The Emergency Management Network Podcast

Due to the uptick of mass shootings over the years, many professions outside of law enforcement are now being trained in active shooter response programs. But have you ever thought about who teaches the law enforcement officers themselves? Join prepare.respond.recover. host Todd DeVoe as he talks with Erik Franco, the CEO of "High Speed Tac Med", one of the nation’s most sought-after active shooter training programs for law enforcement and firefighting. Learn about “Run, Hide, Fight” and how these trainings are preparing law enforcement officers to tackle an active shooter situation as quickly and efficiently as possible.

HSTM - https://highspeedtacmed.com/

If you would like to learn more about the Natural Disaster & Emergency Management (NDEM) Expo please visit us on the web - https://www.ndemevent.com

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit emnetwork.substack.com/subscribe

During a round table, I asked Craig Fugate if we could take politics out of Disaster response. His answer was simple, no. It is that all disaster responses have political consequences. Fema has a training called The Politics of Disaster. Here they state, "Disasters have Political Consequences: One widely observed but not fully understood principle of the disaster/politics relationship is that disasters and their aftermath have significant potential to affect the political environment of a community, state or nation." 

Jeff Schlegelmilch of Columbia University has a  podcast called Disaster Politics. He explores policies that impact disaster response and recovery. Thor Neureiter's documentary Disaster Capitalism sheds light on the strings that come with global aid given to nations after a disaster. This includes how China has exploited mineral mines in Afghanistan and many African countries.  

We have witnessed the mess that politics created with the COVID response. A time that could have brought the nation together, the political parties used it as an opportunity to attack their opponents. 

The political gamesmanship after a disaster is not new. Disasters are politicized both by Democrats and Republicans. And despite the perception of increased partisanship in recent years, disaster aid has been a political football since 1972.

The Politics of Disaster Funding 

In October of 2020, after a devastating wildfire ripped through California, FEMA denied federal aid. This was seen as a political stunt by President Trump. Shortly after the denial, Trump reversed the decision and gave California disaster relief funding. Rhetoric notwithstanding, the impact of politics on disaster relief is not news to anyone who has been in emergency management. In many ways, it's an accepted part of how policymakers do business. What might be surprising to some is how this system impacts state officials' behavior.

Stated do not have a strong incentive to spend money on projects like dams or levees. These projects are expensive, and spending money on them diverts funds away from more visible and popular initiatives with voters. When a disaster strikes, the governor takes cover and blames the federal government for the lack of funding for infrastructure programs. 

Winning Elections On Disaster Response (or Recovery) 

I have argued that we do respond well for the most part. It is covered in the national news showing the heroic actions of rescues from flood waters and firefighters battling the blazes engulfing homes. If there are complaints about how the government failed, it is due to how recovery is handled. How does this impact politics? 

Local and national leaders are rewarded at the polls when the public thinks they did a good job handling natural disasters and punished when people think they did a lousy job. For a politician's handling of a disaster to be reflected at the polls, voters first need to be aware of the natural disaster and their elected officials. Second, they need to link the political actors with the disaster. They have to believe politicians should take some blame and not place it all on the stroke of bad luck or a negligent corporation. Third, they need to assess whether the leader handled the situation well or poorly.

The nation's sensitivity to disaster relief has caused policymakers to undervalue disaster preparedness. As I have written before, politicians are rewarded by the voters when they give or get funding for recovery, and preparedness dollars go unnoticed. The problem is that when disaster preparedness is done well, nobody notices. And I believe some may want the administration in power to fail so that the opposition party can use it for fodder in the next election. 

As emergency managers, we must keep ourselves out of disaster politics. However, we need to be aware that they exist. At times we are made the scapegoat for failed policies. Start thinking about how seemingly independent systems are connected. We need to understand the political, social, and practical implications of emergency management and disaster response policies and how to navigate them. 

