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Managing Public Disasters (Part 1 of 2)
Bob Weinstein is a journalist who covers technology, project management, the workplace and career development.
Experienced crisis managers know that as soon as a disaster strikes, first responders are either at the emergency scene or racing to it. Beyond the first-on-the-scene firefighters and law enforcement officers, traditional first responders include emergency medical crews and trained volunteers from nonprofit organizations like the Red Cross.
As PM Lisa Olsen said in a PM perspective earlier this year (I Give Up: What the Heck is a Disaster Planning Manager?), in the early moments of a disaster, the emergency response personnel are a PM’s first priority. “They’ll do whatever they need to do to save people,” she says. “The PM's job is making sure they are supplied with the resources and personnel to get the job done. In many states, the fire chief owns the disaster site, whatever it may be.”
In small towns and cities, the first responder network may be very clear; in large cities, however, it’s not so simple. The first responder universe is large and hard to put your finger on. Often, it’s unstructured and unfocused, and the communication lines among responders are inadequate.
Whether they’re working for a corporation, hospital or government agency, crisis managers/PMs summoned to an emergency have a difficult job ahead. At the outset, they must understand who the players are so they can pull them all together and efficiently manage the event. Then the public has to …
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