HOW TO CREATE A BACKUP STRATEGY

One of the most annoying things about a disaster is that they are not predictable. Just when you make a plan, there is an exception. For this reason you need an excellent , well rehearsed, system-wide strategy and a backup strategy. The most successful and simple backup strategy is to train everyone to be part of the project. This is useful if your life or emotions depends on anyone else. You want everyone to know what you know, or more!

As you have already learned, disasters create extremes in emotions. If a strategy that is intended to keep people calm fails the emotions escalate. This can create even more chaos that will add more emotion to the situation. If your emergency responder team or your Emotional Continuity Management team is out of town when the disaster hits, who can use the fire extinguisher? Does everyone have a walkie-talkie or know where the keys are? If a fire extinguisher fails, what's next ? Do you have a box of baking soda nearby? Are the numbers 911 written in big print on all the telephones? Because it remains difficult to predict the future, any good plan and safe strategy requires an equally good back up strategy.

A backup strategy can be simple or complicated. If the first strategy works there is no need for a second line of defense. However, if the first strategy does not work a second strategy must include preparing for consequences of that failure. For example, if a fire extinguisher fails, and the fire continues to burn during the failure of that original strategy, the fire will continue to consume fuel while you are implementing the second line of strategy. How would that influence your choices? Would emotions be more calm then or more stirred up? There is a story about a group of people in one of the World Trade Center towers who were making their exit and a stairway was blocked. Some of them went back upstairs. Some of them found another way out. A touching story in An Oral History of September 11, 2001 (Fink, 2002) about the team of accountants who carried the disabled gentleman down a hundred of flights of stairs is a poignant example of why the system needs to be on board with strategy building. Strategies and backup strategies save lives and assist in business and Emotional Continuity Management.

Case Example

Miss Kim worked well with people and disabled children and was well respected in her work. She was an artist, musician and writer who also had a great capacity for being comfortable with very difficult and challenged students. She was also very comfortable with challenging creatures like bees, wasps and spiders. In her classroom she was often the one enlisted to come remove the scary insects . She truly enjoyed rescuing crawly things and felt good about setting them free back into their natural environment. Her motto was "you don't have to hurt something just because it scares you." Her mentorship in the office gave some employees the courage to carry a few spiders outside without squashing them under a shoe. They found themselves feeling good about this and began challenging each other to "save a spider." The back up strategy was to call Miss Kim!

 

How to Make Hard Technical Data & Soft Technical Data Assessments

Part One: the Hard Technicals

The following is a guideline for anyone trying to develop a hard paper evaluation, auditing criteria, or assessment policy. You can use the following to create policy, set standards of excellence, define best practices, create documentation, or begin appropriate dialogue about your company's requirements for excellence.

• Ongoing Evaluation of Training Standards and practices of HR staff/CEU's/Credentials

• Training Standards and practices of EAP, Third party providers, medical providers/mental health providers

• Hiring Practices: psychological screenings

• Firing Practices: risk assessment

• Security Professional Standards: CEU's, Credentials

• Security screening for all Security for Drugs, Psychology, Criminal Background, PTSD

• How are people taught to catch or react to discovery of fraud

• Criteria standards for Disaster Preparation/Management

• Correlations between sick days and project agendas

• Absenteeism patterns

• Grievance patterns

• Health dollars spent

• Mental Health dollars spent

• Employee satisfaction

• Employee perceptions

• Vendor satisfaction

• Vendor perceptions

• Community satisfaction

• Community perceptions

• Competency standards of all interagency support interventions

• Level and credibility of intervention specialists and options with industry standards

• Industry standards for impairment interventions

• Participation patterns for interventions/ treatments /consultations

• Emerging patterns of behavior at 30/60/90 and 365 days after hire

• Post hiring/Post firing/Post retirement or transition follow-up procedures

Part Two: the Soft Technicals

The following is a guideline for anyone trying to develop a hard paper evaluation of soft-sided information. It can be turned into and auditing criteria, or assessment policy. This information can be turned into checklists, discussion points, impressions to share, didactic data points, or action points. You can use the following to create policy, set standards of excellence, define best practices, create documentation, or begin appropriate dialogue about your company's requirements for excellence.

• How does it feel to be in the presence of this person?

• Demonstrations: body language, voice tone, gestures

• General Hygiene

• Strength Or Weakness Of The General Infrastructure

• Strength Or Weakness Of Relationship Links

• Power Balances Or Imbalances

• Real Or Perceived Power

• Commitment To The Organization

• Commitment To Self/ Others

• Loyalty Links

• Rigidity/Flexibility

• Sense Of The Big Picture: Mission

• Sense Of The Small Picture: Units

• On Same Page As CEO/Management/Agendas

• Self Perception

• Discrepancies Between Self And Other Perception

• Level Of Satisfaction

• Communication Skills/Styles

• Willingness To Learn

• Willingness To Contribute

• Willingness To Mentor

• Willingness To Change

• Willingness To Self Disclose

• Willingness To Self Evaluate

• Comfort With Own Humanity

• Perception Of The Organizational Change: Past/Present/Future

• Perception Of The Organizations Change's Effect On Self/ Others

• Language Of Enhancing Or Demeaning Self Or Others

• Whining, Victimhood, Aggression, Anger, Blame, Shame, Fear, Hostility, Rumors, Threats, Apathy

• Once again, how did it feel to be in the presence of this person?