Another opportunity – what can the next generation of emergency managers learn?

For those that know me, I am always up for a challenge in developing the ‘next generation’ of those who choose to work in the Emergency Management environment.

After moving to Darwin a few months ago and taking up a role as a Learning and Development Specialist with an emergency services agency, an opportunity arose a few weeks ago to move to a new role in emergency management including the;

• development and overseeing of the implementation of strategic system-wide Emergency and Business Continuity Management (BCM) frameworks, policies and plans for NT Health.
• manage and monitor NT Health’s preparedness for, response to and recovery from all types of emergencies through the implementation of the AIIMs incident management structure and Crisis Appreciation and Strategic Planning Guide.

In this senior role, the knowledge, skill competency and capability that has enabled me to continue my professional journey has not been gained without effort. The first important milestone in the journey was the decision to start my MBA at the University of Adelaide back in 2007. Why the University of Adelaide -??a G of 8 University with a sound reputation and high standing of their MBA program, and this program is not for the faint hearted. Many additional hours went into achieving this Masters degree. The next piece of the puzzle was gaining a Fulbright Scholarship in 2008, which led to a seven month stint in the United States embedded into Emergency Management at the highest level. Four people in Dallas influenced my way of approaching Emergency Management, the Director the late Kenny Shaw, Gerry Martin, a 25 year veteran of EM in Dallas, and the late Joe Clark, a man with passion in working with the community of Dallas and the back bone of the Dallas CERT program instruction with the whole CERT program managed by Cassandra Wallace. While my time in Dallas was short, Dallas provided the influence for approaching the community with sound governance framing programs. Operationally, HC Gustav and Ike, my working colleague Ray Rivas III was a master in the roles he played and taught me many lessons over those two events.?Dallas will always hold a special place in my EM professional development.????

On my return to Adelaide, I picked and finished my MBA, graduating in 2010. One key influencer in this final journey was David Pender, whom I still remain in contact with today. His influence in two subjects, Negotiation and Knowledge Management steered the pathway for the next decade of development.

Opportunities emerged, design and development of a new Master of Project Management?(Emergency Management – Business Continuity) was undertaken in 2011-2012 for the University of South Australia. I see Project Management as a key skill to have within the EM space as every task you have, no matter how small, is itself a small project. Apply the principles, and the project will generally achieve the desired outcomes. Never forget though, that your project planning may identify the project is not viable, so the harder decision to bring it to a close early is unfortunately viewed as not achieving the desire goal, rather than identifying the unallocated funding might be better redirected to a project that is only stumbling due to the lack of funds. Knowledge Management and Negotiation play important roles in this decision making process. Thank you David Pender for instilling these values into my professional development.

November 2015 saw me take a role in the NT Emergency Service leading the Emergency Management Training Unit, exploiting my knowledge and skill in EM, training and development. The 12 month contract resulted in some significant gains for the organisation and lifting the EM capability of the agency and the NT Government Functional capability by in excess of 30% in this short period. My supervisor Bob Evans, the Deputy Director NTES was highly supportive of initiatives put on the table, each supported by a project plan and implemented through incremental and celebrated milestone achievements.

2017 I joined Central Queensland University as a lecturer in Disaster and Emergency Management, leading the development of the new vocational Diploma and Advanced Diploma of Emergency Management then as the lead facilitator for the program. This was an innovative program as it used live community based projects as the learning environment, which meant that students were being exposed to the real world environment that they would eventually aim work in. In this journey, the the key influencer was Dr Helen Keen-Dyer, who always had faith in what was being achieved. Others at CQU, were never fully engaged enough to know the real value of this program which is disappointing from an educational institution. The opportunity also arose to teach in the Graduate Certificate of Disaster and Emergency Management, linking vocational to a higher education pathway. Covid19 saw a shrinking of the program and I left the University in mid 2020.

In November 2020, I took up a role in Western Australia with the WA Country Health Service at Port Hedland as a Regional Emergency Operations Centre Lead – Covid-19.?Another great opportunity to build on knowledge and skill then demonstrating competency and capability. Though only an 8 month contract, many lessons were gained, managing multiple incidents in various all hazard environments, each requiring a Covid-19 overlay. WA was still a restricted state in Australia. Within WACHS, the greatest influencer and peer support to my ongoing professional development was Tony Spicer the then WACHS EOC Health Commander whose knowledge and skill in this environment is second to none in the country.?Thank you Tony for your guidance and honesty.?

The latter half of 2021 saw my engagement with the Australian Industry Standards Ltd who were contracted to work on the development of two new qualifications in Recovery, identified in the Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements presented in October 2020. My assignment within the contract was to benchmark the current Australian vocational EM qualifications against 7 other international countries training delivery (Aust, NZ, US, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore). I determined that the current offerings at the time in Emergency Management in the Recovery space were “fit for purpose” and could be improved with minor additions to the Diploma program and streamed to make the Australian vocation EM program potentially the best offering in the world.?The NRRA steering group had a varying opinion where Recovery is now potentially split away from mainstream EM and the two areas potentially will be forever divided.

I was able to successfully draw upon my iAEM CEM Global CEM Commissioner role in linking with key stakeholders in the educational space and within industry to quantifiably and qualitatively analyse and benchmark the quality of the Australian EM qualifications. I will emphasise that the review did not compare any Australian Higher Education program in the review; however the Australian qualifications were benchmarked against some international degree programs.??

That takes up to the present time, and back in the NT.?A couple of months in a Learning and Development Specialist role and now moving into a senior role in the Department of Health in an Emergency Management position.?

What can the ‘next generation of emergency managers’ learn from this 15 year progression?

The common thread to my progression? Firstly study within the vocational area and higher education spaces. More recently I have built on my MBA with a Grad Cert in Project Management, Grad Diploma in Emergency and Disaster Communications and a Grad Cert in Crisis Management. Each of these additional programs have provided me with a greater in-depth appreciation of the linked subject areas of my MBA and provided me a platform of professional skill development.

The second most important component is the understanding and importance of establishing, but more importantly maintaining good networks. This means that the connections are not occasional when you need something, but periodically and seeing how your network is travelling and importantly what aspect of new development they are working on which may have a level of synergy with your own projects. David Pender and the University of Adelaide MBA program have influenced me the most here.

I have a strong Australian and US based network, and I take the time to talk to people, and when in their locale, take the extra time to meet up with them. There is nothing like a face-2-face discussion in keeping those bonds alive, which have been challenging over the past two years. Internationally, I choose quality conferences where I know some of my network will be attending.?Locally conferences are another important link. Many Australian conferences only have a few sessions that are potentially applicable to you, so the important aspect here is take that time to nurture and expand your network, find new avenues to explore, new ideas.

For myself, a new role starts this week, and I will be exploring every avenue I can to gain as much knowledge in ensuring that the programs I recommend are the best that can be delivered nationally and this will require ongoing maintenance of my network and linking with fellow peers.?What I hope for will follow is a take up by smart institutions who choose to invest in the ‘next generation of emergency mangers’, as these will be the people that ensure your programs will become sustainable into the future.

As time marches on, I will share more thoughts on this new journey.