Free Live Workshop WEDNESDAY 8 APRIL | 18:00 CET | 12:00 EST | 09:00 PT | ZOOM | FREE REGISTER Dear Reader Quick reminder. Wednesday's free Zoom workshop on The Trust Equation is 48 hours away. Ray White, a retired CIA Senior Operations Officer, is breaking down the formula intelligence professionals use to build trust. Here is what you will walk away with: A clear understanding of the four variables that determine whether someone trusts you. The single biggest mistake people make when trying...
7 days ago • 1 min read
Three days left till Ray White's Trust Equation live Zoom Workshop (8 April, 18:00 CET/ 12:00 PM EST / 09:00 PT) register here and if you can't make it we will send you the recording. Dear Decision Maker Five days. That is the gap between a Chinese engineer posting a detailed video tutorial on how to shoot down an F-35 stealth fighter and Iran claiming it did exactly that. I want to walk you through what is happening right now. Because it changes everything about how intelligence works. And I...
8 days ago • 7 min read
Free Live Webinar WEDNESDAY 8 APRIL | 18:00 CET | 12:00 EST | 09:00 PT | ZOOM | FREE REGISTER FOR THE FREE WEBINAR Dear Reader I get this question a lot. "Is this for intelligence professionals only?" No. The Trust Equation was not invented by an intelligence agency. It was developed by David Maister, Charles Green, and Robert Galford for their book The Trusted Advisor. It is a universal framework for understanding how trust works in any professional relationship. We teach it in our HUMINT...
9 days ago • 1 min read
Free Live Webinar WEDNESDAY 8 APRIL | 18:00 CET | 12:00 EST | 09:00 PT | ZOOM | FREE REGISTER FOR THE FREE WEBINAR Quick thought for you today. When most people think about building trust, they focus on credibility. They try to prove they know what they are doing They show credentials They demonstrate expertise That is important. But it is not the leverage point. The Trust Equation has 4 variables: Credibility: Do they believe you know what you are doing? Reliability: Do you follow through...
11 days ago • 1 min read
The Trust Equation Workshop Wednesday 8 April | 18:00 CET | Zoom | Free REGISTER FOR THE FREE WEBINAR Dear Reader Most people think intelligence is about information. Satellites Data Open-source scraping It is not. The most valuable intelligence I have ever received in my career came from relationships. And relationships are built on one thing: trust. There is a formula for it. It was developed by Maister, Green, and Galford, and it is taught in every serious intelligence training programme...
11 days ago • 1 min read
Dear Decision Maker I need to talk about something I have been sitting with for a while. And I am going to be honest with you. This is not comfortable to write. The most consequential intelligence experiment of the 21st century is unfolding right now. And most people watching it are drawing the wrong conclusions. The Machine That Never Runs Out of Targets Here is what is happening in Gaza. The IDF deployed three AI systems after October 7. Lavender Gospel Where's Daddy Lavender Lavender...
15 days ago • 7 min read
Dear Decision Maker Last November, Barrick Gold, one of the largest mining companies on the planet, agreed to pay Mali $430 million. Not because they lost a lawsuit. Not because they breached a contract. Because the Malian military government arrested their employees, seized 3 metric tonnes of their gold, issued an international arrest warrant for their CEO, and shut down their Bamako office. Then they said: let's negotiate. And Barrick paid. Every cent. Now, you know, if you are reading this...
21 days ago • 7 min read
Dear Decision Maker Most intelligence education teaches you what Washington and London discovered. Almost none teaches you what Nairobi, Bogotá, Islamabad, and Jakarta have known for decades. Here is the uncomfortable truth. The most innovative human intelligence tradecraft is not coming from Five Eyes headquarters. It is being born in places where there are no billion-dollar satellite budgets. No sprawling signals intercept stations. No AI-powered surveillance grids. Just people. Talking to...
29 days ago • 4 min read
Dear Decision Maker, I want to talk about something today that I have been thinking about for a while. And I think this week's news gives me the perfect excuse to finally say it. Three stories broke this week. Different continents. Different actors. But if you look at what actually happened, not the headlines, but the ground truth of how these operations started, they all have the same thing at the centre. Russia Sharing Targeting intelligence with Iran So. The Washington Post reported that...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read