Crisis Incident Management Final Salvo

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CRISIS INCIDENT MANAGEMENT

THE CRISIS INCIDENT RESPONSE MODEL

THE FINAL CHAPTER

Crisis incident managers or leaders should understand that the only constant in today’s environment is…change! Leaders do not have the luxury of sitting back and waiting for change to wreak havoc on their organizations — a leader must lead change.

Anticipating change is concerned with predicting what is to occur in your environment, for example, by:

    • closely monitoring what’s happening in your own environment and then comparing it with what’s happening in similar environments at different locations
    • studying trends in the international environment or arena to see what inferences can be made from what you observe
    • staying connected to your network of peers and other leaders to gather different perspectives

Anticipating change is only the beginning, the next step requires the leader to prepare the organization for change—this entails communicating what the new reality is or will be and taking the necessary actions for the safety, security, and response organization and its people to be ready before the change occurs.

Anticipating change and preparing for change is great—but leaders are in the business of leading change. This is a proactive stance that accurately identifies what and where the organization needs to be in 3, 5, or 10 years and results in the leader carrying out the necessary change before it’s forced upon the organization.

This way, the organization stays out in front of its competitors, negative trends, downturns, and environmental conditions. 

Leaders seek to control the destiny of their organizations by leading change—they act upon the environment, instead of environmental conditions acting upon them. This allows leaders to stay ahead of change and to reduce the negative impact of fast-paced inevitable changes.

CHANGES IN ORGANIZATIONS SHOULD ANTICIPATE AND BE PREPARED TO COPE WITH

      • Standards rapidly changed after COVID-19. How will you respond without violating “health protocols” and be a “LEADER BY EXAMPLE”!
      • The use of new technologies (e.g. artificial intelligence, 3D manufacturing, Internet of Things, and robotics) and digital transformation increasing, and the associated risks and opportunities are imminent, especially in the field of “MANAGING INFORMATION, RISK INFORMATION, AND PROTECTED INFORMATION!

 

      • New businesses opening and others disappearing (whether you like it or not, put down some other things in the “GARBAGE CAN”, other at “RESERVOIR”, and REPLACE RESOURCES “FIT TO THE CALL OF SITUATION”. Remember this, “not all trends are SIZE FIT ALL….consider research for that purpose.

THINGS TO BE CONSIDERED:

      1. Whether to outsource or not (Do outsourcing a necessity?) 
      2. Financial resources (Consider the “cost” of change, is it cost-effective or not?)
      3. Effect of climate change and environmental challenges (Resilience)
      4. Increasing unemployment (consider harnessing the volunteer system into a workable force)
      5. Increasing poverty (design sustainable food resource consumption and production)
      6. The emergence of very high-profile issues relating to social change—human rights, sexual harassment, gender bias, discrimination, red-tagging, civility, morality

Resilience in the Context of Sustainability

For example:

      • The COVID -19 pandemic has reshaped the world in an unprecedented way, creating a new normal (what would be your response procedure while observing strict health protocol)
      • COVID-19 has challenged our normal operating and work models. (Are we going to change, abruptly or gradually/ partially or totally that operation and work procedure?)
      • Everything has come into question, from how and where employees work to how they engage with customers and stakeholders, to which action (or respond) is most competitive (or effective), and which could be quickly adapted. To cope, many turned to practices associated with agility and flexibility in the hope of adapting more quickly to changing priorities.
      • Your organizations must work together to stay focused on building an inclusive and sustainable workforce and economies that are more resilient in facing pandemics, climate change, and many other global societal and economic challenges.

IN THIS CASE, AS MANAGER (OR LEADER) BE AWARE OF THE FOLLOWING:

    1. Preparedness, Intelligence, and Alertness in Times of Adversity (PIATA)
    2. Employ Good Governance: responsible, accountable, transparent, ethical (RATE)
    3. Personal Quality: courage, humility, integrity, empathy, fortitude, and servitude (CHIEFS)
    4. Adopt Speed and Agility Governance Model (OODA-Observe-orient-decide-act)

You know very well the essence of PIATA, RATE, and CHIEFS, so let’s talk about OODA!

OODA Loop Explained

The OODA loop (Observe-Orient-Decide-Act) is a four-step approach to decision-making that focuses on filtering available information, putting it in context, and quickly making the most appropriate decision while also understanding that changes can be made as more data becomes available.

Situational awareness is the comprehension of all environmental stimuli. It involves perceiving all components of a situation, understanding what they mean, and using them to make future judgments.

Achieving situational awareness is crucial for most decision-making processes, including the OODA loop.

SITUATIONAL AWARENESS is good if all your senses are working, and this is important in SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS which is needed in deciding and acting.

The phases of the OODA loop have been broken down for the purpose of explanation but in some real-world scenarios, they might happen in a fraction of a second. (Remember the saying, the “books go out of the window” in the real McCoy”)

OODA LOOP

  1. OBSERVE – The first step is to identify the problem or threat and gain an overall understanding of the internal and external environment. In the corporate world, this can be equated to data gathering, where all of the information regarding the current organizational state, any competitors, and the market is collected. The key point about this step is recognizing that the world is complex.
  2. ORIENT – The orientation phase involves reflecting on what has been found during observations and considering what should be done next. It requires a significant level of situational awareness and understanding in order to make a conscious decision. Since some decisions are unconscious, or instinctive, this step involves considering what and why decisions are made prior to choosing a course of action.
  3. DECIDE – The decision phase makes suggestions towards an action or response plan, taking into consideration all of the potential outcomes. This can be accomplished through meetings or discussions that are focused on creating a roadmap for the entire organization.
  4. ACT – Action pertains to carrying out the decision and related changes that need to be made in response to the decision. This step may also include any testing that is required before officially carrying out an action, such as compatibility.

