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Family Preparedness is a Team Sport – Ideas for Engagement by Dan O’Connor

Every September the United States’ emergency management community reminds us that it is National Preparedness Month. This is a reminder and an opportunity to reflect and embrace the importance of preparing for life’s interruptions, disasters and emergencies and that they could happen at any time.
Understanding this, I am always reminded of a quote regarding readiness from Louis Pasteur. Pasteur, the late French microbiologist, chemist, pioneer of germ theory of disease, and inventor of the process of pasteurization noted “chance favors only the prepared mind.” By this, he probably meant that your preparation could improve a bad situation and what can be done in unexpected or surprising times.
Preparation used to be a hallmark American behavior trait. Preparation was actually a necessity. We’d grow vegetables, preserve meats, can foods, capture seeds, put “something away for a rainy day” and take ownership of our ability to weather the bad times. A lot has changed over the years. We have been blessed with an abundance and access to many conveniences. The technical marvels and logistical magicians have blessed (and cursed) us with a have anything, anytime, brought to us anywhere culture. That ideology doesn’t promote readiness and preparedness and can really undermine self-reliance.
The overwhelming majority of Americans have an expectation that someone else will do “it”. How is that? There are certainly many reasons and historical points along the way but our great logistic acumen, abilities to harness economies of scale, and a transition from a near exclusive manufacturing economy to a service and consumption economy drove a change in consumer and preparedness behavior. A variety of other circumstances also moved us away from the ability to plan and prepare. Life is innately busier now than, say, 50 years ago. One simply needs to see the necessity for two incomes, the cost of living, and a host of other factors keeping people busy, working, and distracted. The attention economy also prohibits us time to simply stop and think. We’ve become conditioned to assume that someone else will do it and the can-do American spirit has waned into paralysis. We became apathetic.
People have the most extraordinary ability to rationalize and explain away their apathy. Apathy is a lack of interest in life activities or interactions with others. It can affect your ability to maintain a relationship, develop skills, perform at a job and thrive in a crisis. Over time, life and all its challenges can become monotonous. Apathy can and does touch everyone at some point and for a variety of reasons. Our attitude and awareness of apathy is real. What we choose to do about it is also real. We can overcome our apathy and paralysis by maintaining a bias for action. A bias for action is an intentional willingness to evaluate and take risks, a willingness to seize the initiative and embrace the fact that we’re far more capable and adaptable than we realize.
So, what can you do? Here are three things everyone can do to elevate and enhance their readiness; gamify, rehearse, and think about decisions. The first one is gamifying the problem. Gamifying is the application of elements of game playing to an activity and problem to be solved. It’s also a superior way to get children to become critical thinkers. How? Propose a problem. How would you do “X”? Where does our drinking water come from? What should we do? Can we charge our phone without a charger? How? What five things should we bring on every trip? The exercise and follow-on conversation create unique opportunities to learn and the ability to see a solution instead of seeing only problems.
Then, once conversations are done there can be a transition to the second thing; rehearsals and drills. Practice, practice, practice! The rehearsals and exercises don’t have to be elaborate or sophisticated. A family huddle prior to an event can constitute an exercise. Assigned regular tasks and chores build the capacity of responsibility and a sense of ownership. Thinking and doing these kinds of activities is no different than any board game and can be really fun.
Another thought exercise or drill is to schedule some time every week to conduct a readiness evaluation. It’s also not a sophisticated or arduous task. Putting something on a schedule builds an intentional, thinking time and reflective space to evaluate “what if” scenarios. It can be as simple as identifying things you might need in a “go” bag with food, water, and batteries all the way to identifying relocation spots and evacuation routes.
Third, try using some of that exercise and reflective time to build a few decision trees. Decision trees can be very helpful in identifying how and what to do to maintain initiative and self-empowerment in an emergency. A decision tree is a tool that uses a branching or “tree” model of decisions and their possible consequences, including potential outcomes, resource costs, and each decision’s utility. For example, what would a decision tree look like if there was no power? What about disruptive weather? Even breaking down on the side of the road can be exercised beforehand. Thinking negates the crushing feeling of helplessness. We are never helpless. We are powerful beyond our wildest dreams if we’re thinking and problem solving.
Choosing to be prepared and choosing not to be prepared are decisions we make. If we decide to exercise the pain of discipline and be an active participant, when interruption and crisis happen, we’ll be more capable and responsive. If, however, we choose not to be disciplined in our approach and procrastinate what can be done today for tomorrow, then we will have the pain of regret. We don’t want to regret not being active participants in our success. Playing games, exercising and drilling, and making time for thought and decisions will always pay dividends and hone your skills for that time when calamity comes.
The prepared mind always beats the paralyzed one. Be prepared! ❦


About the Author

Dan is sought after and recognized homeland security authority with a wealth of experience in exigent leadership, crisis management, emergency management, continuity of operations, and security/anti-terrorism.
He is a graduate of the Naval PostGraduate School, Harvard Kennedy School, Swedish Defense University, FBI National Academy, and the United States Marine Corps Command and Staff College.
Dan has played a significant role in numerous high profile and critical assignments. Dan has provided security and emergency management across the United States and its territories, and internationally. He has directly supported more than 800 declared disasters and served as the anti-terrorism officer/emergency manager in Washington, DC, during the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.
He has consulted and produced various security and emergency management operations at the 1996 Summer Olympics, 2002 Winter Olympics, the 2004 Summer Olympic Games, and the 2016 Summer Olympics. He is a presenter, lecturer, and published authority in emergency management, asset protection, information security, leadership development, and physical security. He has also consulted for four of the largest marathons in the United States and the Super Bowl. The combination of leading Marines, large event management, emergency management, organizational leadership, anti-terrorism, and high-risk experience makes Dan O’Connor uniquely qualified for helping an organization both operationally and strategically.

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