Great Circle Waypoints Blog

Lots of organizations are laying off people, and I sympathize with those who have lost their jobs; please don’t hesitate to contact me if I can help with your job search.

But it’s not just the employees who were let go that are affected by a layoff; those who remain and the organization itself will feel impacts, too. One area where layoffs have a significant impact is incident management. The missing knowledge of those who were laid off, coupled with the temporarily reduced effectiveness of those who remain, will likely make incidents more frequent, more prolonged, and more disruptive.

Read on to understand why, and what you can do about it. […]

When you update your resume, make sure to highlight your incident management experience. That’s something prospective employers will notice, and make your resume stand out from the rest. Be as specific as you can, and use active verbs; if there’s anything special or unusual about your incident process, say so. Don’t forget to talk about post-incident reviews and learning from incidents, too.

Read on for examples of what you might put on your resume. […]

I’m looking forward to the Learning From Incidents Conference (LFIconf) in Denver on 15-16 February 2023. See you there?

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People sometimes ask me, “How do I reopen a closed incident?” The short answer is that you shouldn’t. Open a new incident instead. Here’s why that’s best.

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Incident Commanders serve a crucial role in protecting company operations, so clearly they should be drawn from senior management due to their authority and experience, right? Wrong.

When I see clients whose pool of Incident Commanders is largely made up of senior managers, directors, and even vice presidents, I am simultaneously impressed with their commitment to incident response but worried about their results.

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I'm pleased to announce that I'm again available for consulting engagements, focusing on helping clients develop their incident management capabilities using Slack.  I've spent the past 3+ years at Slack, building a world-class incident management program, which...