Our first post described the tendency to prepare for known emergencies. The problem is that catastrophic emergencies happen so infrequently that there is rarely a carryover from management familiar with how to deal with them. This post suggests action items to help prepare your organization for these rare emergencies.
Here are a few suggestions:
1) The first pass at thinking about rare events and issues should not be a committee. Instead of wasting a lot of time using the experience of a long-term manager, outside consultants, or industry group can get a start without lots of committee meetings.
2) Education and awareness, with a run-thru or scenario at a scheduled offsite, are ways to build common knowledge and a base-level of know-what. Done right, this can be a break from the normal sequence of information-dense presentations and give a look at how managers react to unexpected or unlikely events.
3) Getting effective planning accomplished will take resource time. If the executive responsible is already overloaded this planning and thinking task will go to the bottom of the priority list. Executive management will be the ones bit if this doesn’t get done – and so need to be responsible for making sure staff charged to get it done have the resource time.
What to do today:
A) Set a written objective for the quarter to pick a role to be responsible for looking at planning and bringing to the team handling for these kinds of events. The selected manager(s) bringing this back to the team may demonstrate their understanding of enterprise on a larger perspective than just their everyday role.
B) Ask questions of the executive team, even as a thought exercise, as whether or not they think the enterprise is prepared for an event worse than Covid.
C) Call for a review of business continuity plans from key players like information technology. HR, and risk management. This is an opportunity to build common ground with staff stakeholders and communities as well.
Is this extra effort? Of course it is. It’s also a required investment by executive management in a task only they can get done. Lore tells us so.
If you’d like to read other examples of ways to improve your enterprise’s resilience head over to www.ekalore.com/ars
If you’d like to explore how you might prepare for something unexpected, set up a free conversation with a Senior Analyst at EkaLore – www.ekalore.com/contact
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