What To Read: 

Creating a Personal Development Plan

Todd T. DeVoe

You’ve heard the saying, “If you don’t plan, you are planning to fail.” However, even understanding that comment, we forget about it in our personal lives. Most of the time, we apply that type of rational thought to our work life. We sadly forget that planning our personal development is also essential to achieving everything in life we desire. In addition, personal development does include career development.

The Speed to Scale Challenge

Kelly McKinney

In late August 2005, the days before Hurricane Katrina made landfall on America's Gulf Coast, FEMA—its federal emergency management agency—deployed an Emergency Response Team to the State of Louisiana’s Emergency Operations Center.

But, when it arrived, the FEMA ERT could not combine forces with the emergency managers in Louisiana. Similarly, the State of Louisiana emergency managers could not combine forces with those in the City of New Orleans.

Podcasts

The Todd DeVoe Show 

Climb and Lift: Cultivating the Next Generation of Emergency Managers

Join Todd and Toni as they discuss developing and mentoring the next generation of emergency managers. It is up to the current emergency management profession to ensure that the next generation is ready to take the helm.

Emergency Management organizations should create opportunities to serve within a mentorship structure for individuals at all career levels. Mentors can be those who have valuable experiences and insights to share with individuals that are new to the profession and would benefit from immediate coaching during the initial phases of their careers.

Mentees can learn essential practical knowledge from their mentors; however, the process is a two-way street. Mentors can also discover important information from mentees whose perspective is quite different from theirs.

Prepare Respond Recover 

How ShelterBox is Helping Relieve Humanitarian Crisis

A humanitarian crisis arises when an event affects vulnerable populations unable to withstand the negative consequences by themselves. Unfortunately, poor populations are more vulnerable to man-made or natural disasters. As other organizations fill the need for food and medical supplies, ShelterBox is providing the basic need for shelter. Listen to this week’s episode of prepare.respond.recover as we explore how the disaster relief charity ShelterBox was formed and how they are working to help those in need.

Business Continuity Today 

Leading After an Act of Violence

Acts of Violence can take many forms, which takes a tremendous toll on everyone involved. An act of violence results in increased absenteeism and turnover, high-stress levels, decreased productivity, increased Workers’ Compensation claims, damaged morale, costs involved with post-incident counseling, and much more. We have talked about prevention. Now, let’s discuss leading during the recovery.

Supporters

https://www.disastertech.com/

https://titanhst.com/

https://www.ndemevent.com/en-us/show-info.html

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit emnetwork.substack.com/subscribe

Join Todd and Toni as they discuss developing and mentoring the next generation of emergency managers. It is up to the current emergency management profession to ensure that the next generation is ready to take the helm.

Todd DeVoe
Twitter handle: https://twitter.com/ToddTDeVoe
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddtdevoe/
Substack: https://emnetwork.substack.com/
Website: https://toddtdevoe.com/

Guest Info Here
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tonihauser/

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit emnetwork.substack.com/subscribe

Last week, I started this piece on what it is to be a humanitarian. This came from a great interview I did with Kerri Murray, the President of ShelterBox for NDEM's Prepare, Respond, Recover podcast. Since then, the National Geographic Society released a documentary on Chef Jose Andres and the nonprofit he created World Central Kitchen. That coincidence confirmed to me that I had to do this piece.  

Even as the war in Ukraine is still raging on, the yellow and blue flags are being removed from people's profiles, and companies are moving on to the next trending event to virtue signal on social media. 

Some organizations are still trying to provide aid to those in need. However, let's not forget that Ukraine is not the only country where war has ravaged the people living there. 

The Syrian civil war broke out when the Arab Spring was in the news. And like all events, the news outlets move on to the next exciting event in a few weeks and forget about the people there. 

Despite waning international interest, the humanitarian crisis sparked by the Syrian civil war is far from over. The U.N. estimates that 13.1 million people need assistance, which could continue to rise if the fighting is not ended. And the humanitarian crisis will persist if Syria does not find the resources to begin rebuilding.

The issue that we need to explore is not the lack of humanitarian organizations that want to help. It is the lack of access to those in need.  

