Volume 8 No. 5 May 2016

In This Issue

Featured Video

Blog Highlights

The Leadership Challenge

Consulting Transitions

Featured Article

Professional Development

Life Balance

From the Bookshelf

Speaker's Corner

Featured Video

Emergency Operations Center (EOC) 101

Thinking about improving your EOC? YouTube offers a wealth of information showing how other groups are using theirs. This particular video is from the Centers for Disease Control and, while geared specifically to public health, it offers a number of sound principles for EOC development.

Blog Highlights

Visit My Blog

The following are excerpts from my blog

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

When disaster strikes, who is accountable?

05-27-2016

Are criminal charges against corporations sufficient or should we hold executives personally accountable for bad decisions? ...ť

If you are having trouble accessing these articles, go directly to the blog by clicking either the logo or the green "Visit my blog" button.

Visit My Blog

The following are excerpts from my blog, Managing Crisis, published by Emergency Management Magazine. Please visit my blog to see the rest of my articles.

Certifications: When Less Is More

05-26-2016

I recently received an invitation to a webinar featuring an "expert speaker." You knew he was an expert by the laundry list of certifications after his name: sixteen separate acronyms totaling 58 letters. Of these, I actually recognized only four, ...ť

If you are having trouble accessing these articles, go directly to the blog by clicking either the logo or the green "Visit my blog" button.

The Leadership Challenge

What Is The Leadership Challenge?

Is leadership a learned behavior or an innate personality trait? While there are certainly naturally charismatic individuals who are considered "born leaders", leadership is a measurable set of behaviors that can be learned and taught. This is the conclusion arrived at by researchers Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner after years of rigorous research. Starting in 1982, Kouzes and Posner set out to understand what happened when leaders performed at their personal best. They conducted hundreds of interviews and reviewed hundreds of cases studies and survey questionnaires. What emerged were five fundamental practices common to extraordinary leadership achievements:

Model the Way
Inspire a Shared Vision
Challenge the Process
Enable Others to Act
Encourage the Heart

The Leadership Challenge begins with a 360-degree assessment of thirty leadership behaviors associated with the five practices, the Leadership Practices Inventory. The results are used to identify opportunities for improving as a leader by increasing the frequency of specific behaviors. Based on over thirty years of research, the Leadership Challenge is an effective and practical tool for leadership development.

To find out more about the Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership, consider taking The Leadership Challenge. Just click on the icon below for more information:

Click here to take The Leadership Challenge

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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

Consulting Transitions

Free Resource Guide for Solo Consultants

For solo consultants, true wealth is discretionary time. Don't waste yours on simple tasks that can be handled by technology. This free resource guide reveals the four essential online tools I use to manage my solo consulting practice and save hours of valuable time. And the best part is - they're free!

Interested in exploring the world of consulting? My new membership site might be just the resource you need to get started. You'll have access to blogs designed to answer very specific questions, a resource library of templates and articles, the opportunity to network with peers, and discounts on coaching and training programs. Download the free guide or click on the logo above to go straight to the site.

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Archive

Welcome to the May issue of Emergency Management Solutions.

Planning is one of the fundamental tasks we perform as emergency managers. But we sometimes forget that the plan is a means to an end, not an end in itself. This month I'm sharing some of my thoughts on the dreaded plan update, mainly because a recent RFP wanted a full plan update, including annexes, done in less than one month. I've also had proposals turned down because "it looked like you wanted us to do a lot of work." Hopefully you will understand why this is so wrong after reading my article.

Regards,

Lucien Canton

Featured Article

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Do You Really Need To Update Your Plan?

Plan updates can be a waste of resources

It's a sad fact of life that most of our emergency plans are written not for the end user. Instead, they are written to please someone else's idea of what a plan should be. That means the inclusion of specific language or the inclusion of concepts that may be meaningless to actual plan users. It is this commitment to compliance with the latest "guidance" that drives most plan updates. If you allow yourself to fall into this trap, you are literally wasting time and money on something that will produce little value to your organization.

