My Learnings - Disaster Relief

My Personal learnings from Chennai Disaster management

Learning 1 - Don't just jump to help but take out time to listen and understand the contours, intensity and impact of the problem with knowledgeable people from the field.

Learning 2 - To scale up the impact, principle of 'Focus on Core competencies' still works in disaster situation.

A. Vertical focus on One product like Food only, Water only, Medicine only, Blanket only helps in managing supply chain more efficiently.

B. Horizontal Distribution align to customer ie Communities in need (again the time tested management principle still works in disaster situation).

Vertical focus team can focus on 3 things - arranging donations, procuring the products (which are in short supply in disaster situations from all possible location they whatever transport) and designing the robust distribution system to horizontally focussed NGOs with least disruptions (building some sense in chaos in extremely time constraint environment).

Learning 3 - Make Decisions at 10 to 50 time shorter duration that too with partial information (Time tested management principle of Taking Risk) - Disaster means timely help. Enough help is available after few days but Speed of help is most critical. It's about implementing a project from conceptualising in 24 hours. Making decisions even with insufficient information or ambiguous information is critical.

Learning 4 - Real time Process Design - Effective process design increases the scale of impact multi fold and reduces the confusion and conflicts substantially. The process needs real time alignment to the realities on the ground.

Learning 5 - Active Listening from the field and Constant communication to align the teams and expectations - During disaster the situations changes every hour and need active listening from all the possible sources. The same is true with communicating - the more the communication the better it is.

Learning 6 - Filter rumours and avoid noise from 'Half glass empty' thinking people - it's optimism and positivity which acts as a tonic in disaster not complaining and pessimism.

Learning 7 - Power of Connecting & Networking - Usage of social media to connect and create communities around projects. During Disaster - Trust plays a most critical role in facilitating faster decisions. It's about Networking, Networking and Networking.