I have had the privilege of working with FOCUS Humanitarian Assistance to train staff that would provide aid to areas that other NGOs could not access. When I was working with FOCUS, it was the first time I learned that humanitarian agencies were being blocked from giving aid.

To be clear, it is not only one organization telling this tail of not being able to get access. There is a widespread consensus in the humanitarian sector that their operational space is shrinking. This has been attributed to an erosion of respect for international humanitarian law, relief operations being hindered by legal and administrative impediments, and targeted violence towards humanitarian workers. 

These issues create an increasingly hostile and challenging operational environment and have serious consequences. Since the 2003 attack on the U.N. in Baghdad, when 22 humanitarian workers were killed, over 5,000 humanitarian workers have been victims of violence, with over 1,800 being killed. 

The Shrinking humanitarian space also significantly impacts beneficiaries, as it can cause crisis victims to become 'double victims.'

The concept of shrinking humanitarian space is not a new phenomenon; however, the events of recent years have led to rejuvenated discussions, as several commentators are now stating that humanitarian space is facing a new level of challenges and 'is under assault.' 

This is exemplified by aid workers and organizations increasingly becoming targets in conflict zones. 2019 was the most dangerous year for humanitarians, as 484 aid workers were victims of major attacks. 

In addition, humanitarian access is being consistently impeded, aid groups are becoming objects of social media smear campaigns, and major donors are making 'unrealistic demands' about the programs they fund.

2020 has brought further difficulties, as extensive restrictions imposed to curb the spread of COVID-19 aggravate existing challenges and result in the complete or partial suspension of critical humanitarian activities. Conflicts, natural disasters, and various other threats are continually causing severe humanitarian crises and displacement worldwide. 

Humanitarian workers are consistently undertaking essential, life-saving work. The ongoing efforts to hamper their crucial activities are creating substantial difficulties concerning maintaining a functional humanitarian space and endangering the lives of aid workers and the people they are working to assist. 

The Emergency Management Network stands with those in the humanitarian sector affected by the increasingly hostile operational environment, and we urge tremendous respect for international humanitarian principles and laws.

It is up to those in safe areas to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves. We all got into this field to make a difference and save lives. We can do this by demanding that humanitarian efforts not be hindered by politics and violence. 

What to Read

The Speed to Scale Challenge

By Kelly McKinney

In late August 2005, the days before Hurricane Katrina landed fall on America's Gulf Coast, FEMA—its federal emergency management agency—deployed an Emergency Response Team to the State of Louisiana’s Emergency Operations Center.

But, when it arrived, the FEMA ERT could not combine forces with the emergency managers in Louisiana. Similarly, the State of Louisiana emergency managers could not combine forces with those in the City of New Orleans.

Creating a Personal Development Plan

By Todd T. DeVoe

You’ve heard the saying, “If you don’t plan, you are planning to fail.” However, even understanding that comment, we forget about it in our personal lives. Most of the time, we apply that type of rational thought to our work life. We sadly forget that planning our personal development is also essential to achieving everything in life we desire. In addition, personal development does include career development.

Podcasts

The Todd DeVoe Show

Leading Resilient & Robust Communities

Join Josh Bowen and Todd De Voe as they discuss ways you can make your community antifragile. 

Today Communities are facing complex challenges, natural and human-caused disasters, political division, supply chain issues, globalization, urbanization, homelessness, and land-use problems. 

To help strengthen our communities, we must address these threats and a call for action that combines disaster preparedness with empathy, robust planning, and moving toward being an antifragile society.  

Community resilience focuses on reducing the negative impacts of disasters and becoming stronger after the event. An antifragile community is socially connected and can withstand disaster and foster a strong recovery to become better. Antifragile communities promote individual and collective programs to strengthen residents for daily and extreme challenges.

