THOMPSON’S TAKE: Advice for Managing Through a Crisis
As part of a management team, I have dealt with several emergencies that could broadly be categorized as a crisis. The definition of a crisis is described as a time of intense difficulty, trouble or danger. Most of the time these things have a distinct beginning and end point, such as fires, floods, severe weather events, national level incidents or as we’re seeing right now a disease causing a global pandemic. As you might expect, the scale of a crisis can vary widely. However, there is a set of standard procedures that can get any organization through a crisis. It is important to remember that crisis management requires a high level of cooperation, coordination and communication.
The National Incident Management System (NIMS) is the national standard for managing incidents at the crisis level. It is a comprehensive approach to seamlessly mitigate, respond to and recover from incidents. How do you determine there is a crisis that warrants standing up an incident command center and following the NIMS procedures? Trained emergency management professionals make these decisions based on the impact to their respective institutions or communities. I recommend that Facility Managers who have not taken the NIMS training take the NIMS 100, 200 and 700 courses to become familiar with those standard procedures. This would be especially helpful in the event there is an incident that requires an incident command center to be staffed by trained, knowledgeable people.
One of the key components to crisis management is recovery. Incidents such as widespread fire, flooding or severe weather require some level of reconnaissance to assess damage, locate survivors and to map out a plan to resume normal activities. Recovery crews may be hampered by lack of access due to downed power lines, washed out bridges, etc. EagleHawk can provide a unique way to conduct the reconnaissance needed to begin the recovery planning process. EagleHawk’s drone-enabled services can take real-time photos and video as well as infrared scans when necessary.
The current crisis caused by COVID-19 is unique, having its own set of circumstances. I suspect that Facility Managers are having to focus on safely getting students and faculty off campus, housing and feeding international students, cleaning and disinfecting the facilities and grounds, and establishing emergency protocols with a skeleton crew. Unlike a fire or flood, the end point of this crisis is indeterminant. But hopefully the situation will start to stabilize over the coming weeks and Facility Managers will be able to start planning for the new reality and how they will operate with potentially lower budgets. Another area where EagleHawk can help is in providing meaningful information and condition insight to improve the planning process for organizations.
EagleHawk provides a variety of services that provide value to Facility Managers to help prioritize their work. For example, EagleHawk staff can conduct infrared scans of roofs with drones to identify problem areas and minimize staff time on the roof. The highly trained technical staff will provide a meaningful interactive report to help Facility Managers identify problem areas and make targeted repairs that will maintain the waterproof integrity of the roof and keep warranties intact.
Stay safe!
