The Window After Disruption & Repositioning Left of Bang
Profiles in Preparedness #61
Welcome back to The CP Journal, where we break down what it takes to get left of bang.
When you’re right of bang, there is a small and fleeting window where people and teams are willing to change.
The window opens when an executive says something like, “We can’t let that happen again.” Or asks a question like, “Why were we surprised by that?”
For a brief moment after a disruption, the perception of risk is at its highest across an organization. The vulnerability is no longer theoretical. There is something that has just affected the organization directly in a way that everyone can see.
And for people working to shift their organizations left of bang, recognizing this window is critical because when risk feels immediate and real, barriers that normally slow preparedness efforts often come down.
Projects that previously struggled to get attention suddenly feel important and urgent. Leaders and partners become more open to making changes they might have resisted weeks earlier.
But as we wrote about in an article last fall, this window rarely stays open for long.
Once the disruption stabilizes, routines return and the perception of danger fades fast. As a result, the pressure to act dissipates and the organization gradually settles back into its previous patterns.
We’ve been thinking about this throughout the week as we watched the war in Iran unfold and as we spoke with clients and organizations either already dealing with disruptions or preparing for them as reserve supplies and contingency options become more limited.
Even though their teams are focused on responding to the disruption they are experiencing (or believe they will soon), this is when organizations have the greatest opportunity to make meaningful preparedness changes.
But capturing that opportunity rarely happens automatically.
During an incident, most people are understandably focused on managing the present problem. They are stabilizing operations, communicating with stakeholders, and trying to reduce the immediate impact.
Yet someone needs to be thinking about how the organization prepares for the next incident while everyone else is managing the current one.
If the organization is going to improve how it gets left of bang to the next disaster, disruption, or act of violence, there needs to be someone finishing the sentence:
“Our ability to do _____ was affected by the war, and we can address that by _____.”
The first goal is to quantify the problems that were revealed: identifying which dependencies were exposed, which contingency plans proved insufficient, and which assumptions turned out to be wrong.
Then the organization can turn to scoping solutions that align with its preparedness strategy.
This often needs to be done during the incident because the moment when leaders say “we can’t let that happen again” does not last forever. Once the environment stabilizes, the urgency fades quickly, and competing priorities return. In a shockingly short amount of time, the memory of why the change felt necessary begins to fade.
So if your organization has been affected by recent disruptions, this is the moment when a decision is being made.
Will the experience become a catalyst for meaningful improvements? Or will the organization return to its previous routines once the disruption passes?
Getting left of bang is a choice. The question is, which one are you—or your organization—going to make?
Inside The CP Journal
This week, we published a new playbook for Academy subscribers: The Individual Readiness Playbook.
We wrote it because most preparedness advice falls into two categories: fear or gear. One side focuses on everything that could go wrong. The other focuses on everything you should buy.
Neither approach answers the question most people actually have: How do you prepare in a deliberate way so you can make good decisions when conditions change?
That’s the purpose of the Individual Readiness Playbook.
The playbook applies the same readiness concepts we use in our work with organizations—situational awareness, early decision-making, and capability development—and brings them to the individual and household level.
Here’s what a couple of early readers have said:
“This playbook should be required reading in every household.”
— Ernie G.
I’ve read several books on home preparedness, and this playbook covers all the bases in fewer words with actionable considerations. Such a good, easy read that has left me with several ideas to update my current preparedness plans and ways to incorporate them into my family’s natural routines.
— Kyle S.
Read the Playbook:
Before You Go
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Glad I have someone like you to help guide the framing and considerations of choices available to stay left of bang in many areas of life.