When I was a boy, my father was in the Air Force and responsible for weapons that would be deployed to prevent aircraft and missile strikes. I knew nothing about those weapons but grew up super aware of continual efforts to prevent and detect attacks, first in Europe when we lived in the UK and then in the U.S. when we lived in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. From the self-trained [Royal] Observer Corps to the DEW Line to the North Warning System, ever more advanced technology prevents and detects threats.

Growing up this way profoundly impacted me, but we’re all descendants of people who employed notification “systems” to prevent and detect what they didn’t want to happen.

There are five reasons for every organization to have an effective notification system:

1. Law enforcement experts warn that culture, policies, procedures, and training cannot be counted on to prevent and detect criminal acts and conditions in organizations. An effective notification system is essential. National Institute of Justice research shows that the certainty of being caught is the most potent deterrent to wrongful acts and conditions in organizations. Effective notification systems are the most powerful and practical means to prevent organizational crime.
2. Federal law requires all nonpublic entities to have an “effective” notification system to prevent and detect all wrongful acts. If an incident occurs that the requirements were written to prevent, not complying could result in sobering criminal consequences for the organization’s leaders. Civil claims are inevitable.
3. The American Bar Association emphasizes that implementing programs to raise and address problems is a way to avoid liability and sound business practices. Every organization should implement these programs regardless of governance or size.
4. Virtually all organizational experts advise that every entity have a system that facilitates confidential notifications of what organizations “need to know.”
5. Consumers, including parents and the workforce, expect organizations to have at least a system, required by federal law, to protect them, especially their children and elderly.

Organization leaders should check out our Introductory Offers; if cost is a barrier to getting the solution most likely to prevent and the first to detect wrongful acts and conditions, let me know.

Consumers, parents, and members of the workforce, if having an effective notification system, as required by law, is important to you, let the organizations you frequent know.