Chief of Staff - Discernible Inc

A Wishlist Is Not a Recommendation

Security teams that hand business leaders undifferentiated wishlists are offloading prioritization to people less equipped to do it. This post breaks down why these lists fail, what a real recommendation requires, and how reactive security comms holds organizations back.

Organizational Communications

You’re Allowed to Ask for Help With This

CISOs navigating incidents, scrutiny, inherited dysfunction, or burnout are often better at absorbing hard experiences than asking for the right help. The framing you use determines the support you can receive -- and naming what you're actually experiencing is the critical first step.

Incident Response

Why Are CISOs Afraid of Power?

Some CISOs struggle to build influence despite technical expertise because no one trains them in coalition-building, executive engagement, or team empowerment. The CISO role is fundamentally political, yet many security leaders lack the frameworks to develop the organizational influence it requires.

Chief of Staff

CISO as Super-Facilitator: Elevating Board and C-Suite Security Leadership

How do CISOs elevate board and executive security leadership instead of just reporting to them? Apply the 'super-facilitator' approach to transform your leadership team from audience into collaborators who drive organizational security strategy.

Chief of Staff

Beyond Translation: How CISOs Lead When the C-Suite Can’t Decide

When the C-suite stalls on security decisions, accountability rolls downhill while strategic direction never flows down. Learn four communication theory-based strategies that help CISOs lead effectively despite organizational ambiguity and competing priorities.

Influence

Your Team's Communication Isn't Just What You Say – It's Who You Are: Understanding Constitutive Theory

Your communication constitutes your security program. The patterns your team uses shape culture, decision-making, and operational reality. Leaders who understand this build political capital faster and design programs that actually perform.

Influence

Boost Your Team's Influence with Corporate Anthropology

Your organization has a culture and your security program either works with it or against it. Corporate anthropology gives you a framework for mapping that culture, building the right relationships, and crafting narratives that make security feel essential.

Organizational Communications

Sharks in Engineering Waters

Healthy organizations have disagreement and research shows engineering teams that nurture productive conflict outperform those that avoid it — better solutions & more innovation. Visible friction isn't a warning sign, but proof of psychological safety.

Chief of Staff

CISO Communication Playbook

Technical controls and human behavior are two sides of the same security coin. CISOs who master both domains build more resilient security programs that withstand evolving threats and organizational pressures alike.

Chief of Staff

When Less Is More: The Argument Dilution Effect

CISOs facing skeptical boards can learn from this landmark example of the "argument dilution effect," where adding weaker points to strong ones doesn't strengthen your case — it fundamentally weakens it.

Influence

The Myth of Shared Responsibility

The uncomfortable truth is that "shared responsibility" is a myth that allows organizations to talk about security without making consequential changes to incentives and accountability structures.

Case Study

CUSTOMER CASE STUDY: Cisco Secure

Discernible was brought in to provide strategic communications analysis, training, and professional development for Cisco Secure’s then new and expanding leadership team.

Guest Post

A CISOs right hand on how security communications can build credibility across the organization

Jessica Walters is Senior Security & IT Program Manager at Tessian, and former Chief of Staff to the CISO of Cisco’s Security Business Group. In this Q&A, she shares her perspective on how to use security communications proactively in building an effective security team.

Chief of Staff

A CISO’s Guide to “Negative Megaphoning”

Negative megaphoning doesn't just damage company reputation, but also signals to security talent what it's like to work there. CISOs who ignore employer reputation make hiring harder for their team.

Proactive Communication

Exercising Influence as the Security Team: Look for Friction Not Just Fuel

Sometimes in security, we try to win people over by pushing harder, missing the friction that prevents them from exercising the behavior or decisions we need.

Proactive Communication

Measuring Communication Effectiveness in Security and Privacy - Research, Analysis, and Evaluation

Without effective communication, IR is sluggish, policies go unenforced, leaders make uninformed decrees, audits tank morale, and external confusion breeds mistrust. There's never been a better time for security and privacy leaders to upgrade their comms skills.

Incident Response

Preparing for Task Loading During Incident Response

Proactively planning for task loading in our incident response gives us more cognitive capacity to take in and make sense of more elements of the situation.

Proactive Communication

Resilience is a Team Sport Chief Security Officers Must Learn How to Coach

One of the most overlooked aspects of incident response is how the culture, communication, and resilience of security teams will change.