How can you use previous emergencies to improve your emergency management program?

In reviewing all the hurricanes in the past thirty years; espcially Hurricane Hugo and the storms Ivan, Wilma and others that impacted inland counties, we attempted to warn locals ofthe threat these storms have on inland counties. Sadly it was met with normalacy bias and it couldn't happen here; we are 30 miles inland. Individuals felt the storm would stop at the coastline. Sadly, on 10 Oct 2018, Hurricane Michael changed that view but too late. I hope others learn from this incident and listen to emergency personnel when they sound the warning.

Fortunately, your organization does not have to go through a crisis to gain the experience from it to learn what to do better next time. Whether it's an active shooter scenario or a fire at a facility, you can find people in Security, Risk/Crisis Management, HR, or other role, that played a significant role in a crisis at another organization, that you can learn from. In 2016, I did an Active Shooter, Counter Terrorism Virtual Summit & people who attended the summit learned from about 26 different speakers from all over the world, in different industries, what it was like to go through certain crisis events, how people & organizations responded, & how they recovered. You could have written a very good emergency plan from their experiences.

While past incidents are helpful when looking to improve your emergency management program it really comes down to identifying the areas of improvement and what went well. Sometimes this information is poorly documented and in my experience, especially for long-term events, I suggest starting an after-action from the start of activation. Simply write down some of the things you notice so it's fresh in your head when it comes time to discuss those gaps and weaknesses. You can also learn from other organizations mistakes and strengths. While your organization might not be experiencing an incident you can still learn from other organizations. Conducting exercises will also help with practicing current plans, policies and procedures.

By analyzing the effects of past emergencies, businesses can identify areas to strengthen and improve their emergency management programs, such as enhancing emergency communication strategies, updating evacuation plans, and improving emergency response training.

Volunteering teams to assist with others' emergencies is a valuable opportunity to prepare for an emergency in which the team will be primary. It provides opportunities to observe the actions and qualities of other emergency teams and to grow trust among team members before handling their own emergencies.

If an organization is not updating plans based on lessons learned the same mistakes will continue to happen for the next event. Plans need to be living documents so that once an area of improvement is completed or you learned lessons from others, the plan can be updated to reflect those changes. Time after time organizations will face the same mistakes and that can be because of budgetary issues to make the improvements or because the lack of follow through. Continue to document areas of improvement even if they are not addressed. When they are addressed ensure they are reflected in plans and stakeholders are updated, trained, and exercised.

In my experience, many organizations combine training and exercise. While you might think you're killing two birds with one stone, you are actually setting up your team for failure. Without proper training on equipment, technology, plans, policies, etc., it will delay and hinder the actual exercise. Consider incorporating different trainings that will prepare your team for an upcoming exercise. This helps make the exercise as realistic as possible to test what would happen during a real event. While it may be difficult to get away from just-in-time training due to turnover, time constraints, unfamiliarity, etc., it's beneficial in the long run to have teams well-prepared before a disaster by developing a training and exercise plan.

Trained staff about the different kind of emergency like fire,natural disaster, first Aid, evacuation plan. Work always in a Team . Explain, what,when,were,How to Respond in emergencies

Stakeholders should be an integral part of the After Action Report and analysis. They see the “emergency” with different eyes and their experiences are gold. It does ask for some straightforward feedback and it’s not always a “comfortable” exercise but hey, you work in emergency management so… ??

In an emergency, it can be challenging for every voice in the crisis management team to be heard. All the more crucial is allowing everyone to speak their mind after a crisis. The goal is never to play the blame game, but to understand, learn, and improve. It is important to balance this debriefing process with the well-being of the team. Physical/mental health should be prioritized. It may be preferable to conduct the debriefing session with the help of an external facilitator. It's key that everyone is encouraged to share their observations and learnings. Actively inform stakeholders about findings and communicate the progress on the improvement plan.

Die BIA ist ein entscheidender Schritt im BCMS. Sie hilft uns, die potenziellen Auswirkungen einer Unterbrechung der Gesch?ftsfunktionen und -Prozesse zu verstehen und die notwendigen Informationen für die Entwicklung von Wiederherstellungsstrategien zu sammeln. Bei der NOW IT haben wir die BIA durchgeführt, indem wir zun?chst den Geltungsbereich definiert und dann die Kennzahlen und Verknüpfungen der Gesch?ftsprozesse über Experteninterviews erhoben haben. Es war wichtig, die richtige Flugh?he zu treffen, um sicherzustellen, dass wir keine wichtigen Bestandteile übersehen, aber auch nicht zu viel Zeit mit zu detaillierten Prozessen verbringen. Die BIA lieferte die wichtigsten Kennzahlen, die wir für das BCMS ben?tigen.

Organizations should use previous emergencies to continuously improve their emergency management programs. Organizations should foster a culture of learning from mistakes, where employees feel comfortable reporting errors and sharing their experiences. This will help to identify areas for improvement and prevent similar mistakes from happening in the future.