Prepare Respond Recover

How ShelterBox is Helping Relieve Humanitarian Crisis

A humanitarian crisis arises when an event affects vulnerable populations unable to withstand the negative consequences by themselves. Unfortunately, poor populations are more vulnerable to man-made or natural disasters. As other organizations fill the need for food and medical supplies, ShelterBox is providing the basic need for shelter. Listen to this week’s episode of prepare.respond.recover as we explore how the disaster relief charity ShelterBox was formed and how they are working to help those in need.

If you would like to learn more about the Natural Disaster & Emergency Management (NDEM) Expo, please visit us on the web – https://www.ndemevent.com

Business Continuity Today

The IoT and AI Helping With Decision Making

As organizations look at ways to address the most significant challenges, from natural disasters to sustainability, they need to invest in the IoT solutions embedded with advanced analytics to better prepare for and react to these incidents.

Organizations can harness real-time data and advanced analytics to deliver meaningful results with connected sensors and long-range, low-power IoT technology leveraging artificial intelligence.

The combination of IoT-enabled analytics, devices, and networks will accelerate intelligent decisions and improve overall response time if a natural disaster occurs.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit emnetwork.substack.com/subscribe

Join Josh Bowen and Todd De Voe as they discuss ways you can make your community antifragile.

Today Communities are facing complex challenges, natural and human-caused disasters, political division, supply chain issues, globalization, urbanization, homelessness, and land-use problems.

To help strengthen our communities, we must address these threats, and a call for action that combines disaster preparedness with empathy, robust planning, and moving toward being an antifragile society.

Community resilience focuses on reducing the negative impacts of disasters and becoming stronger after the event. An antifragile community is socially connected and is able to withstand disaster and foster a strong recovery to become better. Antifragile communities promote individual and collective programs to strengthen their residents for daily, and extreme, challenges.

Todd DeVoe
Twitter handle: https://twitter.com/ToddTDeVoe
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddtdevoe/
Substack: https://emnetwork.substack.com/
Website: https://toddtdevoe.com/

Josh Bowen
Twitter: https://twitter.com/joshsbowen
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-bowen/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NAIT/
website: https://www.nait.ca/cadem
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nait/
Youtuve: https://www.youtube.com/user/naitvideos

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit emnetwork.substack.com/subscribe

A humanitarian crisis arises when an event affects vulnerable populations who are unable to withstand the negative consequences by themselves, and unfortunately, poor populations are likely to be more vulnerable to man-made or natural disasters. As other organizations fill the need for food and medical supplies, ShelterBox is providing the basic need for shelter. Listen in to this week’s episode of prepare.respond.recover as we explore how the disaster relief charity ShelterBox was formed and how they are working to help those in need.

If you would like to learn more about the Natural Disaster & Emergency Management (NDEM) Expo please visit us on the web - https://www.ndemevent.com

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit emnetwork.substack.com/subscribe

Disaster Economics, Do We Have The Will To Change? 

I was writing a piece for this week on the efforts of humanitarians in the world. (This is because I had a great interview published on June 7 on Prepare. Response. Recover.) I could not shake the need to talk about disaster economics. As the hurricane season is upon us, Alex is heading to Flordia with an early-season storm as I read these words. We need to look at some history to address the future. 

On February 1, 1953, a fierce, sustained storm created a massive surge in the North Sea off the coast of Holland. Floodwaters overtopped the dikes, swallowing half a million acres of land and killing nearly two thousand people. Within weeks of the storm, the government of Holland created a plan known as the Delta Plan, which is a set of recommendations for flood-control measures. 

Over the next four decades, the Dutch invested billions of guilders in a vast collection of dams and barriers, culminating in constructing the Maeslant (Mas Lont) Barrier, an enormous movable seawall to protect the port of Rotterdam. Since the Delta Plan, the Netherlands has not been flooded by the sea again.

In the United States, policymakers fail to look at how disasters and the recovery process are costing taxpayers more money, time, and effort than if we invest in prevention, infrastructure improvements, and meaningful mitigation efforts. 

