.