Volume 8 No. 6 June 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

Surviving an Active Shooter

The recent tragedy in Orlando makes this PSA from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office highly relevant. The video is typical of many that can be found on YouTube, some of which are geared to specific environments such as schools or places of worship. Since this is a topic of high public interest, it's useful to be able to have quality resources available to which you can refer citizens.

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.

One of the leading causes of power outages may be hiding in your backyard!

06-22-2016

We rely heavily on an infrastructure that is at the mercy of a one-pound bundle of fur and teeth! ...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.

Will an Influx of Refugees Change Your Community?

06-28-2016

In Managing for Long-term Community Recovery in the Aftermath of Disaster, researchers Alesch, Arendt and Holly note the effects that a disaster can have on the demographics of a community. ...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

____________________________________

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.

Quick Links

Quick Links

My Website

My Blogs

Follow Me

Archive

Welcome to the June issue of Emergency Management Solutions.

As I was on the last few days of a brief vacation, I received word about the shooting in Orlando. Being from San Francisco, I have many close friends in the LGBT community and this incident definitely hit close to home. Because of this, I've focused this month's featured article and video on mass shootings in the hope that it might stimulate some thinking about how we respond to such incidents and prepare our communities for them. I hope you will find them useful.

Regards,

Lucien Canton

Featured Article

_________________________________________________

Mass Shootings: Who owns the problem?

Mass shootings are multi-agency events

The increase in frequency and lethality of mass shootings has rightly generated public outrage. As for any evolving threat, emergency managers need to consider what, if any, is our role in regards to such events. Mass shootings fall into the risk category of low probability/high consequence events, a category which is the focus of much of our work. Far from being solely a law enforcement problem, mass shootings require a multi-agency response. Pre-planning that response, as we know, can save considerable time and effort at the time of the incident. Planning for multi-agency response is one of our primary responsibilities.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE

_______________________________

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

New Independent Study Course

FEMA's Emergency Management Institute is offering a new self-paced, independent study course IS 505, Religious and Cultural Literacy and Competency in Disaster. This course explores how religious and cultural communities are engaged during disasters, how religious and cultural diversity and practice is protected by law, and how religious and cultural diversity can strengthen emergency management capabilities. It provides emergency management professionals and faith and community leaders active in disaster with literacy and competency tools to engage religious and cultural groups both pre- and post-disaster. The course also includes 14 downloadable tip sheets that highlight engagement best practices and guidelines for partnering with diverse religious communities.

Updated National Planning Frameworks Released

FEMA has released updated National Planning Frameworks for the five mission areas of Prevention, Protection, Mitigation, Response, and Recovery. The National Planning Frameworks, which are part of the National Preparedness System, set the strategy and doctrine for building, sustaining, and delivering the core capabilities identified in the National Preparedness Goal of building a secure and resilient nation.

The updated National Planning Frameworks also incorporate critical edits from the National Preparedness Goal refresh, including updated core capabilities, lessons learned from real world events and continuing implementation of the National Preparedness System, including an increased emphasis on cyber threats, and updates on the roles and responsibilities of coordinating structures in each mission area. The updated Frameworks also align with new policies and directives, such as PPD-21, Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience, and EO 13636, Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity.

FEMA is hosting a series engagement webinars to highlight key changes to the Frameworks and to answer questions participants may have. All webinars are open to the whole community, including individuals and communities, the private and nonprofit sectors, faith-based organizations and all governments.

For a copy of the document, summary of changes, and webinar registration information visit:

http://www.fema.gov/national-planning-frameworks.

Professional Development Opportunities

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

At work or play, you're still the same person

We have a tendency to think about work and play as separate and distinct parts of our lives. But can we really separate things so clearly? After all, we're the same person in both environments.

A close friend of mine recently volunteered to take on the organization of an event for my local social group when the original organizer bowed out at the last minute. I volunteered to help her and we began the task of organizing the event in the short time we had remaining. As are most emergency managers, I'm by nature a planner and without thinking about it I began using my planning tools. My friend takes very good notes and I was able to transfer these into a simple checklist that included needed logistics, tasks to be performed, personnel assignments, etc. Nothing fancy but I scored big time points with my friend. The event was an unqualified success.

I didn't think, "hey, I'm a planner; I can do this." I just did it because it was how I'm conditioned to do things. It's also not the first time I've done something like this without thinking: I've helped my wife's church develop their emergency plan over dinner and coached a number of my friends on public speaking techniques.

Just because you're not at work, don't hesitate to use the skills you've developed to help others. You might also find that some of the lessons you learn while at play will carry over into your work. And that's a good thing.

From the Bookshelf

Waterloo: The History of Four Days, Three Armies, and Three Battles

by Bernard Cornwell

What can a book about the battle of Waterloo possibly have to teach emergency managers? The answer is simple: it's all about leadership. We can learn from the experiences of others, even if it is another field than ours.

Here are just a few of the lessons you can learn from this book:

The importance of a clearly articulated strategy.
How commitment by all stakeholders to a common plan of action is essential to success.
The high cost of failing to seize opportunities that can move you towards your common goal.
How taking risks and seizing initiative can spell the difference between success and failure.
The contrast between engaged leaders and passive leaders.

Bernard Cornwell is probably the best writer of historical fiction in the world today. In this book, his first non-fiction work, he marries his storyteller's eye with his years of painstaking research on the Napoleonic wars to produce an account of the battle that is clear and understandable. Even if your not particularly fond of history, give this one a try.