The True Power of Self-Control in Conflict 

When things heat up—whether on the road, in the office, or at home—the one thing that fuels the flames more than any other is ego. The need to be right or to “win” doesn’t just escalate conflicts; it drives people to act irrationally, making bad situations worse.  

The missile assaults by Iran into Israel during the Rosh Hashanah celebrations have caused shockwaves far beyond the Middle East. This escalation not only threatens a broader regional confrontation but also has direct implications for communities globally, especially those with strong cultural or religious ties to the region.

In any profession, one of the most dangerous threats doesn’t come from external obstacles but from within: complacency. This silent enemy often goes undetected, gradually eroding the attention and discipline vital for maintaining safety. The less likely a situation seems, the easier it becomes to relax and bypass protocols. No matter how skilled or experienced a team may be, when complacency sets in, even the best-laid plans can lose their effectiveness.

Workplace violence training is the armor needed to protect today's workforce – that’s the easy part to identify. The challenging part is navigating who should receive training, the required content, and at what level it should take place to comply with industry standards and best practices.

Threat Assessment is not the same as Profiling. This is not true. Threat Assessment is, in actuality, the “antithesis of profiling.” Profiling involves generalizing about an individual actions/behavior based on the individual’s similarity to high-risk groups; it is an inductive process which is not generally useful when potential threats or acts, of Intentional or Targeted Violence.

Within the collective process of Workplace Violence Prevention and Intervention (WVPI), the employment of a robust Behavioral Threat Assessment and Management (BTAM) program cannot be stressed enough. BTAM is continuing to be adopted in many arenas throughout society: schools, businesses, communities, government agencies, non-profits, faith-based organizations, and more. Its utility is becoming increasingly recognized. After acts of mass shootings, and other extreme violence events, it’s common for warning signs to be uncovered that identified an individual was progressing towards their crime. A unique factor about BTAM is that it seeks to identify whether someone may be progressing towards intentional/targeted violence before an incident occurs. Organizations are commonly challenged with circumstances where one’s behavior is inappropriate or concerning, but it doesn’t rise to the level that allows law enforcement to intervene. This is the space that those responsible for BTAM commonly operate. Here’s three key concepts that are centric to implementing a BTAM program.

Threat Management Teams are proven to reduce risks and costs to the organization through more efficient detection and response.

Every new year brings the opportunity to refresh. From a Behavioral Threat Assessment and Management (BTAM) perspective, 2023 brings a fresh opportunity to look ahead at how Threat Management Teams (TMT) can continue to keep those in organizations and communities safe. A large part of BTAM is the ongoing programmatic development and upkeep over the—the Threat Management program. Threat Assessment is the process to identify the potential dangerousness of threats and threatening behavior, while Threat Management is the program that seeks to employ intervention strategies to ensure these issues don’t get lost over time—because behavioral issues rarely go away on their own. To that end, here are three things TMTs can do in 2023 to build upon 2022.