Rising to the challenge with The FBI
Are you curious about the intersection of leadership, technology, and national security?
Look no further than the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division’s Technology and Data Innovation Section, where Assistant Section Chief Brent Yonk is making a difference every day. In this exclusive interview, Brent shares his insights on the most exciting aspects of the FBI´s role, including their use of cutting-edge technology and the opportunity to develop the leadership abilities of their team members.
Get a behind-the-scenes look at the FBI’s innovative approach and learn how Brent Yonk plans to present his case study “Rising to the Challenge: Leadership & Technology at The FBI” at the upcoming Rethink HR Tech USA 2023 conference.
Don’t miss this opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the crucial role technology plays in security.
You work as the Assistant Section Chief in the FBI Counterterrorism Division’s, Technology and Data Innovation Section – which tasks would you highlight as particularly interesting?
What is most exciting about your role, and why are you passionate about your job?
“Working at the FBI is a truly rewarding experience in its own right but I am incredibly privileged to also be working at a nexus of several areas that I am particularly passionate about including leadership, emerging technology, and protecting the American people. Every day as I walk amongst my teams, I hear incredible stories about how our capabilities and services are helping to locate bad actors and protect our citizens. The outcomes of our work is certainly what is most exciting.
I also enjoy meeting with public and private sector partners looking for ways to contribute to our essential mission. Learning about the many amazing new technological capabilities constantly being developed is always fascinating. I am also highly passionate about working with the diverse and talented people within my section to strengthen their individual and collective leadership abilities. I hope to leave behind a stronger, more resilient, and more innovative team than when I arrived. “
You will present the case study “Rising to the challenge – Leadership & Technology at The FBI” at Rethink HR Tech USA 2023. How would you define your approach?
“My approach will be focused mainly on making sure we are putting each element of the functional equation in the right place. Technology is great and can be a real value add to any organization’s output when properly utilized. But at the end of the day, technology is merely a tool; it is not the cure-all to the myriad problems and issues that each of our organizations faces. What I want people to walk away knowing is the importance of the employee experience and leadership development within an organization and all of the secondary and tertiary effects (good or bad) these can have. When you have well-developed leaders who put the employee and customer experiences front and centre during technology discussions, they can expect much better long-term results.“
What are the biggest difficulties in this regard? What do you see as particularly challenging in comparison to “standard” organizations?
“Many times organizations can get caught in the trap of thinking technology will solve all their problems. Buying the shiny new toy may seem like it will resolve that lingering organizational challenge you are encountering. Still, without ensuring you understand the underlying contributors to the issue, I can guarantee it will not. So we have to look deeper at our unique problems and desired outcomes and understand the different elements at play to ensure we are planning, procuring, and implementing the right technological solutions in the right way.
Leadership is another area that I feel is largely underdeveloped and misunderstood in most organizations due to the way we talk about and think about leadership. We have to shift our mindset away from thinking of “management” as being synonymous with leadership. We certainly need our managers to be good leaders, but we are missing a huge segment of our organizational population if that is our sole focus. Organizations that can develop and incentivize leadership at the individual contributor level of their organizations will see dramatically better results than organizations that are only focused on developing their managers. “
Looking to the future, what topics and upcoming trends in HR do you expect in the next 12 months – what is the market development?
“We will continue to hear about the wrestle between remote, hybrid, and in-office work. Many organizations made dramatic shifts during the pandemic that addressed the critical need to keep people apart. Still, most of these efforts did not factor in the complexities of human interaction concerning the existing work processes in those organizations. What would have generally required at least 12-24 months of change management efforts to plan and orchestrate had to be done in weeks, if not days.
It can only be expected that no matter how well the technical aspects of the delivery went, there are many unique aspects to how each organization operates that were not adequately accounted for. Thus pain points begin to develop in how we get our work done. For some organizations, the natural reaction was to force everyone back into the office as quickly as they reasonably could. This whiplash effect has left a sour taste in many employees’ mouths after having experienced some of the positive benefits that remote work provided them.
What I hope to see over the coming months and years is organizations spending the time and effort needed to thoroughly review their policies, processes, and procedures and work to better align those with the new demands from the workforce, which can be summed up as more flexibility. People are starting to embrace the mindset that we should work to live, not live to work. Organizations that don’t respond and adapt appropriately will find themselves at a steep disadvantage when acquiring and retaining talent.”
What are your learning expectations from Rethink HR Tech USA 2023? Which topics are essential for you?
“I expect to learn about innovative new ways of approaching the workforce to better support them in not only accomplishing the organization’s objectives but making the employee experience more rewarding as well. One of the elements I enjoy most from these events is the opportunity to meet new people and hear new perspectives and ideas. Regarding topics which are of particular importance to me, of course, improving the employee experience is one. Additionally, I am keenly interested in increasing not only the recruitment of diverse candidates but also the efforts to continue promoting more diverse candidates into the decision-making levels of the organization. Finally, I believe there need to be concerted efforts to modernize the leadership development process in organizations. Many of these programs feel stale, stuffy, and disconnected from the fast-moving reality we find ourselves in today.“
Brent Yonk will speak at the conference Rethink HR Tech USA on the 23rd of March in San Diego.