“Routine emergency” might seem like an oxymoron, but it’s a good description of effective incident management. We do our best to avoid emergencies, but we still have to be prepared to deal with them when they occur. Dealing with an emergency doesn’t have to be a crisis, though; with good incident management practices, it can be routine.
You see this in professions that deal with emergencies on a daily basis. For example, you seldom see firefighters running at a fire. Because of their extensive training, preparation, and practice, an event that is incredibly stressful for the victims is just another day at the office for the firefighters. It’s routine.
For dealing with an emergency to be routine, you need to be prepared to respond to emergencies. Who is going to respond? How are they going to be notified to respond? What steps are they going to take when notified? How can they enlist help from others if needed? How are all the responders going to organize and coordinate their activities? How are they going to communicate with each other, and with stakeholders beyond the response? How do you scale up and scale down the response, as the situation unfolds? How do you wrap up the response and return to normal operations? Effective incident management practices address these questions, and more.
If you want your emergency responses to be routine, you need to have considered, planned, trained, and practiced all of this, before the emergency arises.
Are you prepared? We can help.
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