Unit 221B’s Lance James on How Failure is the Leading Cause of Success

The Story This time

In this debut conversation on Human Element, Lance James, Chief Innovations Officer & Founder of Unit 221B, joins our host Ben April, CTO of Maltego, to explore the human side of security leadership and the transformative experiences that shape effective leaders in the industry. Lance shares his unique pattern recognition abilities that span from technical systems to human behavior, explains his first principles approach to complex security challenges, and details why deliberately slowing down during incident response leads to better outcomes than rushed decision-making.

Through practical examples from his career journey, Lance illustrates how his background in music enhanced his security leadership, why he structures his work week to separate technical deep-work from leadership responsibilities, and how creating psychological safety in teams while maintaining clear boundaries has become his leadership foundation.

We look forward to sharing stories like Lance’s — ones that resonate with security leaders facing similar challenges and foster a sense of community by sharing the human side of these journeys and the lessons learned along the way that have shaped their guests’ careers and contributed to today’s security landscape.

Stories We’re Telling Today

Implementing a “slow down” methodology during cybersecurity crises counterintuitively leads to better outcomes by preventing compounding errors that occur during rushed decision-making.
Strategic allocation of dedicated days for technical deep work versus people management to optimize leadership effectiveness without cognitive switching penalties.
Leveraging observational skills traditionally used for threat detection to identify underlying motivations in adversaries and team members alike, creating more effective intervention strategies.
Implementing a structured “commit to three” framework with feeling acknowledgment and gratitude components that transform potential attention challenges into leadership advantages.
Applying Zen principles to cybersecurity leadership that enables fresh perspectives on familiar problems, preventing complacency and encouraging continuous discovery.
Modeling transparent knowledge gaps and establishing collaborative rather than hierarchical relationships that accelerate growth in emerging security professionals.
Establishing clear boundaries and rejecting hero-complex tendencies to create more resilient security teams that don’t depend on individual heroics.

Too busy; didn’t listen:

Lance James highlights how his background in music sharpened his pattern recognition skills, which he applies to both technology and human behavior in cybersecurity.
He emphasizes the importance of slowing down during incident response to improve decision-making and outcomes.
Effective security leadership involves maintaining psychological safety, adopting a beginner’s mindset, and separating technical execution from leadership duties.
Pattern recognition in human behavior is presented as a critical non-technical skill, alongside practical strategies for managing ADHD in high-performance roles.
Lance draws on extensive experience in cybersecurity leadership and threat intelligence, blending technical insight with emotional intelligence and mentorship.

24:02-24:30 “I am as valuable as every single person in this room. As we saw with that engineering production mistake, or as we see with other things that I make. I make mistakes often, and I do truly believe that there are constant experiences in those failures. And I think the best part of that experience is that the reason why we take failure so hard is that we want to do well. And the best way to do that is then you’re going to really stare at that failure and take what you learn from it.”

Speaker

Lance James is the Chief Innovation Officer and Founder of Unit 221B, known for his pioneering work in threat intelligence and digital forensics. Formerly in leadership at Deloitte and Flashpoint, Lance blends deep technical expertise with a strong focus on human behavior.