If you are someone who has to respond to emergencies and disasters, I’m sure you have contemplated how you will respond. There are the basic “life support” issues. I told my wife that with a big earthquake that impacted King County, I would not be home for perhaps many weeks. There is no commuting 35 miles when bridges are out. I figured it would take me about a day to walk to work and then we also had a “helicopter pickup plan” for key staff and leadership. That’s the mechanics of planning.
Then there is the issue of leading in a crisis. Perhaps a crisis that is so big, it was unthinkable when you contemplated what could happen. That is the topic of this
Disaster Zone podcast: “Leading in a Crisis.”Pete Gaynor, the immediate past Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) national administrator, talks about leadership in a crisis and a new two-hour course he has put together for senior leaders in government or business on leading in a crisis — that was perhaps “unthinkable” and then it happened! That was his personal experience with COVID-19.
I believe you will enjoy listening to Pete, and doing so also might help you to align your thinking on how you will behave in a future unthinkable disaster.
Eric Holdeman is a contributing writer for Emergency Management magazine and is the former director of the King County, Wash., Office of Emergency Management.