Empowering Situational Awareness: Study Hard, Behave, and Be the Kind Kid with Status Solutions

Study hard! Behave! Be the kind kid!

Every August as I send my kids off to school for a new year, I give these reminders as they file out the door. With their new bookbags and new shoes, through the backs of their heads, I can almost hear their eyes roll, but they usually respond with a dutiful We know, Mom! And off they go!

I’ve been sharing these three pieces of advice for as long as I can remember. It hasn’t always been limited to my own children. When I was a teacher, I’d yell the same reminders over the sound of the bell and ruffling papers, as my students gathered their belongings and filed out the door, checking their schedules for where to go for the next period. And now even though I’m no longer in front of a classroom, I’m still using that same advice but instead, it’s to help provide situational awareness with Status Solutions. 

It’s solid advice; I would argue it could be applied to life in general. But I find it especially important for a situational awareness company.  On the surface, it seems simple enough:

Study Hard: I’ll spare you an explanation of why it is important to study in school and instead, I’ll take it one step further and say that it’s important to be a lifelong student. The world is constantly changing and evolving and the reason that happens is because people are too. We aren’t meant to be stagnant, or as our CEO Mike MacLeod calls it, retire in place. When you quit learning and evolving, you’re done. Lifelong learning allows you to stay ahead of the times and be relevant. It encourages personal growth and keeps you adaptive.

These are all essential skills for not just people but also for a situational awareness company. At Status Solutions we pride ourselves on staying ahead of the times. What began as a business built to protect schools and enhance their communication in a crisis, has evolved into a situational awareness company that doesn’t only protect and react, but can also help prevent the loss of life, time, products, and productivity in all industries. We do this by constantly learning, always taking in information, analyzing it, and wondering how can we improve. We don’t just provide situational awareness, we are also students of it.

Behave: As a former teacher, I can tell you that whether or not someone is behaving is often subjective. We all have different levels of behavior we will tolerate, but there are general societal norms that most people tend to follow. In a classroom, it’s not all that complicated. Stay in your seat. Don’t talk while the teacher is talking. No cheating. They’re all pretty standard behaviors. In life, they’re not all that different. Stay in your lane. Be sure to listen, not just wait to talk. No cheating. When students and adults follow these simple rules there tends to always be the same result… trust is built. 

Behavior is important at Status Solutions because we know it builds trust. We pride ourselves on protecting the most vulnerable in society, the very old and the very young. That means we hold ourselves to a higher standard of ethics and morals than the average company. Earning our schools, senior living facilities, and commercial partners’ trust is one of the most important things we do. If you don’t trust the company that you’re counting on for situational awareness, then they’re doing it wrong.

Be Kind: I used to tell my kids to be nice. Then it occurred to me that nice is good. It keeps things pleasant and helps the world move in an orderly fashion, but it’s just surface-level stuff. Nice is just… well nice. But kindness… Kindness is on a whole other level. Kindness seeks to build a connection. It’s asking someone, “What makes you happy?” versus the nice question “How about this weather?” Kindness involves being empathetic and having compassion. Kindness is more than a passing smile, it’s stopping and wondering how can I help.

Kindness is a part of everything we do at Status Solutions. We know we have the platform to provide our partners with proper situational awareness. Whether that’s monitoring freezer temperatures, fire panels, cameras, door sensors, or anything else you can think of, we can monitor it and provide you with real-time information about what is happening around you. But that wasn’t enough for us. We wondered how can we help?

After the Sandy Hook tragedy, MacLeod, our CEO, and Founder, met with Safe and Sound Schools and he wondered, how can we help? He decided that something needed to be done so that a lack of funds was never a reason that schools wouldn’t have access to our life-saving situational awareness technologies. He came up with two solutions. First, he developed the Status Solutions Grant of Use. Through this grant, Status Solutions is willing to invest in any school or district that wants to sign up for our solution. Those buildings will have complete access to SARA (Situational Awareness and Response Assistant), our core solution, which provides a completely customizable dashboard in every classroom. This dashboard is Alyssa’s Law compliant, creating virtual panic buttons on any web browser screen available. 

MacLeod then took his kindness one step further and looked at the lack of funding issue on its own. His solution was the Status Solutions Network (SSN). This digital advertising opportunity was specifically crafted to channel its profits toward supporting the school district’s safety measures. It allows local businesses to acquire memberships and gain visibility in the SSN Directory. The community is then encouraged to support these businesses. The business gains the customer base of the students, educators, and families who support them, the schools gain financial support that allows for continued safety measures as technologies grow and advance, and a local entrepreneur, who has franchised the Status Solutions Network, develops a business that is built on giving back to the community and protecting our most valued asset, our children. 

I’d like to think that years down the road my own children, long into adulthood, will continue to embrace learning and building trust, and not just wonder what they can do to help, but actually put a plan into action to help. The Status Solutions Network is kindness in action. It’s an example of what can happen when you study hard, behave, and are the kind kid! It’s Status Solutions’ hope for the future!

If you are interested in starting Status Solutions Network in your area, please call 866-846-7272 or email info@statussolutionsnetwork.com. For more information on Status Solutions and our situational awareness platform please visit www.statussolutions.com