July 19, 2006 When fiats don't work UNDERSTANDING PERSONALITIES JOHN GLENN, MBCI Certified Business Continuity Planner I recently spent 3 weeks in Israel. While in Haifa - ducking terrorists' katushas from Lebanon - I visited with three principals of E.D.G.E. Track Solutions (http://www.edge-track.com/), an organization devoted to quality emergency management, with a heavy dose of societal research. The organization's main players are three professors at Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, "the" technology university for the country. (Truth in storytelling: This scrivener used to flack for Tel Aviv University and has relatives working and studying at Haifa University.) We spent several hours in general discussions about perceptions and understanding the populations - both in Israel and Europe, and in Canada and the U.S. There are differences in the way we approach things. But, there also are similarities which Business Continuity planners should consider. GOVERNMENT KNOWS BEST? (OR, ALL IN THE FAMILY) One of the things we discussed, three PhDs and this planner, was how someone not at "Ground Zero" can make bad assumptions and issue instructions bound to be ignored. Case in point: Israel has bomb shelters dating back to the State's early days. Reinforced concrete bunkers deep in the ground. Turns out there are too few shelters, but that's another issue. The government, in its governmental wisdom, assigned people to specific shelters based on each person's residence location. Seems logical; go to the nearest shelter. But Israel - and Europe - are "family based" cultures with significant family support functions. The government's fiat was ignored by almost everyone. Instead, families gathered together in one shelter - probably the patriarch's or one close to a mobility-restricted relative. Some kin brought mattresses, others brought food, still others other necessities. In the US and, I suspect, Canada, the nuclear family is only a memory for most people. Case in point: I am in Virginia with wife. daughter, and rabbit; my sons are in Florida. (I had to travel to Israel, 7000 miles and 18 hours away, to visit with The Geek who lives only 800 miles south of the Virginia house.) Still, some areas in Canada and the US contain nuclear families, if not in the same neighborhood, then within relatively easy commuting distance. We also learned, by mismanaging-through-ignorance (vs. intent) the Katrina evacuation, that even in the US where families are scattered across hundreds or thousands of miles, evacuees prefer to seek shelter with relatives; they don't want to be stuffed into a stadium with people for whom they have no acquaintance affinity. As Business Continuity planners, we typically plan to have at least a minimum level of service established within 72 hours after an event. That's about the maximum time people can be expected to suffer the indignities of a super-shelter (such as Houston's Astrodome) and the lack of family support. Head'em up; move'em out. There are several Business Continuity lessons to be learned. Lesson one: In the workplace, planners need to be a little flexible when dealing with shelter-in-place and evacuations. Depending on an organization's nepotism policies, there may be family members in the same organization. If there are, the planner is well advised to diplomatically determine if the family members are the "kissin'" or "feudin'" variety. If the former, the planner should try to have the relatives end up, eventually if not immediately, in the same area. In the absence of family, affinity groups provide the next best support groups. These groups are made up of people in the same work groups and, in mini-groups of 5 to 10 individuals, make up the "buddy groups" frequently recommended in articles on this site. However, even the best work-site support group lacks the comfort factor of the family unit. Lesson two: Family concerns can make or break a continuation and recovery effort. ("Continuation" is maintenance of at least a minimum level of service; "recovery" is restoration of facility and infrastructure). Whether the event is environmental (hurricane, earthquake, tornado) or due to man's stupidity (terrorism), family members worry about family members. I've worried about my sons in Florida as a hurricane nears shore - and I know they worry about us in Virginia when winds near the coast. Our family in Israel worries when a mega-storm is described on local TV. We worry about the family there when we hear of a missile attack. It is human nature. The Business Continuity connection is that a complete plan must include provisions to assure that the employee is confident his or her family is safe and that there are organization policies and procedures in place to provide family assistance in the event the employee is unable to do so - typically because the employee is on Temporary Duty (TDY) at a remote location or even working double shifts. Another Business Continuity concern is "will personnel report to work if their family life is disrupted?" If the employee's home is blown away, will the employee even care if he or she is needed elsewhere? The bottom line to all of the above is to understand the personalities of the people the plan covers and on whom the plan depends. And, make certain there are at least two people trained to perform each critical task. MOTHER FACTOR Another thing discussed was "The Mother Factor." According to the experts in Haifa who have studied this in depth, the best person for emergency leadership in an organization - the person people respect and from who they expect the truth at all times - is a mother. Or at least a "mother figure." Many Business Continuity plans call for appointment of Fire Wardens or Hall Monitors to assure that when a work area is evacuated - either to the outside or to an internal shelter - someone is there to direct the evacuees and to assure that everyone, including Very Senior Management, gets the word and gets out. This person has to have a cool demeanor; she must remain composed and collected. She has to be A Mom. Or at least be perceived by others as a mother figure. At the same time, the folks at E.D.G.E. Track also learned that if you want to spread information to "the world," simply "tell a mother." She will tell another mother who will tell another and the process rolls on. Mother also will tell her spouse and children. Equally as important, the core message will remain intact. (If you ever sat in a circle and whispered a secret to your neighbor, then heard it repeated to you later, you know that maintaining information integrity is a major challenge.) More than one article on this site has looked at responder selection, but none - until now - has considered a person's believability as a job requisite. VALUE OF SHARING Spending several hours over tea and cookies discussing Business Continuity and quality emergency management was, I think, educational for all concerned. While I learned some new things, I think there was a fair trade of ideas. We found ourselves frequently "preaching to the choir," being in full agreement on things I though everybody knew but which the Haifa trio backed up with solid research. I confess it's nice to know there is evidence to support what I "assumed" to be right all along. The primary lesson to share with all planners - gray beards and tyros alike - is to "know the culture of the organization and the personalities of the players." Developing response plans based on government or management fiat may meet the plan requirements on paper, but if the plans fail to accommodate an organization's unique societal make-up, the work may be so much wasted effort. John Glenn, MBCI, has been helping organizations of all types avoid or mitigate risks to their operations since 1994. Comments about this article, or others at http://JohnGlennMBCI.com/ may be sent to Planner @ JohnGlennMBCI . com (c) 2006, John Glenn MBCI