Executive Attention, Drone Warfare, Glacier Collapses & More
Profiles in Preparedness #28
I was updating the copy for a few of our consulting projects this week, and highlighting why we’re committed to providing every client access to both the Watch Office and Academy with each project we deliver.
For any organization using an outside advisor, recognize that the gap between a consultant’s recommendations and their team’s real-world actions is precisely where risk emerges.
When insights or capabilities developed through preparedness projects aren't sustained or fully integrated, plans can fail at critical moments, teams may revert to old habits, or capabilities can degrade over time. Organizations are left vulnerable during crises or disruptions.
On the flip side, ensuring ongoing support means your new plans don’t become shelfware, improvement plans turn into projects, and the effort to build a capability pays off when you need it the most.
When you know what you’re building towards, what you need to get there becomes clear before, during, and after the projects you undertake.
Inside The CP Journal
Here are some of the articles that were added to the site this week.
For our Academy and Watch Office subscribers, we break down a fast and effective way to share forward-looking information with executives to accelerate your organization’s decision-making.
Here is why we make organization-wide access to The CP Journal’s Academy and Watch Office available to our consulting clients. A project might be what you need today, but what you need during a disaster goes beyond the closeout meeting.
This Week‘s Reads
Here are a few standout reads from this week with insights, ideas, and perspectives that caught my attention.
Article | The Man Putin Couldn’t Kill. In a riveting NYT opinion piece, investigative journalist Christo Grozev is profiled as ‘the man Putin couldn’t kill’—a digital detective who survived Kremlin assassination plots and weaponized open-source intelligence to expose Russia’s darkest operations to silence and kill dissidents.
Article | Swiss Glacier Collapse Is a Lesson on Climate Disaster Management. Admittedly, this wasn’t a risk I’d previously been aware of, but watching the video footage of the glacier collapse this week and its aftermath was eye-opening. Yet, the proactive and left of bang monitoring required to evacuate the village a week in advance was equally impressive.
Article | $300 Ukrainian drones vs. $100 million Russian bombers. Inexpensive doesn't mean ineffective. It's a lesson many modern veterans learned firsthand in Iraq and Afghanistan, and this week, Ukraine dramatically underscored the point. Through Operation Spiderweb, Ukraine demonstrated just how lethal drones can be as asymmetric threats, delivering strategic damage at minimal cost. There are critical lessons here, not only in how drones can be effectively employed, but also in how nations must adapt their defensive strategies against such tactics. If you have a subscription, I also enjoyed the WSJ’s article on the attack.
Article | Two Kinds of Instructions. Who are you writing your plans for? Are they for people who know what to do (but need a reminder), or for people who don’t know what to do? It seems like a minor question, but when developing your emergency operations plans, it makes all the difference. For many organizations responding to disasters, it is probably both, which means the way you design and write the plan (and then teach people how to use it) can be the difference between an organization that accomplishes its goals and one that doesn’t.
Book | Smart Brevity. I picked up this book to sharpen how we edit our weekly Watch Office situation reports. Halfway through, I’ve highlighted more of the book than I've left untouched. It’s that practical. The core idea is simple: write shorter without making it shallow or leaving out critical details. If clear, impactful writing is central to your work, this book offers valuable strategies for making your messages not just concise, but memorable.
When You’re Ready
If you want more in-depth insights, you can become a paying subscriber to access exclusive content like our weekly Watch Office situation reports, our Tactical Analysis Course & behavioral analysis practice exercises, and the “Project Management in Emergency Management” Playbook.
And if you’re thinking about how to strengthen your organization's preparedness, that’s what we do. Whether it’s assessments, planning, speaking events, or exercises, we help teams build the skills and strategies to stay ahead of the next challenge.