Building Resilience: The Lego Brick Model.

Through the many emergency events that I have researched and observed, from cyber security incidents and active shooters to floods and fires, the one element that keeps emerging consistently is the constant evolution in these incidents in terms of complexity and scale. No two emergencies are ever the same and they constantly challenge the skills and resources at the disposal of emergency management professionals. This constant evolution means that a successful approach to dealing with an emergency today may no longer be fully applicable the next time a similar incident occurs. So, in this ever evolving emergency landscape, how do we build resilience and better prepare for emergencies that may bend or even break the approaches we currently have for dealing with them?

I like to think of adapting to emergencies and enabling resilience as a Lego building challenge. The resources and knowledge at your disposal are the collection of bricks that you have. Each emergency requires a specific mix of bricks to build the ideal response. So, resilience in this case would be enhanced by having more bricks of a wide variety at your disposal to help you build the best structure possible to deal with any emergency. How do you go about creating this collection of bricks? Here are four elements that will allow you to create new bricks for your collection:

1. Practice multiple, varied scenarios regularly.

During the 2013 flood in Calgary, the zoo was affected and responders needed to deal with the situation. Because they had previously practiced an evacuation scenario for a fire at the zoo previously, they had developed knowledge around dealing with an emergency at this location. Essentially, they had created some new bricks. As the emergency was caused by a flood, not all the new bricks were relevant but there were some bricks of knowledge that would not have been there if they had not practiced a fire scenario at the zoo.

Practice and exercises, using multiple scenarios and not just the ones you might normally expect, creates new knowledge - essentially new bricks for the collection. A constant cycle of simulations and exercises is a necessary ingredient for building your collection of Lego bricks and enabling resilience to a range of emergencies.

2. Build a wide range of partnerships.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, the creation of an online platform to identify gas stations where fuel was available was lauded as a great initiative which assisted the recovery process. This was enabled by some software engineers in Regina, Saskatchewan, who had noticed that their gas price app was being used to indicate where gas was available in the aftermath of the hurricane in New York City. The engagement of new partners from software developers and virtual volunteers to volunteer rescue teams and community groups has been a hallmark of recent emergencies.They bring in new capabilities, ideas and approaches which may not necessarily be in the traditional emergency management mindset or playbook.

In a rapidly evolving emergency management environment, it is absolutely necessary to engage with a broad range of partners, some of which may fall completely outside the traditional emergency management mindset. These partnerships that can provide some unique Lego bricks that allow you to solve problems in new ways.

3. Enable innovation and smart failure.

The US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) had a Chief Innovation Adviser, Desiree Matel-Andreson, who was deployed to New York during Hurricane Sandy. Her role was to try new things and find new and better ways to assist response and recovery operations. She had the support of FEMA leadership which enabled her to engage new partners and try new things. From experimenting with the use of tablets for door-to-door disaster registration services to working with designers to improve services, a range of new approaches were tested. Experiments that worked were eventually integrated back into FEMA and the team learned what they could from the experiments that did not pan out.

What worked yesterday may no longer work or be the best option for the disasters of tomorrow. Experimenting, learning and incorporating new ideas rapidly creates adaptability. It allows for the rapid generation of a range of new bricks even in the midst of a disaster.

4. Keep learning all the time.

During a recent trip to Calgary, I had the pleasure of catching up with the leadership of one of the most progressive emergency management organizations in Canada - the Calgary Emergency Management Agency (CEMA). During the course of the conversation, Chief Tom Sampson, Deputy Chief Sue Henry and Assistant Chief Coby Duerr talked about the continuous training, support and learning that the team were involved in. CEMA is focused on learning constantly and also sharing its lessons broadly, to encourage others to share in return. Through this process, the team continues to build new knowledge and stays at the cutting edge of emergency management. The greatest strength displayed by these leaders at CEMA is that they are the first to say that they don't know it all and need to keep learning.

No one will ever know it all when it comes to a rapidly evolving world of emergency management. Continuous learning and acquisition of knowledge is an absolute necessity. This creates a new and updated selection of bricks to construct your emergency response with.

Concluding Thoughts

A rapidly shifting emergency management landscape means that we cannot simply rely on static plans and approaches to deal with tomorrow's emergencies. Having a foundation for resilience that's based on having a wide variety of components or bricks that you can access to build your response is essential. You can't get an emergency to adapt to your plan but you can certainly adapt your plan to deal with the emergency. Having a wide range of these Lego bricks will help you build the best plan to effectively deal with any emergency.