Emergency Management Solutions

Volume 6 No. 10 October 2014

In This Issue

Monthly Video

Blog Highlights

Leadership Coaching

Featured Article

Professional Development

Life Balance

From the Bookshelf

Speaker's Corner

Monthly Video

Seconds From Disaster Crash Landing at Sioux City

This past July 19th was the 25th anniversary of the crash of United Flight 232 in Sioux City, Iowa. While this National Geographic special has the usual breathless, overly dramatic narration, the facts are essentially correct and their are several emotional interviews with crew and survivors.

Blog Highlights

The following are excerpts from my blog

Canton on Emergency Management. Please visit my blog to see the rest of my articles.

It's The End of the World! So What?

10-16-2014

Preparing for disasters only when they confront us is just dumb. The end result is a media-generated climate of fear and a mistrust of the government's preparedness for major events....ť

Are Volunteers a Liability?

09-25-2014

Fear of liability exposure can rob you of a valuable disaster resource....ť

Leadership Coaching

It's Here! The new Leadership Challenge Program!

For over thirty years now the Leadership Challenge has been helping create exceptional leaders by turning abstract theory into easily-grasped Practices and behaviors. Contrary to popular belief, leadership can be measured and can be taught. My coaching programs can help you and your team achieve extraordinary things.

My programs have been completed revised to offer

a self assessment option
more and better course materials
improved coaching techniques
lower costs

To find out more, visit my revised webpage by clicking on the The Leadership Challenge icon below:

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The Leadership Challenge: How to Make Extraordinary Things Happen in Organizations

by James M. Kouzes & Barry Posner

The Leadership Challenge is a registered trademark of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. www.leadershipchallenge.com

Quick Links

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My Book

Welcome to the October issue of Emergency Management Solutions.

My revised coaching programs are now up and running! Probably the biggest news is I now have a way to offer an almost no-cost introduction to the Leadership Challenge if you're still unsure if it's right for you. You pay the nominal materials cost for a self-assessment and I'll toss in a free counseling session and a credit towards one of my other coaching programs. I believe once you see the power of the Leadership Challenge, you'll be willing to invest in one of the full programs.

Ever wanted to be a consultant? Not sure how to get started? My Consulting Transitions site will also be launching in a few weeks. This site will give you access to many of the tools and resources I use, answers to many of your questions, and the opportunity to connect with other new consultants. Watch for an announcement email that will offer you the opportunity to join at a special introductory rate.

Regards,

Lucien Canton

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Featured Article

Do We Really Need a Czar?

Maybe It's Time to Revisit the Stafford Act

The recent appointment by Pres. Obama of a "Ebola Czar" raises a number of questions. Some of them are, of course, political, such as whether or not this is an example of elite panic related to the upcoming elections. Others question whether or not this is an overreaction to what is in reality three related and controlled cases. Cynics also ask the question of why, with our experience with SARS and H1 N1, we still lack a national strategy for infectious diseases.

For those of us in emergency management, this recent appointment continues a disturbing trend: the tendency of our government to step outside established mechanisms of crisis response to appoint an often unqualified senior official to coordinate Federal agencies responding to the crisis. To me, this indicates a mistrust in both our response mechanisms and the agencies that implement them.

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.

Professional Development

EMForum Archives Now Available

Last June many of us were saddened to hear that EMForum was ceasing operations. EMForum provided free monthly webinars that were always interesting and timely. Its loss was keenly felt by many of us who used it for professional development.

Over the years, EMForum has archived these presentations by nationally-recognized experts. The good news is that this month Avagene Moore and Amy Sebring announced a partnership with the University of Delaware Disaster Research Center to host the EMForum Archive.

Dr. James Kendra, Director, and Patricia Young, Resource Collection Coordinator, of the Disaster Research Center had this to say about the partnership:

The DRC welcomes this wonderful opportunity to further enhance what is already widely recognized as a premiere collection of information on the social science aspects of disasters by adding this stellar and eclectic collection of presentations that span EIIP's 17 year history. We appreciate our role as custodians of this collection and we look forward to the new connections with the emergency management community that it will foster.

To access the EIIP EMForum.org Archive, visit the DRC's E. L. Quarantelli Resource Collection . There you will find additional background information regarding DRC's partnership with the EIIP and a link to the full collection of EMForum.org transcripts and recordings.

IAEM Annual Conference

This years Annual Conference of the International Association of Emergency Managers is being held in San Antonio, Texas, November 14-19. It's one of the best opportunities you have for professional development and network building. It's still not too late to sign up. You can find more information on the IAEM website.

Life Balance

When worlds collide

After our operations in Hurricane Iniki began to stabilize, I took the opportunity to bring my family over to Honolulu for a visit. I had been deployed for some time, missed them greatly, and they had never had the opportunity to visit Hawaii. While my team was still working long days, I felt that things were calm enough that I could take some time off. However, things didn't work out quite as I had expected.

Each of us develop our own ways of dealing with the stress of disaster operations. I hadn't realized that one of my ways was returning to a quiet, orderly room after the chaos we dealt with daily. Having that replaced by two enthusiastic young children who wanted to spend time with Dad was a shock. While I eventually managed to cope, I was edgy and stressed for much of their visit.

We often compartmentalize our lives into separate "worlds." When these worlds begin to cross over into each other, it can induce stress. And what's happening in one world can have an impact in the other (How often has a "bad day at the office" ruined your family evening?). You need to recognize when this is happening and address it quickly.

From the Bookshelf

Flight 232: A Story of Disaster and Survival

by Laurence Gonzales

List Price: $27.95

The 1989 crash of United Airlines Flight 23 at Sioux City, Iowa was a focusing event that changed forever how we deal with mass casualty events and airplane crashes. But nothing will prepare you for the raw emotion of Gonzales' book.

The book gives an almost minute-by-minute account of the crash and the response, taking you from the cockpit to the air traffic control center to the responders on the ground. There are many lessons here: a detailed description and rationale behind the controversial victim identification process, the multi-agency exercise that helped ensure a coordinated response, the handling of survivors. It includes an in depth explanation of how the accident occurred, a detective story in its own right.

But more than anything, this is the story of people. Gonzales uses shifting points of view that ultimately tell a harrowing tale of survival and courage. You come to care about the crew and passengers and see them as individuals, not just statistics. You are drawn into their stories and see how this single event changed their lives and the lives of many of the responders.

I have read many books on disaster but rarely has a book had such an emotional impact on me. It is a reminder of why we do what we do and how important our actions are to others. Don't miss this book!

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Interested in more books on emergency management and related topics?

Check out my bookstore at:

Speaker's Corner

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

You can find more details and sample videos on my website or on my SpeakerMatch page.

Speaking Engagements

Now taking bookings for 2015!

You may reprint and excerpt this newsletter provided that you include my copyright, the source,
the author, and "reprinted with permission."

ISSN: 2334-590X