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

Add Variety to Your Professional Development

Emergency managers face an unusual situation. In a world of specialists, we are generalists. By that I don't mean to say that there aren't areas in which we must be experts. But unlike many of the people with whom we work, our expertise is managerial rather than technical. We are at our best as coordinators and facilitators. In addition, much of our work comes before a crisis.

This is actually good news in that it means that just about any subject can have applicability to our jobs and therefore enhance our professional development. For example, speech coach Darren LaCroix recommends improvisation theater workshops to his students to help improve their spontaneity in presentations. Not sure that would pass the CEM Commission but it would be fun and could improve your public speaking.

Looking for something more serious and applicable? Courses in public administration can help you better understand the workings of government and possibly position you to move into other public service positions. Accounting courses can improve your understanding of budgeting basics. History courses, particularly those related to your local jurisdiction, can give you a deeper understanding of why things are the way they are. Meeting facilitation and public speaking courses are directly applicable to what we do and build core skills.

And this doesn't even begin to consider the various technical courses available. You may not be an expert in a particular technical discipline but a short course can give you insight into how best to work with those who are.

There is a reason that the CEM program requires education in both emergency management and general education for certification. Try something a bit different and you'll be surprised at how much it will re-energize you.

Professional Development Opportunities

18th Annual Emergency Management Higher Education Symposium

Emmitsburg, MD

June 6-9, 2016

The symposium provides an environment to network with other academics, gain exposure to successful programs and research, learn about new resources and approaches, and hear from practitioners and policy makers.

41st Annual Natural Hazards Research and Applications Workshop

Broomfield, Colorado

July 10-13, 2016
The Annual Natural Hazards Research and Applications Workshop is designed to bring researchers and practitioners from many disciplines together for face-to-face discussions on how society deals with hazards and disasters.

64th Annual IAEM Conference and EMEX

Savannah, GA

October 14-19, 2016

The IAEM Annual Conference provides a forum to discuss current trends and topics, share information about the latest tools and technology in emergency management and homeland security, and advance the work of IAEM.

Life Balance

Keep Problems in Perspective

Most days I start out with a walk or run with my sidekick, Kona the Destroyer, my lab/border collie mix. We're fortunate to live within a block of Golden Gate Park and its many hidden trails and paths provide an endless variety of venues for exploration. I find these morning outings a great way to clear my mind and I use the time to plan out my day's work.

This being an urban park, things are not always just about blooming flowers and sun-dappled glens. There are the occasional homeless encampments and garbage. One day we even found what we thought was a body but turned out to be an unconscious person who needed medical assistance. Kona and I take all this in stride - I call the appropriate authorities when necessary, pick up what garbage I can, and get on with my activities. I don't let these minor issues detract from my enjoyment of the morning.

In contrast, I have an acquaintance on one of my social media groups who does the same morning walk with her dog. But to her, it is a nightmare. She firmly believes that our neighborhood has degenerated to the point where there is virtually no quality of life to be had and spends much of her walk complaining to the authorities about one thing or another. I suspect she comes home more stressed than when she started.

I don't deny that we have some growing problems in our neighborhood nor do I believe in pretending they don't exist and just ignoring them. However, I do refuse to let these problems detract from my quality of life. Keeping problems in perspective is the key to maintaining balance in your life.

From the Bookshelf

Mission Improbable: Using Fantasy Documents to Tame Disaster

by Lee Clarke

For too many emergency managers, the plan has become on end in itself. We use it to validate our job performance and as proof that our organizations are prepared. However, as sociologist Lee Clarke points out, too many of these plans are what he terms "fantasy documents". They give the illusion of preparedness, while being unrealistic and impossible to implement.

As examples, Lee cites the planning for oil spill cleanup that took place before the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989 and the nuclear war planning of the Cold War era, among others. he describes how plans are used as symbols rather than workable strategies, resulting in failure at the time of implementation.

This book was written in 1999, yet I see little evidence that it's warning has been heeded. If anything, we are more plan-centric than ever. Definitely worth a read before your next emergency plan update.