As a former FBI Undercover agent, it doesn’t surprise me that the investigation into the recent Russian spy ring lasted over ten years. FBI agents are a persistent bunch, and once they caught the scent of 12 individuals whom they suspected of being Russian spies, there was no turning back. What does surprise me is that it took over ten years for this dirty dozen to finally figure out that their life was a sham and that the FBI was onto their every move.

It seems remarkable that, over the course of so many years and despite years of specialized training, the spies didn’t detect surveillance, undercover agents, and human sources tasked by the FBI to ingratiate themselves into their lives. This doesn’t fit the image of the sophisticated secret agents we see in movies and read about in books who know how to land on their feet in every situation.

The reality is that they made the same mistake that you and I make every day: they failed to pay attention to their behavior—and the behavior of others—and were unable to stop the consequences of a series of poor choices that led to their arrest.

Fortunately, you’re in a position to prevent the same thing from happening to you. Here are three ways you can notice your own patterns of behavior and identify responses that may keep you from making the best choice:

1. Always Pay Attention

It’s very difficult to stop negative traits unless you’re aware of what they are and how they show up in life. You start by identifying the circumstances around the moments when you react in a way that’s negative or undermines your larger goal.

TIP: Make a habit of paying attention to what surprises you, what makes you feel anxious, and what makes you feel good about yourself. Although these situations in themselves may not lead to a negative response, it’s important to identify a baseline pattern of normal reactions to different situations so we can more easily identify your behavior patterns.

2. Never Cease Collecting Information

As I said, FBI agents are a persistent group of people and it paid off with the Russian spy ring when 11 people were arrested on and deported to Russia two weeks later—July 2010—as part of one of the largest spy swaps in recent history (the Cyprus police let the 12^th one slip away through their fingers). I’ve worked on many long-term cases and it’s easy to let complacency set in. It’s hard to keep momentum going when patterns don’t seem to change or reveal anything extraordinary. But when that happens, we stop digging for what lies beneath the surface. Diligence is what separates good investigators from great ones.

TIP: Identify areas of complacency by asking yourself the following questions:

• When do you not want to listen?
• When do you insist on taking the opposite point of view?
• When is your reaction out of proportion?

3. There Is Always More to Learn

An official was asked about why the FBI continued so long with this investigation before deciding to prosecute and the answer was this: “Because there is always more to learn.” As you dig and explore your behavior, you identify the triggers that cause undesirable reactions. Once you know what the triggers are, you can control the reaction—both the positive ones you want to reinforce and the negative ones you want to minimize.

TIP: Get specific with understanding which types of behavior are betraying you.

• Learn to pay attention to the situations where your response hasn’t advanced               your goals.
• Learn to recognize them in the future.
• Learn to stop repeating negative responses when confronted with those                             situations.

“Through our senses the world appears. Through our reactions we create delusions. Without reaction the world becomes clear.”

Buddha

The Take Away

Once you notice the patterns of behavior that you repeat time and time again, you can pinpoint the negative responses that don’t serve you well.

A lesson it seems that the Russian spy ring learned too late.

Have you been able to change your response to a negative pattern of behavior?

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2nd Tip for a Russian Spy Ring: Think on Your Feet»

Tags: Espionage, FBI, Russia, Russian spy ring, Undercover

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 14th, 2010 at 8:11 pm and is filed under Russian spy ring, secret agents, spies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.