Preparedness Planning
Three Vital Steps
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The single biggest mistake organizations make in preparedness planning is to treat disasters as something outside normal business operations. There is a tendency to see disasters as a class by themselves, one that requires specialized plans and procedures. The truth is that disasters are part of a continuum that begins with day-to-day problems. The processes we use to resolve these problems can be expanded and adapted for use in disasters.
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If you are having trouble viewing my featured article, try clicking on the link at the top of the page. You can always find my articles in the white paper section of my blog site, Canton on Emergency Management.
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Exercise Notification
 | | ZOMBIE UFO CRASH DISASTER FULL-SCALE EXERCISE |
Ever wonder what you look like to the outside world? Internally, we know that using metaphors like zombies or UFO's can test planning principles but what does the public think of these types of exercises? This video give you an idea of how giving just the basic details of an exercise without context can generate questions in the mind of the public. It's also a reminder that anything you post on the Internet is there for anyone you see.
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Blog Highlights
The following are excerpts from my blog
Canton on Emergency Management. Please visit my blog to see the rest of my articles.
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Newsletter Archive
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Greetings!
Welcome to the September issue of Emergency Management Solutions. Apologies for the late publication. This has been a very hectic month both personally and professionally. I took my first real vacation in a couple of years while managing a full schedule of client work, webinars, and professional development. Talk about life balance!
This month's article is oriented towards business and was an article I wrote earlier this month for general publication. I hope that those of you in business will find it useful and those of you in the public sector will be able to make use of it to help your business community. Like all my articles, you are free to use it with proper attribution. Hope to see many of you at the International Association of Emergency Managers annual conference in late October! |
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Regards,
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Professional Development
Can you articulate your personal leadership philosophy? I was asked to do this recently and had never really thought about it before. Many of us really can't. But knowing your philosophy of leadership is incredibly important if you are going to be successful. Why is this so? In The Leadership Challenge: How to make extraordinary things happen in organizations, researchers James Kouzes and Barry Posner provide some startling statistics based on their 30 years of research on leadership: - Leaders who are clear about their leadership philosophy rate their own effectiveness 25% higher than those who are not.
- Those working with leaders who are clear on their leadership philosophy rate their leader's effectiveness more than 40% higher than leaders who lack this clarity.
These research findings suggest that one of the first steps you must take to be a better leader is to know yourself and your values. So take some time to think about your values and your own philosophy on leadership. You don't need to make a big announcement to the world but your staff will know. And so will you. |
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I stole an afternoon last week. I didn't plan to do it but when the opportunity presented itself, I took it.
I'd been traveling for several weeks, first on vacation then immediately to Portland to teach a college course. On the day I came home, I drove to Sonoma to prepare for a major client seminar the next morning. With that wrapped up, I drove to another hotel to check in for four days of professional development training. I was a walking zombie.
By chance, my hotel room wasn't ready. I treated myself to lunch and planned to get work done in the library - I had two webinars to prepare and some pre-class homework. It never happened. Instead, I ended up napping over my book, walking the pleasant garden of the hotel, and treating myself to a massage. Later I met other students over wine and cheese and joined them for dinner.
The result was I returned to my hotel rejuvenated and focused, banged out my webinar preparation in record time, slept well, and was completely present for class the next morning.
The point of all this is you need to listen to your body and take mini-vacations when you need them. I was running a real risk of not being able to do any of my projects well and it was just by chance that the opportunity presented itself when my room was unavailable. The old saw about taking time to smell the roses is still solid advice.
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From the Bookshelf
Black Fire: The True Story of the Original Tom Sawyer--and of the Mysterious Fires That Baptized Gold Rush-Era San Francisco
by Robert Graysmith
During the early days of San Francisco, the City was little more than a tinderbox. Buildings were constructed of wood and canvas, often covered with tar, and it was not uncommon for large quantities of gunpowder and volatile chemicals to be stored in warehouses and shops. Add a serial arsonist to the mix and it was no surprise that the City was literally burnt to the ground six times.
The only thing standing between the City and destruction were the volunteer fire companies. Largely staffed by men who had served as volunteer firemen in New York, the companies were more than just firefighting resources - they were a political force that fueled the graft and corruption of the Gold Rush Era. Graysmith's book is largely the story of the colorful characters that made up these companies.
The weakness to Graysmith's book is that it tries to be too many things. Although the book is ostensibly about Tom Sawyer, a truly remarkable individual, he was a boy at the time the book takes place and played only a minor role in fighting the serial fires. The book is a partial biography of David Broderick, a man of integrity balancing Tammany Hall practices with a desire to do good who went on to become a state senator. Graysmith also spends considerable time on Mark Twain, who was not even present in San Francisco at the time of the fires. Worse, from a historians perspective, Graysmith incorporates events that happened many years later, such as the involvement of Lily Hitchcock Coit with the fire companies.
Nevertheless, the stories of the men who made up the companies, particularly their leader David Broderick, make for fascinating reading and the descriptions of the fires are riveting. The book also describes how the coming of technology reduced the need for large volunteer fire companies, providing an interesting lesson for emergency managers.
Looking for more books? Check out
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Looking for a Speaker?
Need a speaker for your next conference? I offer keynotes, seminars and workshops. You can find more details on my website or on my SpeakerMatch page.
 | | Lucien Canton Seminar Excerpts |
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