Canton on Emergency Management

Emergency Management Solutions - September 2021

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FEATURED ARTICLES

Why Your Emergency Plan Will Fail: Ignoring Basic Concepts Part 2

    By Lucien Canton

ICS 400 Training – Who Really Needs It?

    By Timothy "Tim" Riecker

The Roles of EOCs, DOCs and ICPs

    By George Whitney

Crisis Communications Tips for Recorded Talks

    By Erik Bernstein

Why Your Emergency Plan Will Fail: Ignoring Basic Concepts Part 2

In my last post I stressed the importance of applying basic concepts to developing your emergency operations plan, particularly distinguishing between response generated and agent generated needs. Another important concept is that of operational levels.

There are roughly three levels in any response to crisis. The first and most obvious is the tactical level, those actions that directly address the crisis. The next is the operational level that provides support to the tactical level. The final, and most neglected, level is the strategic, where the long-term impact of the crisis is assessed, long range goals are identified, and policies are developed. In simple terms, the strategic level sets the policy direction, the operational manages the overall response, and the tactical implements the actions necessary to achieve the desired results.

Why is this concept so important to planning? It’s because each level has unique planning requirements. Information requirements, operational focus, and even operating structures will vary and a plan that is appropriate for one level may prove ineffective for another.

The tactical level requires very specific planning. Leadership is primarily hierarchical, with decision making centralized in a single command function. Information requirements to support decision making are specific and the more granularity the better. The event horizon is often minutes or, at most, a few hours.

Contrast this with the operational level. Unlike the tactical level that seeks to address an immediate problem, the operational level seeks to jump ahead of the crisis and address anticipated needs. The event horizon is hours and days, and, on occasion, may be even longer. Information requirements focus more on analysis and projections, seeking to understand the “big picture”. Leadership is more about coordination and less about command and control, with decision making being more collaborative.

Where the operational level focuses on anticipated support to the immediate response, the strategic considers the long-range impact of the crisis. The focus is on community restoration and long-term recovery. Information requirements tend to focus on potential changes to demographics, housing, transportation, and the economy. Decision making may require community involvement and extend over years.

What does all this have to do with your plan? Understanding the different operational levels and their different demands for information, anticipated timelines, and leadership structure allow you to structure components of you plans to address these specific needs. For example, the level of information required by an on-scene incident commander may be too detailed to meet the needs of the operational or strategic levels. Conversely, the long-range analyses and forecasts needed by the strategic level would be of no use to the tactical. Similarly, the type of collaborative leadership demanded in the higher levels might have grave consequences if applied to the tactical level where immediate decisions are the norm.

The principal failure I find related to operational levels is the assumption that everything must be contained in a single plan. The typical emergency operations plan is operational in nature. Let me say that again: emergency operations plans are operational level plans. They are intended to coordinate the activities of the plan signatories in support of tactical operations. The basic plan summarizes relationships among the signatories and annexes delineate specific tasks as they’ve been agreed to, but the plan must be supported by lower-level documents that address tactical issues.

Trying to cram too much information into your emergency operations plan creates a bulky and unwieldy document that makes it hard to find necessary information. It almost guarantees that your plan will not be used when it is most needed.