Brock Long stated in an interview, "we're in a vicious cycle of communities being impacted by disasters and having to constantly rebuild. And it's almost as if we're not learning anything from what mother nature and history has taught us." 

In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, which brought havoc to the Northeast and inflicted tens of billions of dollars in damage, it's overwhelmingly clear that parts of the U.S. need a Delta Plan of their own. Sandy was not an isolated incident: Hurricane Irene caused nearly sixteen billion dollars in damage, and Hurricane Michael caused $25.1 billion. There is a growing consensus that extreme weather events are becoming more common and damaging. 

The annual cost of natural disasters in the U.S. has doubled over the past two decades. Instead of just cleaning up after disasters hit. We need to ask whether we can find the political will to invest in such ideas. 

Although politicians have called for significant new investment in disaster prevention, reports from Washington suggest that Congress will be more willing to spend money on relief than on preparedness.

That's what history would lead you to expect: for the most part, the U.S. has shown a marked bias toward relieving victims of disaster while underinvesting in prevention. 

A study by the economist Andrew Healy and the political scientist Neil Malhotra showed that, between 1985 and 2004, the government spent annually, on average, fifteen times as much on disaster relief as on preparedness.

Politically speaking, it's always easier to shell out money for a disaster that has already happened, with clearly identifiable victims, than to invest money in protecting against something that may or may not occur in the future. 

Healy and Malhotra found that voters reward politicians for spending money on post-disaster cleanup but not for investing in disaster prevention, and it's only natural that politicians respond to this incentive. 

The federal system complicates matters, too: local governments want decision-making authority, but major disaster-prevention projects are bound to require federal money. And much crucial infrastructure in the U.S. is owned by the private sector, not the government, making it harder to do something like bury power lines.

These are genuine hurdles, and safeguarding the great expanse of the Atlantic coast is a much more expensive proposition than defending Holland's smaller one. But there's a more fundamental problem: the U.S., as a rule, tends to underinvest in public infrastructure. We've been skimping on the maintenance of roads and bridges for decades. 

The American Society of Civil Engineers gives the nation's infrastructure a grade of C-minus; however, 11 of the 17 infrastructure categories evaluated are graded in the "D" range. In addition, they found that 70% of the nation's electrical transmission and distribution lines are well into the second half of their expected 50-year lifespans. 

In the United States, utility customers experienced just over eight hours of power interruptions in 2020, more than double the amount in 2013, when the government began tracking outage lengths. Last four times as long as those in France and seven times as long as those in the Netherlands. This isn't because of a lack of resources; the U.S. is the biggest economy. 

Though we may have the most incredible twenty-first-century technology in our homes, we're stuck with mid-twentieth-century roads and wires.

Meaningful disaster-prevention measures will undoubtedly be expensive: Yet inaction can be even more costly; after Katrina, the government had to spend more than a hundred billion dollars on relief and reconstruction—and there are good reasons to believe that disaster-control measures could save money in the long run.  

The A.S.C.E. estimates that federal spending on levees pays for itself six times over. That is, the investment in infrastructure is saving taxpayers money. 

The federal government is already on the hook for all the damage caused by disasters. To be prudent stewards of taxpayers' money, we need to address how much those disasters cost and put money into prevention and preparedness programs. 

What To Read 

Global Risk Report 2022: Implications for crisis management

The Global Risk Report identifies global risk perceptions among risk experts and world leaders in business, government, and civil society. It presents the results of the latest Global Risks Perception Survey, followed by an analysis of critical risks emanating from current economic, societal, environmental, and technological tensions. The report concludes with reflections on enhancing resilience, drawing from the lessons of the last two years of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Accounting for probabilities in conflict

In his latest blog, Phil Trendall says that we must stop hiding behind likelihood calculations when it comes to emergency planning. The U.K. needs to think about what civil protection looks like in a war that could escalate.

Podcasts

The Todd DeVoe Show 

 What Disaster Recovery Teaches U.S.

