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I’d like to talk about testing and exercising your skills, plans, etc. I know that this has been discussed briefly in other threads, but I thought a recent mind-numbing experience might help to illuminate the importance of actually testing disaster plans. Please bear with me while I set this up.
I’m a consultant in the areas of security management, operational contingency planning, and emergency/crisis planning, preparedness and management. I spent most of this past Monday morning in a closed-session Board of Directors meeting with one of my clients. This is a private sector organization for which I’d developed an integrated crisis/emergency plan to cover a range of identified operational risks.
The entire mandate was to develop the plan and to manage its implementation across the organization. The key components of the implementation phase were training of the line managers, supervisors and emergency response personnel, installing dedicated resources, gear and equipment, testing of the plans, a “de-bugging” exercise, and training the organization’s plan managers on how to up-date, revise, and maintain the plans moving forward.
When it came time to actually test the plan (through simulation exercises, post-mortem reviews, de-bugging and revision and re-testing) there was great resistance from the operational managers and supervisors. This is not unusual, since these activities are typically disruptive to the day-to-day business operations. In this case, the testing and ancillary activities never happened. After repeated appeals to my client contact to “impose” the testing phase across the organization failed, I withdrew from the project and sent the president of the organization a letter outlining the situation and pointing out the risks and liabilities associated with not testing the plan.
Well, as you’ve perhaps guessed, this organization experienced a crisis situation this past weekend. Predictably, their response to the situation was ad hoc, disorganized, and ineffective. Fortunately, they only suffered business disruption; no one was injured. I’ve been re-engaged by the organization to investigate what happened: what went right and what went wrong, and how to make sure that this doesn’t happen again. While I’m still investigating, it’s already clear that they had taken the plan that I developed for them, put it in a nice binder and placed it on a shelf to collect dust.
The obvious lesson to be learned is that it’s crucial to test and exercise your survival skills, your disaster plans, but-in/out plans, etc., etc….to the greatest extent possibly. To many of you this will go without saying; to others it may be something you’re thinking about but haven’t started yet. My opinion is that you don’t have to simulate a total SHTF scenario. You can use/test/experiment with your skills individually; Break your plan(s) down into common-sense portions and exercise them. Revise your plans as necessary based on your experiences. Regardless of your environment, your skills, and your plans, the more you can test things, and revise them to address what doesn’t work, the better off you will be if there’s a real emergency. Test…revise…test again, repeat as necessary.
And, finally, please share your experiences, so that we can all learn what you learn.
I’m a consultant in the areas of security management, operational contingency planning, and emergency/crisis planning, preparedness and management. I spent most of this past Monday morning in a closed-session Board of Directors meeting with one of my clients. This is a private sector organization for which I’d developed an integrated crisis/emergency plan to cover a range of identified operational risks.
The entire mandate was to develop the plan and to manage its implementation across the organization. The key components of the implementation phase were training of the line managers, supervisors and emergency response personnel, installing dedicated resources, gear and equipment, testing of the plans, a “de-bugging” exercise, and training the organization’s plan managers on how to up-date, revise, and maintain the plans moving forward.
When it came time to actually test the plan (through simulation exercises, post-mortem reviews, de-bugging and revision and re-testing) there was great resistance from the operational managers and supervisors. This is not unusual, since these activities are typically disruptive to the day-to-day business operations. In this case, the testing and ancillary activities never happened. After repeated appeals to my client contact to “impose” the testing phase across the organization failed, I withdrew from the project and sent the president of the organization a letter outlining the situation and pointing out the risks and liabilities associated with not testing the plan.
Well, as you’ve perhaps guessed, this organization experienced a crisis situation this past weekend. Predictably, their response to the situation was ad hoc, disorganized, and ineffective. Fortunately, they only suffered business disruption; no one was injured. I’ve been re-engaged by the organization to investigate what happened: what went right and what went wrong, and how to make sure that this doesn’t happen again. While I’m still investigating, it’s already clear that they had taken the plan that I developed for them, put it in a nice binder and placed it on a shelf to collect dust.
The obvious lesson to be learned is that it’s crucial to test and exercise your survival skills, your disaster plans, but-in/out plans, etc., etc….to the greatest extent possibly. To many of you this will go without saying; to others it may be something you’re thinking about but haven’t started yet. My opinion is that you don’t have to simulate a total SHTF scenario. You can use/test/experiment with your skills individually; Break your plan(s) down into common-sense portions and exercise them. Revise your plans as necessary based on your experiences. Regardless of your environment, your skills, and your plans, the more you can test things, and revise them to address what doesn’t work, the better off you will be if there’s a real emergency. Test…revise…test again, repeat as necessary.
And, finally, please share your experiences, so that we can all learn what you learn.
Or others making solar-powered water wells, etc., etc. Fantastic stuff! I love it...the ingenuity of the members here is astounding.
