Emergency Response Plan

An emergency is a situation that requires immediate response by a team with no contingency plan. If the situation has a contingency plan, it's not an emergency, it's a contingency.

The Plan

1. Establish basic roles and teams, particularly leadership
2. Choose a first response and begin on it right away
3. Establish a base of operation (can be real or digital)
   • Choose the base
   • How does everyone get there
   • Begin tailoring the space to the situation
4. Set emergency protocols
5. Choose a model and begin gathering information
   • Resources
   • Timeline
   • Context
6. Begin establishing lines of communication
   • Who needs information this group has
   • Who has information this group needs
   • What are the best means for communicating that data
7. Establish what 'Emergency Over' looks like
8. Begin collecting and evaluating plans

The first two steps should take less than five minutes. For the subsequent steps, delegate where possible, particularly data collection and communication.

Establishing roles and teams is crucial for quick decision making. These should not be seen as permanent and the quality of the decisions will be lower than the decisions that a team would make but at this point in an emergency, speed is more important. The most important role is leader, however it may be important to establish secondary roles to represent specific aspects of the emergency. Teams may not be necessary but if more than a few people are involved it will be quicker to assign tasks to an entire team. It's important to keep an eye out for conflicts of interest here. Not just that someone may have bias, but giving one person a set of duties where two of the duties are opposed in nature may cause problems. For instance, if one person is given a role of managing resources, they should not have any role that would request those same resources.

In emergencies, opportunities can close in the first few minutes and the initial response can make a huge difference in the long run. Choose an initial response to take advantage of these opportunities. First response is not about resolving the emergency but laying a solid groundwork.

Choosing a base should not be interpreted too dramatically. It just that people tend to start responding to the emergency where ever they are when it happens. It will pay dividends to choose an optimal location to coordinate from. This may also be a digital location rather than a physical one.

Emergencies will often have elevated risks. And emergencies can almost always get worse. Set the rules and protocols to reduce these risks. And to the contrary, in an emergency, some normal rules may be suspended. For a given emergency there may be established protocols.

Emergency responses are about evaluating options and choosing which one is probably best. To do this you need data. Start collecting it right away. The three categories of data to focus on right away are resources, context and timelines. Resources will include tools and people. You want to record what you have and how they are being used. Timeline is easy to record and will often be very helpful down the road. Record events as they happen and write down any projections (keep those separated though). Context is the most complicated but most important. You need to frame the emergency and the information you have. Think of this as situation awareness. It's also important to establish models and keep them consistent. As the situation develops you may want to change how you model the data you are collecting, but as you make those changes keep your standard consistent and up to date. If people have to make snap decisions it will be important that they have a reliable and consistent model in their mind.

Don't try to get your entire communication network established in the first few minutes but making a start on it is important. Establish who needs the information you have and who has information that you need. Most importantly establish how communication will happen and when. Again, this isn't permanent, just a starting point.

Figure out what "Over" looks like for the given emergency. This may not be "what it was like before the emergency". By their very nature, emergencies often have long term consequences. Because of this "Over" may be a recovery mode or a "new normal". But that doesn't need to be established now. Try to focus on the minimal set of criteria to get out of a state of emergency.

At this point you can begin collecting and evaluating plans for how to deal with the emergency. The problem with emergencies is that everyone wants to jump right to this step. It may take as little as one minute to reach this point but it should never take more than an hour. For most cases you should reach this step in 3-15 minutes.

Short Hand

1. Roles
2. Reaction
3. Location
4. Protocol
5. Data
6. Communication
7. Objective
8. Planning

Examples

Hardware Failure

1. Roles: Most senior person involved is the lead, they make all decisions in these initial steps. If there are more than 6 staff available, divide them up into two or three teams that can be given specific tasks later (data recovery, migration, etc.). One person is given the role of client advocate and another person is given the role of technical advocate.
2. Reaction: Immediately attempt to mitigate data loss and prevent further damage to hardware
3. Location: Choose a conference room large enough to hold everyone, with enough outlets and network capacity. Clear off the white boards.
4. Protocol: Who should have access to hardware and data. This may be a situation where normal access rules don't apply. They may be more or less strict, or some combination (every one gets access but don't access the corrupted drives)
5. Data: On those whiteboards have everyone write down their name. Assign one or two people to record what has happened and diagram how the failing hardware fits into the system (network, hardware and software running on the effected system)
6. Communication: Start calling in anyone who needs to come in. If customers are effect let them know there is going to be issues.
7. Objective: Emergency over is when all critical system that were running on that hardware are back online somewhere and a plan is in place to get all non-critical systems running again.
8. Planning: Start soliciting feedback on how to reach the "Over" state.

Zombie Apocalypse

1. Roles: Choose a leader, divide into teams. If available we will want medical expert, security expert, transportation and equipment expert.
2. Reaction: If the water is still running, get as much of it as possible. If anyone may be effected, quarantine them.
3. Location: Choose the closest building that can be secured and start barricading the doors and windows.
4. Protocol: Don't go outside, keep all the doors and windows closed. Food and water will be rationed.
5. Data: Start gathering data on who is with you and what their expertise is. What equipment is available, how much food and water. Start figuring out a timeline (when did it start, how quickly does it spread). Figure out your context - where are you, what's the surrounding layout. Doors and windows? Where can you get more resources. Send a few people who know the area off to brainstorm and report back. Don't distract the whole team with gathering these details.
6. Communication: Check if phones still work and get the word out if they do. Check if radio, tv or internet is still running (if it is, it won't for long so get the information while you can).
7. Objective: In this case "over" is when the immediate risk of annihilation is manageable. Sustainable (or at least prolonged) sources of food and water are established. Fortifications to match the risk (zombie activity).
8. Planning: Start collecting plans and evaluating them against the known situation

Hard Fall

Scenario: A family consisting of two parents and three children. The middle child has fallen out of a window and not landed well. One parent and all three children are home.

1. Roles: Parent who is home is in charge.
2. Reaction: Tell the oldest child to call 911. Tell the youngest child to stay near and listen to older child.
3. Location: If the place where they fell is in no immediate danger, stay where you are, otherwise find the closest safe place (as little movement as possible).
4. Protocol: [To injured child] Don't move. Have the oldest child look after the younger.
5. Data: Take note of the time and make sure you know where the other two kids are. Evaluate injuries, pulse and eyes.
6. Communication: Have the oldest child call the other parent.
7. Objective: Child is in an ambulance with medical professionals.
8. Planning: See if there is anyone around who can help. Begin seeing if there is anything that can be done until the ambulance arrives.