Have you ever thought about what happens with the personal effects of the disaster zone? Robert A. Jensen has written an up-close and personal look at the complex work behind the yellow tape. He has chronicled the grim job of sorting through the personal effects and what the unique tool the repeated exposure to mass death brings.

Prepare Respond Recover 

For Waffle House, Keeping the Doors Open is About Community

In the Southern U.S., spotting the iconic Waffle House sign means a hot meal, a stop on a long drive, or a place to gather with friends. Waffle House is Americana at its best and a symbol of pride for Southerners. Following the 2011 Joplin Tornado, F.E.M.A. Director Craig Fugate created the Waffle House Index, an informal metric that helped F.E.M.A. determine the storm's impact based on if the local Waffle House restaurants were closed or open. But even before the index, continuity of operations was ingrained in the culture of Waffle House. We are joined in this episode by Will Mizell, VP of People for Waffle House, to talk about how they prepare, respond, and recover from a disaster. While it may not make fiscal sense to remain open, Waffle House keeps operations going for the communities they serve. Don't be surprised if you happen to be in a Waffle House after a bad storm. The person working the grill may very well be the C.E.O. 

Business Continuity Today 

The IoT and A.I. Helping With Decision Making

As organizations look at ways to address the most significant challenges, from natural disasters to sustainability, they need to invest in the IoT solutions embedded with advanced analytics to better prepare for and react to these incidents.

With connected sensors and long-range, low-power IoT technology leveraging artificial intelligence, organizations can harness real-time data and advanced analytics to deliver meaningful results.

Combining IoT-enabled analytics, devices, and networks will accelerate intelligent decisions and improve overall response time if a natural disaster occurs.

Supporters

https://www.disastertech.com/

https://titanhst.com/

https://www.ndemevent.com/en-us/show-info.html

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit emnetwork.substack.com/subscribe

Have you ever thought about what happens with the personal effects from the disaster zone? Robert A. Jensen has written an up-close and personal look at the difficult work behind the yellow tape. He has chronicled the grim job of sorting through the personal effects and what the personal tool the repeated exposure to mass death brings.

Todd DeVoe
Twitter handle: https://twitter.com/ToddTDeVoe
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddtdevoe/
Substack: https://emnetwork.substack.com/
Website: https://toddtdevoe.com/

Robert Jensen
Twitter handle : https://twitter.com/robert_ajensen
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-a-jensen/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robert.a.jensen.37
Website https://robertajensen.com/
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/robertajensen01/

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This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit emnetwork.substack.com/subscribe

Commander’s Intent: Why Emergency Management Should Embrace It

Extreme Ownership is one of those books that emergency managers have been recommending to each other since Jocko Willink and Leif Babin published it. It is a best-selling leadership book. Frankly, I was not a fan of the book, primarily because of the war stories. As a Greenside Navy veteran, I guess it should have gotten all moto reading of the exploits of life and death and decision making. It was not a bad book, and I got some leadership lessons out of it, and that was that. I like the message that Jacko and Leif have, and in general, they make excellent points in the book. 

It was not until I was invited to attend a Milestone Leadership Summitt where Jacko Willink conducted the workshop that I appreciated Jacko and Leif's work. 

This story did not start out as a day of contemplation and lessons learned. I thought it would be a motivational speaker and more about the books circulating around the room. When I got to the workshop, like most of us in emergency management, I found my way to the back of the room, landed myself at a table with a couple of people I knew, and made sure my coffee was hot. Quickly our table became full of veterans and public safety guys (we gravitated toward each other). Our day of leadership lessons started. 

I was not sure what I would get out of this experience. I was mildly enthusiastic about the event, I always enjoy learning new things, and I liked the book's message. Who can argue with taking Ownership of your team and the decisions you make? 

Okay, I will cut the chase. It was a great workshop. It was not Jacko standing on the stage telling us how cool he was. And he could have pulled that off. He could hold the room. He took the time to break down the concepts in his book and put the why behind each segment.

