Emergency Management Solutions Newsletter

Volume 10 No. 3                                                                                March 2018

In This Issue
Blog Highlights
The Leadership Challenge
Consulting Transitions
Featured Article
Professional Development
Life Balance
From the Bookshelf
Speaker's Corner
Join My Mailing List
Featured Video
Sheri Fink
Sheri Fink "Five Days at Memorial"

This interview with Dr. Sheri Fink, author of Five Days at Memorial discusses the evacuation of Memorial Hospital in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina and the controversial decision to administer high doses of sedatives to critically ill patients. Her comments about problems with emergency plans and the need for better preparedness are insightful and well-articulated. Dr. Fink has done her time in the trenches doing humanitarian aid work in areas such as Kosovo, Iraq, Haiti and Bosnia and knows what she's talking about.
Blog Highlights

Canton blog masthead
Visit My Blog

The following are excerpts from my blog
Canton on Emergency Management. Please visit my blog to see the rest of my articles.  


As in common in many disasters, the California Legislature is considering legislation to improve perceived problems arising from the recent Wine Country Fires. But will their good intentions be enough to overcome obstacles to improvement?

Visit my blog 

If you are having trouble accessing these articles, go directly to the blog by clicking either the logo or the green "Visit my blog" button.
EM Blog Masthead

Visit My Blog

The following are excerpts from my blog, Managing Crisis, published by Emergency Management Magazine. Please visit my blog to see the rest of my articles.


A recent PrepTalk by Dr. Dennis Mileti offers five suggestions for making your public warnings more effective by using the lessons from social science.

Visit my blog

If you are having trouble accessing these articles, go directly to the blog by clicking either the logo or the green "Visit my blog" button.
Leadership Coaching


What Is The Leadership Challenge?

Is leadership a learned behavior or an innate personality trait? While there are certainly naturally charismatic individuals who are considered "born leaders", leadership is a measurable set of behaviors that can be learned and taught. This is the conclusion arrived at by researchers Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner after years of rigorous research. Starting in 1982, Kouzes and Posner set out to understand what happened when leaders performed at their personal best. They conducted hundreds of interviews and reviewed hundreds of cases studies and survey questionnaires. What emerged were five fundamental practices common to extraordinary leadership achievements:
  1. Model the Way
  2. Inspire a Shared Vision
  3. Challenge the Process
  4. Enable Others to Act
  5. Encourage the Heart
The Leadership Challenge begins with a 360-degree assessment of thirty leadership behaviors associated with the five practices, the Leadership Practices Inventory. The results are used to identify opportunities for improving as a leader by increasing the frequency of specific behaviors. Based on over thirty years of research, the Leadership Challenge is an effective and practical tool for leadership development.
 
To find out more about the  Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership , consider taking  The Leadership Challenge . Just click on the icon below for more information:
Click here to take The Leadership Challenge
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The Leadership Challenge: How to Make Extraordinary Things Happen in Organizations
by James M. Kouzes & Barry Posner







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The Leadership Challenge is a registered trademark of John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
 
Consulting Transitions
 
Free Resource Guide for Solo Consultants

For solo consultants, true wealth is discretionary time. Don't waste yours on simple tasks that can be handled by technology. This free resource guide reveals the four essential online tools I use to manage my solo consulting practice and save hours of valuable time. And the best part is - they're free!

 
Interested in exploring the world of consulting? My membership site might be just the resource you need to get started. You'll have access to blogs designed to answer very specific questions, a resource library of templates and articles, the opportunity to network with peers, and discounts on coaching and training programs. Download the free guide or click on the logo above to go straight to the site.

Visit my blog
Quick Links
L. Canton Photo 2013  

Welcome to the March edition of Emergency Management Solutions.

March always seems to be be a month where everything seems to pause for just a moment. Here in California winter storms abate and the fire season hasn't started up yet, so it is a time to catch our breath before the next crisis.

Or so it seems. In reality, we never do catch a break. But then most emergency managers I know are adrenaline junkies and have a high tolerance for chaos and ambiguity.

Still, spring is a time of rebirth and renewal. As Alan Weiss is found of saying, "if you improve your operation by 1% each day, in 70 days you are twice as good." 


Regards,

Lucien Canton   
Featured Article
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School Shooting Response

Pre-Planning is Essential


One of the current hot buttons with the public is the response to incidents of violence on school campuses. Because many of these incidents are of relatively short duration, there is a tendency to think of the response as solely a law-enforcement issue. However, the dynamics of such an incident are complex, particularly if the incident turns into a prolonged siege involving barricaded suspects and hostages.

