In doing research for a future article, the issue arose about why an emergency manager is not successful. It seems that there is a lot of information about how to do it right, but not a lot of lessons learned when it goes wrong.
We all know the characteristics of a successful emergency manager. We also know emergency managers who seem to have those characteristics but things still seem to go wrong. Why is that? Is it the emergency manager, the organization, the profession? What do you think?
WFTND Blog Information
An emergency manager trying to make a difference.
The name of the blog comes from a conversation with my daughter, where she told me that I was always looking to help people be prepared for the inevitable emergencies in life.
I started this blog as a place to assemble all the information that I was getting every day and to share my thoughts and ideas on emergency management.
I had no idea how much of the blog would wind up being what's in the news. While it does not take a lot to add a blog entry, I just did not realize how much of my day was involved with simply keeping up with what's going on. All of the posts, whether what's in the news or comments or just a piece of information, have a purpose; to get us thinking, to get us talking, and to make things better - in other words, to make a difference.
Hopefully this blog will save you some time and energy, or help you in some other way. If you would like to see something, please let me know.
Posting an article does not imply that I agree with the comments in the article. In fact, in many case, I do not agree, but feel that the comments should be part of the discussion. All opinions are welcome. I only ask that you remain considerate and professional of other opinions.
CLICK ON "MY WEB PAGE" ON THE WFTND BLOG PROFILE PAGE FOR MY LINKEDIN PUBLIC PROFILE
The name of the blog comes from a conversation with my daughter, where she told me that I was always looking to help people be prepared for the inevitable emergencies in life.
I started this blog as a place to assemble all the information that I was getting every day and to share my thoughts and ideas on emergency management.
I had no idea how much of the blog would wind up being what's in the news. While it does not take a lot to add a blog entry, I just did not realize how much of my day was involved with simply keeping up with what's going on. All of the posts, whether what's in the news or comments or just a piece of information, have a purpose; to get us thinking, to get us talking, and to make things better - in other words, to make a difference.
Hopefully this blog will save you some time and energy, or help you in some other way. If you would like to see something, please let me know.
Posting an article does not imply that I agree with the comments in the article. In fact, in many case, I do not agree, but feel that the comments should be part of the discussion. All opinions are welcome. I only ask that you remain considerate and professional of other opinions.
CLICK ON "MY WEB PAGE" ON THE WFTND BLOG PROFILE PAGE FOR MY LINKEDIN PUBLIC PROFILE
Favorite Quotes for the Emergency Manager
- “In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” Dwight D. Eisenhower
- “Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it.” Dwight D. Eisenhower
- “Failing to plan is planning to fail”
- “Expect the best, plan for the worst, and prepare to be surprised.” Denis Waitley
- "Station 51, KMG365."
- “One of the true tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency.” Arnold H. Glasgow
- “An ostrich with its head in the sand is just as blind to opportunity as to disaster”
- “The powers in charge keep us in a perpetual state of fear keep us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor with the cry of grave national emergency. Always there has been some terrible evil to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it by furnishing the exorbitant sums demanded. Yet, in retrospect, these disasters seem never to have happened, seem never to have been quite real.” Douglas MacArthur
- “My ideas have undergone a process of emergence by emergency. When they are needed badly enough, they are accepted.” Buckminster Fuller
- “Bad planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part”
- "If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, ..." Rudyard Kipling
- "Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored." Aldous Huxley
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I'm sure there are other issues on why Emergency Managers fail, but here is one reason that I've seen over and over again. To be frank sometimes EM managers tend to play too much "Lone Ranger" where their attitude is "If I can't make them work for me or with me, then I'll do it all myself". This attitude is detrimental to EM over all. All of the literature states that Emergency Managers have to be good coordinators, in my opinion they have to be good delegators of responsibility. They have to trust that their partners in other agencies will fulfill their role and responsibilities.
ReplyDeleteSecondly another big problem is Organizational Culture. Sometimes its all in the timing and how we "Sell" Emergency Management. If the organization doesn't really back the Emergency Manager - then you end up being all talk and no action. If there is no ownership from the higher ups into Emergency Management - it becomes just another thing that isn't so important.
With regard to the profession: I think we're seeing an evolution of the role. Like it or not - many of us in EM come from Military Backgrounds and bring over that culture with us. Sometimes that does not translate well into organization that do not have that same sense of structure or rigidity. The new EM professional has to develop new skills that aren't written in the plans we write. They are salesman, promoter, delegator just to name a few of the roles we play.
Just my two cents.