Creating an emergency plan is not always a matter of simply understanding potentially dangerous safety situations and deciding what actions should be taken. One of the more difficult parts of planning can be gaining the understanding, cooperation, and acceptance of the people who will actually have to follow the plan.
Whether the plan is being developed for a family, business, nonprofit organization, or community, people may not always agree with what has to be done. That disagreement should not automatically be viewed as a failure of the planning process. Instead, it can provide an opportunity to educate, communicate, and ultimately build a stronger emergency plan.
Not Everyone Will Like the Plan
Within a family, certain preparedness decisions may be inconvenient or unpopular. Family members may disagree about evacuation, emergency supplies, responsibilities, meeting locations, communication procedures, or how limited resources should be used.
The same situation can occur within a business. Employees and managers may disagree about emergency responsibilities, changes in normal procedures, continuity priorities, evacuation protocols, training requirements, or the resources being committed to preparedness.
A plan cannot be based solely on what is convenient or popular. Safety, identified risks, available resources, and realistic emergency conditions must guide the planning process.
At the same time, simply telling people what they must do is not always enough.
Education at the Grassroots Level
One of the best ways to reduce conflict is education.
People are more likely to support an emergency procedure when they understand why it exists. This can require beginning at the grassroots level and explaining the fundamentals of preparedness before expecting everyone to understand the final plan.
For a family, this might mean discussing the hazards that could affect the household and explaining why evacuation routes, communication procedures, emergency supplies, and individual responsibilities are necessary.
For a business, it may involve helping employees understand why certain operations receive priority, why responsibilities are assigned to particular individuals, or why training and exercises are necessary.
Emergency management professionals and plan developers should not assume that everyone involved has the same level of knowledge. What appears obvious to someone familiar with preparedness may be completely unfamiliar to another person.
Education creates understanding, and understanding can create cooperation.
Listen to the Disagreement
Conflict can also provide valuable information. Active listening can be helpful.
If a family member or employee questions part of the plan, listen to the reason. Their concern may identify a problem that was overlooked.
Can everyone realistically evacuate using the proposed route? Does someone have a medical or mobility requirement that changes the procedure? Can an employee actually perform the emergency responsibility assigned to them? Is the communication method practical if electrical power or cellular service is lost?
These questions do not necessarily weaken the plan. Addressing them can make it stronger.
The objective should not be to eliminate every disagreement. The objective is to determine whether the concern identifies a legitimate vulnerability and, when possible, incorporate a practical solution.
Participation Builds Ownership
People are generally more willing to support a plan when they have an opportunity to participate in its development. This can also include some leadership roles delegated to some members.
Family members can be given age- and ability-appropriate responsibilities. Employees can contribute knowledge about their departments, equipment, customers, suppliers, and daily operations. Community members can provide information about local needs and resources.
Participation does not mean that every suggestion must become part of the final plan. Some decisions will still have to be made based on safety, risk, available resources, and leadership responsibility.
However, allowing people to contribute gives the planner something extremely valuable: information from the people who will actually have to make the plan work.
Resolve Conflict Before the Emergency
Resolution can be a powerful asset. An emergency is the wrong time to discover that people do not understand the plan, disagree with their responsibilities, or do not know why a particular procedure exists.
These issues should be identified during planning, discussion, training, and exercises.
Ask questions. Encourage concerns. Explain the reasoning behind important decisions. Practice the procedures. Then make adjustments when experience demonstrates that something does not work as intended.
A written emergency plan is only one part of preparedness. The people responsible for carrying it out must understand it and be reasonably prepared to act.
Building Resilience Through Understanding
Effective emergency planning requires more than procedures on paper. It requires communication, education, participation, and sometimes compromise.
There will be situations where family members, employees, or other participants do not initially like what has to be done. There may also be situations where education must begin with the most basic concepts of preparedness before the reasons behind a procedure are understood.
That is part of the planning process.
Working through those disagreements before an emergency can produce something more valuable than simple agreement. It can produce understanding, confidence, and resilience.
A Question to Consider
If the people included in your emergency plan do not understand why the plan works the way it does, can you depend on that plan when an emergency actually occurs?
Having a defining conversation about this topic using fact finding question and answer sessions can lead to discovery of underlying issues.
Gulsby Consulting
Preparedness • Planning • Resilience
Douglas Gulsby BS-HSEM