School shootings can rapidly escalate to a multi-agency response. Anytime you have multiple agencies responding to the same incident, pre-planning becomes essential to an effective response. Facilitating the planning of a coordinated multi-agency response is the one of the primary functions of the emergency manager.

  

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If you are having trouble viewing my featured article, try clicking on the link at the top of the page. You can always find my articles in the white paper section of my blog site, Canton on Emergency Management.

  Visit my blog
Professional Development
Updates to HSEEP Independent Study Courses

The Emergency Management Institute has released three updates to it's Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP) curriculum:

IS 120 C An Introduction to Exercises 2/12/18
Introduces the basics of emergency management exercises. It also builds a foundation for subsequent exercise courses, which provide the specifics of the Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP).

IS 130 A How to be an Exercise Evaluator 2/12/18
Introduces the basics of emergency management exercise evaluation and improvement planning. It also provides the foundation for exercise evaluation concepts and practices as identified in the Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program.

IS 139 A Exercise Design and Development 3/1/18
Through the use of this course, exercise program managers can learn to develop, execute, and evaluate exercises that address the priorities established by an organization's leaders. These priorities are based on the National Preparedness Goal, strategy documents, threat and hazard identification/risk assessment processes, capability assessments, and the results from previous exercises and real-world events. These priorities guide the overall direction of a progressive exercise program, where individual exercises are anchored to a common set of priorities or objectives and build toward an increasing level of complexity over time
Life Balance
Coach or Mentor: Which is right for you?

From time to time, most of us experience a bit of a roadblock in our careers, a point where we don't seem to be progressing as we should or are unsure about what to do next. If we're smart, we recognize the signs and reach out for help, either with a coach or a mentor. But how do you know which one you need?

The difference is more than semantic and both coaching and mentoring address different needs. Coaching is about inspiring you to maximize your potential. Coaches achieve this in many ways. The most common is to help you set goals and then hold you accountable for those goals. Mentoring is a collaborative relationship in which the more experienced colleague provides guidance based on their knowledge and experience.

The choice of a mentor or a coach depends on your specific need. If you believe you lack knowledge or skills essential to advancement but need accountability, then a coach is probably your best choice. A good coach will help you identify and prioritize your goals and develop an action plan to achieve them. They will check in with you periodically to see how well you are progressing with your action plan and, if necessary, help you adjust your plan as needs change.

If, on the other hand, you believe you have the necessary skills but need a better understanding of your profession, then a mentor might be a better choice. Mentoring can either be something relatively formal with regularly scheduled communications or it can be on demand. Many of us mentor staff members or new entrants to our profession without even realizing. Mentors don't necessarily have to be members of the same profession; my mentor in San Francisco was our City Administrative Officer, who helped me understand and navigate city politics.

If you're feeling stuck and need a way forward, whether in your career or your life, consider a coach or mentor. Just be sure you've made the right choice based on your needs.
From the Bookshelf
Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital
By Sheri Fink

On the morning following Hurricane Katrina, the staff at New Orleans' Memorial Hospital thought the crisis was over. It turned out to be just the beginning as the waters began to rise. Over the next five days, hospital staff found themselves isolated without no electricity and limited communications, forced to evacuate critically ill patients with only a poor disaster plan for guidance.

The story of memorial is a study in contrasts between the heroic efforts of the staff to provide care with limited resources and the consequences of poor planning and bad decision making. A large part of the book is devoted to the consequences of one of those decisions: the suspicion that the staff may have given lethal injections to patients whom they felt could not be evacuated.

Fink's balanced reporting highlights many important lessons for emergency managers: the need for prior planning, the need for a support plan, the need to set critical priorities as part of your planning, and the role in the media and public opinion during recovery. Definitely worth reading. 


 


Emergency Management: Concepts and Strategies for Effective Programs
by Lucien G. Canton



Speaker's Corner

Need a speaker for your next conference? I offer keynotes, seminars and workshops.
 
Why Should You Choose Me As Your Speaker?
Three Reasons Why I'm the Right Speaker for Your Conference 
 
You can find more details and sample videos on my website or on my SpeakerMatch page.   
  
Speaking Engagements 

Now taking bookings for 2018!

©Lucien G. Canton 2018. All rights reserved.

 

You may reprint and excerpt this newsletter provided that you include my copyright, the source,
the author, and "reprinted with permission."

ISSN: 2334-590X