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Monthly Video
 | | Business Continuity Planning |
This humorous video is part of the introduction to the Homeland Security Business Continuity Planning Suite developed in 2012. The Suite is scalable for use by organizations of any size and consists of business continuity plan training videos, automated continuity and disaster recovery plan generators, and a self-directed exercise for testing your continuity plan.
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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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Leadership Coaching
I'm just back from the annual Leadership Challenge� conference where I completed my training as a coach for the Leadership Practices Inventory�.
Thanks to some new information I received during my networking sessions, I'm going to be revamping my program offerings over the next month or so to improve their value and make them more affordable. Stay tuned!
Meanwhile, I highly recommend reading The Leadership Challenge by Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner.
The Leadership Challenge: How to Make Extraordinary Things Happen in Organizations
by James M. Kouzes & Barry Posner
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Newsletter Archive
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Welcome to the July issue of Emergency Management Solutions.
July seems to be an unlucky month for the transportation industry. At this writing, there were two airline crashes withing 24 hours, one in Taiwan and one in Mali. In today's paper, there was a brief article about the remains of Dutch citizens killed the recent crash in the Ukraine being brought home.
The trend seems historical. Today (July 24) is the anniversary of the sinking of the steamer Eastland in the Chicago River in 1915, a tragedy resulting in over 800 deaths. July 17th was also the anniversary of the explosion of an ammunition ship in Port Chicago, California, in 1944 that killed 332 servicemen, mostly African-Americans.
The best thing we can do to honor the dead is to learn from the these tragedies and do our best to make sure they don't happen again.
Regards,
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Featured Article
Has Emergency Management Become Too Complex?
Time to rethink old approaches
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Increased risk, new threats and hazards, technological change, reduced budgets - these are just a few of the indicators that suggest that emergency management has become more complex. It has been suggested that the demands of the profession have increased to the point where it is becoming impossible for emergency managers to meet their responsibilities.
There is certainly no question that the age in which we live has increased the demands on professional emergency managers. However, the question must be asked have these increased demands truly made the job for complex? There is a valid argument that it is not the job that has become more complex but rather that we are only beginning to fully realize the complexities of the job itself.
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CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE
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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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Professional Development
New DHS Report on Social Media
DHS has just released a new report entitled Using Social Media for Enhanced Situational Awareness and Decision Support. The report is a product of the Virtual Social Media Working Group established by DHS's Science and Technology Directorate a few years ago. The report is intended to: - Introduce and discuss how social media can and is currently being used for situational awareness in public safety by various agencies and organizations
- Discuss challenges associated with the use of social media for situational awareness
- Discuss the integration of social media within the operational environment
- Discuss areas requiring further consideration, research, and development
Thanks to my colleague, Dr. Stephen Baruch, for passing this on. |
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Lose that chip on your shoulder
I have a colleague who can't seem to hold a job. Things start out well but soon there are "issues" ranging from conflicts with coworkers to problems with the job. So he moves on.
I have another that can't seem to find anything good to say about anyone else. No matter what the issue, the idea is "dumb" or the person presenting it is "dumb". He's constantly bemoaning the sorry state of our profession.
Sound familiar? We all know people like this. They forget that while each situation might be different, they are the one constant in the equation that never changes. We forget that we carry a lot of baggage from previous encounters in life and some of those biases may sour us in our professional and private relationships.
So think about your situation and why you're not happy with a particular situation. Is it truly the situation or is it you?
Airline travel has become so pathetic that many of us have eschewed checked baggage and learned to live with a small carry on bag. It's not a bad idea to do that with some of that excess mental baggage you're carrying around.
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From the Bookshelf
Stronger in the Broken Places: Nine Lessons for Turning Crisis into Triumph
by James Lee Witt
When James Lee Witt was appointed Director in 1993, FEMA was an agency in trouble. Widely regarded as dumping ground for political hacks FEMA was on the verge of being dismantled. In less than two years, Witt transformed the agency, giving it a new self-awareness and a clear mission.
In Stronger in the Broken Places, Witt shares the personal philosophy that helped guide this transformation. Each chapter focuses on a specific disaster, providing a wealth of detail and some "insider" views on FEMA operations. These stories serve to highlight the principles under discussion and are followed by a brief checklist to help implementation.
By the end of the book, you come to know Witt not as a remote political appointee but as a warm and caring person, deeply affected by the suffering he sees first hand and determined to change the process of disaster relief.
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 Interested in more books on emergency management and related topics?
Check out my bookstore at:
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Looking for a Speaker?
Need a speaker for your next conference? I offer keynotes, seminars and workshops.
 | | Three Reasons Why I'm the Right Speaker for Your Conference |
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Speaking Engagements
September 30
The Future of Campus Safety and Security, Emergency Management Magazine, TBD
October 15
The Future of Campus Safety and Security, Emergency Management Magazine, College Station, TX
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