Now for full disclosure, a lot of what he talks about are principles of leadership that have been taught in the Navy/Marine Corps leadership programs. However, Jacko could break them down, remove the military from the idea and present them to a general audience. That is the beauty of his program. 

Decentralized Command

Let's explore Jacko's idea of Decentralized Command. The concept is simple but hard to execute if you do not build trust with your team. With Decentralized Command, everyone is a leader. 

Last week on the Todd DeVoe Show, Brad Borkan talked about the remarkable leadership of Ernest Shackleton. One of the exciting things about Shackleton's team was its decentralized command structure. In the military, formal leadership is a two-up and two-down. You always have someone in the command structure who can take responsibility for the team. More on this idea later. 

To understand this, decentralization of decision-making is not every person for themselves. Each team member must understand the Intent of the mission. I talk about this with the idea of "commander's intent" in a few lessons and lectures. 

What is Commander's Intent? 

Commander's Intent describes and defines what a successful mission will look like. Military planning begins with the Mission Statement that describes the who, what, when, where, and why (the 5 W's) of how a mission will be executed. Commander's Intent describes how the Commander (read: CEO) envisions the battlefield after the mission. It shows what success looks like. Commander's Intent fully recognizes the chaos, lack of a complete information picture, changes in the situation, and other relevant factors that may make a plan entirely or partially obsolete when executed. The role of the Commander's Intent is to empower subordinates and guide their initiative and improvisation as they adapt the plan to the changing environment. Commander's Intent empowers initiative, improvisation, and adaptation by providing guidance on what a successful conclusion looks like. Commander's Intent is vital in chaotic, demanding, and dynamic environments.

This moves to the second part of the principle of decentralized command. L. David Marquet's book "Turn the Ship Around!" examines the idea of "I intend to" vs. "May I" when it comes to subordinate decision making. As a leader, you need to strike the right balance between being inside the problem and supporting your team's decision-making.  

Applying the lessons to EM

In emergency management, the situation changes quickly, and teams need to be able to move with ease and without friction. The leaders must be free to get where they are needed the most. 

The emergency manager's role is not just to track each team is doing. You must feed essential information back to the team, and the team should supply you with what is happing in the field. One critical part of this two-way communication, the team in the field or on the project, needs to feel they can ask for clarification without being punished. As a leader of teams, you need to make sure that each team member knows that you are there to open doors and kick down walls for them if needed. 

The key to Commander's Intent

The last part of this idea is the hardest for most leaders. You can always give away authority to your team members. However, you never can give away your responsibility. How do you ensure that your team is successful? The key to Commander's Intent is trained, confident team members. Each team member must understand the plan and when they have to deviate to ensure the Commander's Intent is accomplished. As the teams adapt the plan to meet Commander's Intent, they do not want to change proven processes and other shared work techniques that are part of the plan and strengthen operational outcomes. The plan is often a source of strength; leaders need to adapt only the portions of a plan that require adjustment.

Commander's Intent defines and describes what a successful operation will yield. Good Commander's Intent allows employees and teams to adapt the plan using improvisation, initiative, and adaptation to reach the original plan objectives.

At the end of the day, I got a lot out of attending the program. I got to meet and sit down with Jacko, pick his brain about leadership, and learn how to implement the idea and concepts with the teams that I have been leading. 

What To Read

Servant Leader's Manifesto & When Your Life Depends on It

Marc C. Baker

You do not have to be in a position of authority to be a servant leader, because they lead through influence rather than authority. Leadership is often the art of persuasion influencing others to accomplish the mission by providing purpose, direction, and motivation. Servant leader derives their authority through understanding that the mission is bigger than themselves and by building trust. Servant leaders seek the way of the Jedi wielding the force of influence, naturally seeking to develop people. The Jedi is a Master of Psychology leveraging the strengths of their employees and creating hope in their people by investing in them.

