Can your organization survive a disaster? Former CIO of Red Cross & Homeland Security on lessons from 9/11 & Katrina

10 years and 11 months ago, I had the honor of engaging and introducing one of the top rated Chief Information Officers in the country, Steven Cooper.

I captured much of his advice in the 2006 press release below for the North Carolina Project Management Institute (NCPMI).

In the face of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and now Jose, it is a good time to look back at the lessons we've learn from two of the largest disasters in American history.

Oct 6, 2006

CIO of Red Cross offers lessons learned from 9/11 and Katrina day before local crisis

 "If you want to be where the action is, follow me."

Steven Cooper wasn't kidding when he told a sold out crowd at the North Carolina Project Management Institute's 7th Annual Event about management in a time of crisis.

"Steven Cooper has a unique vantage point on two of the biggest disasters in US history" said Sidd Chopra, PMP, Vice President of Communications for the NCPMI and Master of Ceremonies for the event at the University of North Carolina Friday Center this last Wednesday. "He has critical insights on how companies and organizations should in react when the unthinkable happens."

The next day, they had a disaster of their own in Apex, NC that made national news.

According to Chopra, "As project managers, we have all the responsibility for the success or failure of a project. It requires a lot of organization, persuasion and diplomacy skills. Having someone like Steven Cooper advise us was incredibly valuable."

"The fact that we got expert advice on crisis management the day before our own local disaster was sheer providence."

Cooper, the country's first CIO of the Department of Homeland Security and current CIO of the American Red Cross (ARC), went from preventing the next 9/11 to responding to Katrina, Rita and Wilma all in 5 years.

Cooper was joined by the 2005-2006 President of Toastmasters International, Accredited Speaker and 2 time World Championship of Public Speaking runner up, Dr. Dilip Abayasekara, who instructed the attendees on "how to speak so people listen."

"The conference brought in luminaries in project management from US and Canada to discuss topics like emotional intelligence, leadership, managing international projects, managing expectations, portfolio management and Cooper's prophetic keynote on crisis management." Chopra explained.

He's getting used to the irony "2 years ago, a fire alarm went off during our conference on Risk Management."

Cooper, the country's first CIO of the Department of Homeland Security and current CIO of the American Red Cross (ARC), went from preventing the next 9/11 to responding to Katrina, Rita and Wilma all in 5 years.

At DHS, he was responsible for joining 22 federal agencies with 38,000 IT systems and networks and 180,000 people into a massive new department.

4 years later, he left DHS for the Red Cross to "get some balance back into my life." Cooper volunteered.

Then Katrina hit, and then Rita, then Wilma.

After a 125 year history of disaster response, the Red Cross knows what it is doing.

"We had begun planning for a disaster or an event where we would have to serve about a half million" people Cooper explained to the 450 people attending the day long conference.

But with Katrina, "we had to assist 4 million people."

"Within 2 days, we recognized the scope of the disaster," Cooper continues. "I recognized that there was no way we are going to be able handle this ourselves"

But you can't ask just anybody for help.

Cooper wisely questions "Are you going to turn to somebody for assistance and basically turn over your control and your authority to somebody you've never met and you don't know?"

"So I got on the phone and I called 27 companies that had equipment or capability that fit what we needed and I knew the executive."

"If you run into unexpected things that are not in your plan, If you don't have some kind of previous established relationship where there is trust, you're toast" chuckled Cooper.

"It is terribly important in any type of response to have some type of relationship with the people you are going to have to work with."

With Katrina, Cooper continued "I called these executives that I know and said 'can you have your best and brightest on a plane to Washington DC tomorrow?'"

Between 75 and 80 people showed up the next day. Every company responded.

He asked them to break up into separate teams and put together a project plan.

"Then get back together as an integrated team, vet each others plans, find the dependencies and put together a master plan." he added.

Cooper explained "The need is now. Within 24 hours, I want of this done."

"People were phenomenal." he said brightly, By Sunday people were on planes armed with the plans we were going to execute."

"Within 10 days we were operational."

"We created the Extreme Mobilization Playbook where we documented what we did.

It's not done but gives us a starting point should another catastrophic event occur.

This way Cooper explained "Everyone can pickup the playbook and start here."

Cooper offered the project managers these lessons learned:

1.       When a disaster hits "is not the time to dust of your plan." Drill often and with all the organizations that would be involved.

2.       Get to know key people in advance.

3.       Know how money will flow. "Pre-plan some of the funding side on how [you] might do things."

4.       Prioritize. "You have to have a process in place" or some kind of portfolio management.

"In the absence of portfolio management, you really aren't able to put the strategic dimension of what you are investing in, clearly on the table."

Another tip he offered is establishing a business value owner. Often not the project sponsor, this "person that is responsible for the business area that benefits from a project."

He justifies this role because "nobody actually follows up on 'did we actually benefit from the project?'"

And then "what do you do if you don't achieve the business value?"

"I believe that project management skill sets are essential to every organization."

"What I can absolutely tell you from experience, we have needed skilled, certified and trained project managers in every organization I have been in. And we've never had enough."

While Cooper advised the audience not to come to him for career advice, it was clear that he would be the best person to turn to in a crisis.

(The Annual Event is presented each year by the North Carolina chapter of the Project Management Institute. PMI is an organization of over 200,000 professionals representing 125 countries dedicated to the promotion of globally accepted project management methodologies.)