A challenging weekend in the life of a business continuity manager
In the main, my job is about the two Ps - prioritisation and people. It’s all about translating our organisational goals into workable plans and solutions for the worst case. It’s an endless stream of organisation, communication and co-operation. It’s all about co-ordinating that ‘pulling together’ to protect our organisation. It’s about influencing and supporting others to achieve our business continuity management programme. It’s about management and leadership of a governance process that most managers would gladly forget about. Most days are a challenge and in this game, no two days are the same. That’s what I love most about my job. There comes a time, however, when a girl needs to look beyond what she knows and embraces the unknown; a time, when she takes herself outside her comfort zone in an attempt to acknowledge and understand where the skills she has cultivated throughout her working life, such as leadership and teamwork, can be improved. For me, that time was in September, when I took part in the British Red Cross Disaster Response Challenge. Let me set the scene. I’m a five-star kind of a girl; four-star+ will be accepted but only if absolutely necessary. Some would call me ‘high maintenance’ but I like to think of myself as ‘choosy’ or ‘refined’. I like life’s little luxuries like a hot shower and a good meal, perhaps with a cheeky little glass of Oyster Bay Pinot Noir and at the end of the day, a warm, freshly laundered bed, makes me the world’s happiest lady. My days of T in the Park portaloo queues and backpacking at youth hostels, are long gone. Imagine then, if you will, my family, friends’ and colleagues’ surprise at my announcement that “I need a challenge” and feel that running about an MOD base in Bramley, Hampshire, for a weekend, could give me what I’m looking for. Some sniggered, some openly laughed, but I was determined! I signed up for the Red Cross Disaster Response Challenge (DRC) to see what I could learn from others and whether or not my incident management skills could be improved by learning from experts outside the financial services field. I saw an advert firstly on Continuity Central and then on the Red Cross Website (www.redcross.org.uk), issuing the challenge “Could you be the first on the scene of a disaster? I felt I could, but had no idea what I was really in for! For the weekend, I swapped my Marks and Spencer suit and Calvin Klein handbag for combats and a rucksack; showers for gel wash; and a warm bed for a space on the floor of a deserted building with no electricity, sleeping alongside my four other ‘deployed delegates’. Luxury it wasn’t, but great fun it certainly was. The Disaster Response Challenge has been specially developed by the British Red Cross Emergency Response Unit (ERU), to offer an individual or team development course that simulates the real-life challenges faced by the Red Cross Emergence Response Units. The ERUs are small, self-contained teams of specialist professionals deployed to the scene of a disaster with 48 hours, wherever it may be in the world. For the weekend, I was one of the ‘deployed ERU delegates’, out to make the world a better place by responding to an unfolding hypothetical disaster. The scenario unfolded in real-time over the weekend and, take it from me, it tests the most calm and practical of people. New colleagues, new situations, loads of new learning and new skills fulfilled my need for a challenge that stretched me and my ‘office based’ incident management skills. The programme is designed to take you out of your comfort zone and into an environment, where in real life, acting as part of the British Red Cross’s ERU, you and your team’s decisions could literally be a matter of life and death. As part of a hypothetical ERU, you and your team, all from different backgrounds, jobs, levels of education and even countries, have to work together to problem solve in an unfamiliar, pressurised environment. All you have is each other and the skills and training each individual brings to the table. There’s no time for referring to plans or drafting press releases, this weekend was about dynamic, naturalistic decision making, about being adaptive and actively learning from your experiences ‘in the field’. It was about working with your raw competencies, to ensure that your team succeeds at whatever was thrown at you. The exercise included in-between scenario ‘add-ins’ about the disaster and its developing situation (which we had to act upon), as well as practical classes in communications, logistics, teamwork, first-aid and casualty evacuation, delegate security, international humanitarian law and basic survival skills; all which gave me a glimpse into the world of ‘real’ incident management. In this world, there are no automatic notification systems, conference calls and plasma TVs showing 24 hour news. You and your team have to act on shifting priorities, snippets of information and unclear goals. Without giving too much away, the weekend saw the team and me: * Designing a refugee camp for the displaced and injured victims; A question my team asked was “What did you learn from such a weekend” and thinking about it logically, from behind a computer in the comfort of the office, it’s difficult to sum up its effect on me. Sure, I learned all the things I’ve mentioned above, but it also made me realise that self reflection is an important part of learning. Victor Meyer, Deutsche Bank’s global head of business continuity management said about a previous DRC “…at the end of the day you get the capability that you rehearse – we got that and much more” and I couldn’t put it more eloquently myself. The weekend challenged my leadership skills and, specifically for me, the ability to hand that role over to other people. It let me face head on, a situation that I knew would be difficult and at times, uncomfortable. It opened my eyes to the fact that the skills and competencies you learn as part of organisational incident management and business continuity are not skills that everyone has, and most importantly, that they should not be neglected. Skills can regress if not used; learning can be forgotten if not actively used. As business continuity professionals, we should continually challenge how we think and feel and step out of our comfort zones occasionally to recognise where our strengths and weaknesses lie. For me, it was useful seeing and admitting these ‘gaps’ outside the office environment, where there’s no pressure from your manager or sponsor, and no shame in admitting you need to brush up or learn new skills. The DRC offered a challenge with no ‘bad’ consequences, only learning in a supportive environment; learning which you can take back to the office and put into effect immediately. All in all, a fantastic, introspective weekend which not only raises awareness of the work of the British Red Cross and in particular their ERU, but also generates much needed funds to support their vital work. Do you think your or your team’s incident management and leadership skills would size up? Do you need a challenge? If so, contact Clare Murray on 020 7628 1281 who will be glad to ‘deploy you to the disaster zone’, as part of their next Disaster Response Challenge.
•Date: 4th October 2007• Region: UK •Type: Article •Topic: BC general |
