How Serious Are You About Building And Maintaining A High-Functioning Cybersecurity Team?

Be honest: how much does it matter to you that you have a high-functioning cybersecurity team?

Teamwork and leading a team are hard. You got promoted into this leadership job because you were judged to be the best candidate for the job. That means that on Day 1 of your new job, you were The Best Leader.

Which day is it now?

We've written several times about team leadership. Ultimately, even if you are the only cybersecurity professional in your organization (we've seen that), you are nevertheless on many teams -- peer leaders, team leaders, etc. If you lead a team of professionals, you have a lot of roles to fill: supervisor, manager of performance, decision-maker, etc.

What if your cybersecurity team needed to be at the top of its game every day?

This cool interview with the cool Dr Suzanne Bell gives you a sense for what it takes to build and maintain a high-functioning team. Dr Bell leads the Behavioral Health and Performance Laboratory at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. Her focus is on building teams of astronauts and keeping them effective even in harsh conditions. 

Space is harsh. It matters whether the team is high-functioning, and it needs to function over an extended duration. What do they look for in her work and how do they do that?

Quoting at length:

We use artificial intelligence and machine learning to identify patterns of behavior in an isolated and confinement environment that can be early indicators that a team is not functioning well. Early detection will allow us to support and strengthen relationships before issues become severe. An interesting finding is that in long-term isolation, teams can become less cohesive, sometimes forming subgroups or isolates. When you’re only sending a crew of four to a place like Mars, every person and skill set is important. If team dynamics aren’t supportive of information sharing, team ­problem-solving, and being able to rely on one another for support, it could have detrimental effects with significant consequences.

And, how do they optimize team performance?

We optimize behavioral health through vehicle design, astronaut selection, training, and in-mission supports. For example, the psychologists in our Behavioral Health and Performance Operations group provide coaching on behavioral health and performance competencies, feedback on strengths and areas of focus for development, and suggestions for practicing new skills during the astronaut candidate training process. They continue to support developing astronauts’ resilience and behavioral health competencies as the astronauts await mission assignments. Living and working in confined spaces is complex, as astronauts have limited privacy. For example, in the Orion capsule, space is so limited that even basic activities require coordination. Astronauts are trained on group living skills, conflict management, relating to others, and debriefing so teams can become stronger over time and meet the evolving challenges of space exploration.

Much of the research we do has application for Earth teams as well. For example, any job where people live and work together, such as professional athletes, oil rig workers, or soldiers, can benefit from our research on group living skills. Some of our most important contributions are methodological, including measures of cognitive performance, innovations in AI, machine learning, and methodologies to better examine small sample data. We use novel methods to study not just individual adaptation but also how people work as a team and respond to each other over time, which is relevant to most jobs and everyday life.

You are not doing cybersecurity in space. However, reflect upon this final sentence: "We use novel methods to study not just individual adaptation but also how people work as a team and respond to each other over time, which is relevant to most jobs and everyday life."

How are you thinking about your team? What do you pay attention to as a leader? Even if you're Earth-bound and your team has everyday challenges, what can you learn from intentionally studying "not just individual adaptation but also how people work as a team and respond to each other over time"?

Having a high-functioning cybersecurity team takes effort. There are many ways to fail as a team. Is failing really an option you want to choose?

If you answered "no," then answer this: how are you measuring and monitoring team performance?

Ask us how we can help you to build a better cybersecurity team.