It's the Small Things that Count!

A few years ago, Sentinel Security had the privilege to provide executive security services for the TSN network as it was expanding the fall of 2014 from two national feeds to five. The network held a Fall Preview event at Cinespace Studios in Toronto's Port Lands district.

There were several prestigious trophies in attendance that needed special attention by our team and to ensure they made it back to their homes across North America safe and sound. Some of the trophies included the NASCAR Sprint cup, the NBA Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy and the Grey Cup.

With any new and existing clientele, we take our role in the industry very seriously with one simple goal in mind; to make a positive long lasting impression. With this being said we met with the event planners and studios executives during site visits to asses their security needs before the event. The request was to have a key group of security for the main event and to also have an overnight security to ensure the premises were protected. Sentinel was able to put a strategic plan in place and deployed schedules based on the client’s request.

The night before the event our security personnel (who will refer to as GA) arrived on site to the Cinespace studios to begin a long 12-hour shift. The overnight shifts are generally not very eventful, if anything they can go by extremely slow. Throughout the shift GA secured the premises but also did something that not only impacted Sentinel greatly, but also completely shocked the client.

The next morning our management team arrived to meet with the event planners to finalize details for the event. The event planner approached our team and demanded to know who the security was that worked the overnight shift. You can imagine at this point my heart was beating a million miles per second. A brand new client who we were trying to impress seemed to be getting ready to voice his displeasure, but in fact it was the exact opposite. The event planner was absolutely blown away that the overnight security decided to pick up a broom and literally sweep the main event space while on his shift.

Now at this point you may be thinking......”Really? That’s it? That’s the climax to this story”? Let me elaborate. No one expected GA to do this. In fact sweeping the area had nothing to do with his security function. But GA found a way to not only secure the premises but to also pass time while being fully engaged on the overnight shift. You see GA could have just done the absolute minimum of what was expected of him, but he chose to rise to the occasion and go above and beyond of his security roll.

It’s easy to look over the little things and that’s probably why so few people do them in the first place. Most us tend to think it’s the big things that make a big difference and that’s true, don’t get me wrong, but when you trace the sequence of events that eventually led to that big opportunity, you’ll realize it’s the result of a lot of little things being done before that contributed to it.

I can tell you confidently that the event that night was extremely successful. But what stuck out to the event planners and the studios that hired us was not the initial security function of what we were hired to do, but the simple little action of a security sweeping an area at night. Because of this, we created an incredible relationship with the client and have worked on numerous projects with them......this all with one exception, that GA provides security for their event.

The next time you’re ready to start your work day, ask yourself a simple question; what can I do today to make a difference? Sometimes you will quickly find out it’s the small things that count.

#TSN #NBA #GreyCup #Cinespace