Blind spots cause crises
Understanding blind spots is key to preventing tragedies. In 1940, 2001, and 2017, tragedies happened because their perpetrators slipped through the cracks. What threats does your organisation face that might slip into the gaps between teams?
In 1940, French reconnaissance aircraft detected a German incursion into the Ardennes, but the alert was not communicated to the right people fast enough to effectively respond. Ernest R. May, seminal historian of the battle, later drew comparisons with the failure of the US Intelligence services to prevent the 9/11 attacks after serving on the 9/11 Commission Report as a Senior Adviser.
In Manchester in 2017, Salman Abedi detonated a bomb in a packed crowd exiting an Ariana Grande concert, killing 22 people and injuring over 1000. His attack could not have been successful without blind spots: a physical blind spot in the CCTV coverage, a failure to communicate between the venue management and outsourced security, and a communications blind spot due to a lack of radios.
Threats are much more effective when it targets blind spots, in the gaps between teams.
Working through these scenarios with external experts can help you mitigate many of these risks, and be well-prepared for any eventuality. Vedette are expert at designing, delivering, and analysing these exercises, and could help you too.
Newly appointed as Director with Arctic Advisory Associates working alongside our Founder Dr Tim Reilly. Working to support the growth of the ARCTIC inline with the Arctic Council Mandates
5 个月Great advice, as they say, ''Fail to plan = plan to fail'' interestingly few organisations take Contingency planning seriously. The basic Combat Appreciation ensured you took all planning factors into consideration and as you identified each one you had to ask, ''so what and what is the impact on achieving the aim''. Having identified and dismissed or maintained them, you then produced three options and then identified your preferred option. By doing this you became aware of all the key factors that could impact the plan and when option A went wrong you already had two options. How often to organisations implement this level of attention to detail and discipline in their planning?
Leadership Development | Executive Coach | Complex Problem Solver | Builds High Performance Teams | Managing Change
5 个月In the 1930’s America military wargamed an attack on Pearl Harbour very similar to the actual attack in 1941. However results were ignored whether from a blind spot or a misconception that the data could not possibly be right!