Thought Before Action

Focusing on the essence of a plan

"When a disaster hits, we aren't going to read the plan."

I hear this comment every once in a while from individuals involved in emergency operations planning projects. This statement implies that, if first responders or emergency managers aren't going to read the plan when it is needed, why bother spending the time to go through a planning process?

As a sports fan, I often think about this in relation to how professional teams prepare for their games. How often do you see teams carrying their full playbook onto the field, ice, court, or pitch with them? The answer is probably "never." But that doesn't mean that the team doesn't have that full playbook. It doesn’t mean that they don’t use it to develop their game plan.

It is worth remembering that, in its most simple form, a plan is nothing more than thought before action. It isn't acting and then thinking, and it isn’t thinking and acting simultaneously.

Professional sports teams use their playbooks to develop a shared understanding of what everyone is going to do during a game. First, they talk through the plays, then walk through them, and then finally practice them at full speed. By knowing the intent of the plan and the plays, as well as the roles and responsibilities of everyone involved, teams become able to adapt and change when the situations they’re facing don't match what they were expecting.

Teams use their playbooks when they review their past performance as they study game films. What went according to plan? What didn't? How do we improve this play (or the way people put it into action) so that it can be even better the next time we use it? Coaches and general managers consider their playbooks when developing their team members. What skills do we need to be successful and to be able to run every play that we have? If we don't have a team that can run every single play, which plays are we prioritizing for new players to learn first?

All of these examples are also true with teams implementing emergency operations plans. Being able to adapt when a disaster occurs is only possible if everyone has the foundational knowledge of what people should already be doing and why they are doing those tasks.

Good Planning and Poor Planning

Even though a team might not bring its playbook onto the field, they are still leveraging it during a game. The same is true when responding to disasters, though it is worth noting that sometimes poor planning can be even worse than not planning at all.

For example, when organizations develop a plan that they can't actually implement because not everyone with a role or responsibility in the plan is aware of it, has agreed to use it, or has practiced their actions as written in the plan, the organization will rarely realize the benefits that result from having a shared understanding of what everyone is doing to accomplish the organization’s goals during disasters.

Or, when an organization develops a plan that includes staff, resources, or capabilities that it hasn’t yet hired, acquired, trained, or developed, it wastes time creating a plan that can never actually be put into practice. When aspirational resources and capabilities are included in a plan, people get frustrated when they realize that following the plan won’t produce the outcomes it was pursuing.

The fact that so many people have run into bad plans in the past shouldn’t deter emergency managers and public safety professionals from planning—it should drive us to improve how we plan and prepare for future disasters and disruptions. When considering how to get left of bang and how to position our organizations and communities for an uncertain future, the value of planning and proactively developing new organizational capabilities can’t be understated.

Diagnosing and Addressing the Problem

In my experience supporting organizations as they prepare for disasters, I have found it to be very impactful to step back to remember that “a plan is thought before action.”

Since a plan is how you (or your organization) will use the resources that you have available to accomplish a goal at some point in the future, start by being clear about what the plan, if executed, will accomplish. A simple test is to ask the question, "If we implement this plan, what are we setting out to do?" If this question isn’t answered consistently by everyone involved in implementing the plan, this should be a red flag to emergency managers and organizational leaders that the group might not be able to accomplish its goals.

In my experience, focusing on the plan's goal and purpose is helpful when emergency managers are working to improve their plans, gain the support and buy-in necessary for them to be successful, and develop their disaster management capabilities. Focusing on the goal, purpose, and objectives is similar to trying to treat an underlying disease instead of addressing each of the symptoms of a poor planning process.

• An unclear goal might lead to people saying that they won’t open the plan because it isn’t clear what the benefits of doing so will be when they are busy responding to a disaster.

• An unclear goal makes it hard to see how each person and component part of the plan comes together to accomplish the goal. When it isn’t clear how everyone’s role contributes to collective success, people “go rogue” and do their own thing because they don’t realize their actions will impact others or that it will cause confusion.

• An unclear goal makes it hard to assess what is working and not working with the plan or how to objectively improve it in the future. If you don’t know what you set out to do, how can you iterate on your plan without it feeling very subjective?

On the other hand, a clear goal makes it easy to look at a plan and determine if an organization has the resources needed to succeed, then develop an investment strategy to improve its capabilities over time. A clear goal often makes the planning process not only productive, but often enjoyable, because people have a common vision for what they are supporting.

There are many ways that we can make our emergency operations, continuity, recovery, or any other type of plan more effective as we prepare for an uncertain future. But it begins by remembering why we are planning in the first place and remembering that this is how professional organizations develop themselves. 

For the same reasons why a backyard football team drawing up plays in the palm of the quarterback’s hand would get blown out by any team coming in with plays planned that they have drilled, it’s professional organizations that have thought through their plans, taught them, and practiced them before performing them at full speed and under realistic conditions, that are most ready for the uncertainty they face.

An early version of this article was posted on LinkedIn. You can join the conversation and connect with me there!

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