Your Emergency Management Team Has a Strategy Whether You Like It or Not

Kelly McKinney

As an emergency manager, you’ve got a huge job to do...but you don't have nearly enough resources to do it with

You pry away the valuable time of executives, managers, and staff all across your organization

...building resilience for the inevitable next disaster

Podcasts

The Todd DeVoe Show 

Making Extreme Decisions When Your Life Depends On It

In any field, you need to make decisions, and in public safety, the decisions you make can be life and death.  This month we talk with Brad Borkan, the author of When Your Life Depends On It

Extreme Decision-Making Lessons from the Antarctic.  We will explore how to make better decisions and how  When Your Life Depends on It is action-packed and fast-paced. Historically accurate, complete with jaw-dropping storytelling, this book explains the mindset of the explorers who risked life and limb in the Antarctic to explore, discover and further the cause of science. Their lives depended on mutual respect, resilience, camaraderie, loyalty, determination, the ability to resolve conflict and move forward, leadership, and decision-making. All that can be summarised in one word - teamwork! Teamwork was the foundation on which Antarctic exploration was built.

Brad studied how people and businesses can make better decisions. He has a graduate degree in Decision Sciences from the University of Pennsylvania and is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.  Brad’s expertise is in leadership, teamwork, and decision-making, especially as it applies to people, teams, and businesses striving for epic achievement.

Prepare. Respond. Recover 

How Venue Safety and Security Teams Keep Us Safe at Mass Gatherings

In 2020, we saw stadiums, arenas, concert halls, and convention centers go dark. While some facilities transformed to care centers and vaccination sites, today they are reopening.

In 2020, we saw stadiums, arenas, concert halls, and convention centers go dark. While some facilities transformed to care centers and vaccination sites, today they are reopening.

In 2020, we saw stadiums, arenas, concert halls, and convention centers go dark. While some facilities transformed to care centers and vaccination sites, others started planning for fans to return under new COVID guidelines. Not only do these large event spaces need to take into account man-made or natural crisis situations, now they must plan for a safe and healthy return of guests. So much goes on behind the scenes to make sure your trip to the ballpark is not only enjoyable but safe. In this episode, we talk with James DeMeo, founder of Unified Sports & Entertainment Security Consulting. DeMeo, who consulted on the opening of the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, shares with us what you don’t see behind the scenes.

Business Continuity Today 

The Power of Mesh Networks During Emergencies

The new internet may soon be coming to a home near you in the form of Mesh Networking. So what is Mesh Networking and how does it differ from traditional networks…and how will it change disaster communications?

Supporters

https://www.disastertech.com/

https://titanhst.com/

https://www.ndemevent.com/en-us/show-info.html

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In any field, you need to make decisions, and in public safety, the decisions you make can be life and death. This month we talk with Brad Borkan, the author of When Your Life Depends On It

Extreme Decision-Making Lessons from the Antarctic. We will explore how to make better decisions and how

When Your Life Depends on It is action-packed and fast-paced. Historically accurate, complete with jaw-dropping storytelling, this book explains the mindset of the explorers who risked life and limb in the Antarctic to explore, discover and further the cause of science. Their lives depended on mutual respect, resilience, camaraderie, loyalty, determination, the ability to resolve conflict and move forward, leadership, and decision-making. All that can be summarised in one word - teamwork! Teamwork was the foundation on which Antarctic exploration was built.

Brad studied how people and businesses can make better decisions. He has a graduate degree in Decision Sciences from the University of Pennsylvania and is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. Brad’s expertise is in leadership, teamwork, and decision-making, especially as it applies to people, teams, and businesses striving for epic achievement.

Todd DeVoe
Twitter handle: https://twitter.com/ToddTDeVoe
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddtdevoe/
Substack: https://emnetwork.substack.com/
Website: https://toddtdevoe.com/

Brad Borkan
Twitter handle https://twitter.com/PolarDecisions
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradborkan-author-keynotespeaker/
Website http://www.extreme-decisions.com/
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/extremedecisions/
Youtube youtube.com/channel/UCdjr9AklC6ceQjPsxibaWjA

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit emnetwork.substack.com/subscribe