OODA Loop Speedy Decision-Making in a Changing Context:

    • OODA is more concerned with synthesizing an action out of an incomplete data set.
    • The synthesis of action from the observation and orientation of a complex and mysterious environment, subject to frequent and unpredictable change, is the essence of the OODA loop.
    • Feedforward is an additional feature of the OODA loop. This is a continuous feeding of information even decision had been made from an external source (government intelligence system must come in)

Implementing the OODA loop in an organizational context could provide the following benefits:

    • Enabling quicker, more streamlined decision processes
    • Training individuals to have a shorter reaction time
    • Generating less friction for all parties involved in making decisions
    • Creating more dynamic, flexible, and competitive conditions
    • Bringing more organizational transparency and situational awareness
    • Promoting creativity and innovation
    • Emphasizing preparation as the key to good decision-making
    • Focusing on certainty rather than uncertainty

SPEED AND AGILITY ARE NECESSARY FOR CRISIS INCIDENT MANAGEMENT: So be familiar with the following TERMS how to use it.

      • Adapt – to make suitable to or fit for a specific use or situation.
      • Agile – able to move quickly and easily; the agile mind is the ability to think very quickly and intelligently.
      • Alert – mentally responsive and perceptive; quick.
      • Nimble – 1) able to move quickly and easily with light neat movements; 2) having a nimble mind/brain/wit is the ability to think quickly or understand things easily.
      • Proactive – acting in advance to deal with an expected difficulty.
      • Resilience – the ability to return quickly to your usual health or state of mind after suffering a crisis, difficulties, etc.
      • Speed of movement – how fast something moves or travels.
      • Speed of action – the rate at which something happens or is done.
      • Speedy – happening or done quickly or without delay.
      • Responsive – quick to react, able to receive and respond to external stimuli.
      • Ready – prepared or available for service, action, or progress.

These are terms where people inside the core of incident management must be familiar “BUT BE CAREFUL OF!

Below is a comprehensive framework that can be used to strengthen one’s capability by carefully studying and mastering the concept of OODA in relation to PIATA, CHIEFS, and RATE.

Allowing all the ingredients inside and outside OODA will make a leader or manager a master’s of handling crisis turning it into an OPPORTUNITY NOT DISASTER.

Added to this is the KNOWLEDGE of the different forms of “RISK” (look at the four corners) to fortify your PLANNED ACTION in order that all OPPORTUNITY FOR SUCCESS must be taken together for the sake of humanity.

YOUR MAJOR TAKEAWAYS:

The context of handling crisis appropriately is a BIG CHALLENGE for all leaders irrespective of the organization they belong to. Problems and issues surrounding a man are undergoing rapid and unprecedented change that call for the BEST LEADER to emerge. OLD TALENT MAY NOT FIT WITH THE NEW PROBLEMS; YOUNG PEOPLE AND GENERATIONS EMBRACING THE OLD METHOD TO THE NEW PROBLEMS WILL BE FUTILE IF NOT USELESS! OLD PEOPLE SENSITIVE ENOUGH TO THE PROBLEM USING INNOVATIVE TECHNIQUES MAY BE THE SOLUTION. WHERE ARE WE GOING TO PLACE OURSELVES IN THE SPECTRUM?

The common terms you heard are “CHANGE, TRANSFORMATIONS, ADAPTATIONS, RESILIENCE”….will these things enough to handle the most devastating situations?

Such questions will remain unanswered, but we hope ALL OF YOU WILL BE THE ANSWER!

We observe several mistakes from the governance, non-ethical practices, corruption, frauds, mismanaging simple problems, cover-ups, and the likes which DESTROY AND DAMAGE the reputation of an institution, and this is a sad reality. A CRISIS THAT NOBODY CARES ABOUT SO FAR. You are all living witness to that!

I CONGRATULATES EVERYONE despite the situations and limitations of our engagement, I hope, you get something out of this course and I fervently believe that you will fortify that little talent you earned and learned here and I appeal to all of you not to stop from learning.  ALWAYS CONSIDER THIS MY FRIENDS, YOU ARE ONE AMONG THE SAVIOUR OF THIS PLANET, GO AHEAD, AND ALWAYS BE OF SERVICE FOR THE SAKE OF HUMANITY! (beraldewr2021)

OUR SHORT EVALUATION WILL FOLLOW, CLICK THE LINK IF YOU ARE READY.

GOOD LUCK TO ALL!

After answering the quiz (15 items only), answer this essay and submit your answer at wrberalde@yahoo.com. (SELECT “2” QUESTIONS ONLY)

  1. In your own small way (whether you occupy a lower or higher position) how will you consider yourself as an agent of “change” in your organization as long as crisis incident management is concern? Discuss briefly your answer.
  2. As crisis incident managers, why we consider that handling a crisis is not just a matter of “RESCUE”? Explain your answer in no more than 5 sentences.
  3. Among the four models introduced (the Burnett Model, Relational Model, Fink’s Model, and the Incident command model, which do you thinks is the most effective and workable in the Philippine situation and why?
  4. Based on your personal experience and observation, what are the qualities crisis managers need to strengthen in: PIATA, RATE, and CHIEFS (Discuss your answer briefly)

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