Speaker 1: What's one thing you've learned in your public sector experience that you think private sector companies often overlook in their emergency management plans?

Speaker 2: So I have an emergency management background, but my training is actually crisis calmed. I think about it not just from what does this plan, these three plans look like, but if I had to defend it as a communications person, how could I do that? And so I think that's where businesses have to think about when everything goes south, whether it's weather or a fire or an active threat, and it's significant enough, you're going to have the national media standing there saying, what was your plan? Why didn't you have a plan? What do you mean this wasn't how it was supposed to go? And so I think businesses in particular really have to think about it from that perspective of like, I always would say, I feel really bad when a disaster is happening and you see that public information officer for the sheriff or the sheriff standing all of a sudden in front of a national bank of national media and they're saying, they're trying to convey information. One, they've had no sleep, they're shell-shocked, and they probably don't have the crisis calms training. So now they've got to figure out how to tell this, and how many times do we watch them stumble or say something and wish they hadn't? And so it's really, you've got to kind of think through now before you need it, the comms piece of it, how you would respond, who would speak? You can't always throw the CEO of the company out if they have no background in dealing with the media, right? Like that could come back and just bite the whole company. So either really train up your senior staff or make sure you have that right spokesperson that can go out and speak with authority.

Speaker 1: Being in an emergency or a disaster, emotions are all over the board. And it really leads to the question of how important is empathy in crisis communications and emergency management and planning?

Speaker 2: Yeah, I think, you know, empathy is such an important thing because you have, so when you're an emergency manager, you compartmentalize your life, right? Like you have to be able to know that even if that storm or something is happening right there, you can't get emotionally wrapped up. You've got a job to do. I had a situation, it was 2012 when I was in Florida and my stepmother had a medical situation and was in the hospital and I had been dealing with that. We had a hurricane and I came in and the governor, Scott, knew my family and he says to me, how's your mom? And my life was compartmentalized, right? I was in that EOC at that moment to do a job. And I said, oh, she's going to be okay, right? And so, but it took me a moment to figure out like, what are we talking about here? And so you have to compartmentalize, but by doing that, you still have to have that empathy. You have to understand that these lives have been turned upside down and understand somebody may yell at you or you're seeing that on television right now, everything's going wrong. There's a lot of people that want answers and it's not a fast answer to be given. And so, you know, as leaders, we have to be able to have empathy. We've got to be able to, you know, comprehend what's going on and convey it in the right way to, you know, those leaders have got to be able to speak to fact and really guide because having guessing games in the middle of a big event is not going to, it's not beneficial to anyone.

Speaker 1: What are the types of disasters that you feel businesses should be planning for that may not currently be part of the plan?

Speaker 2: Outside of weather, I also tell companies, think about that active threat. You know, we say active shooter will never happen, but unfortunately it happens more and more and it's not always a shooter. So that's why I try to refer to it as an active threat. And you know, you can't wait until something happens and try to figure it out. I'm working with a large grocer and they've taken the initiative to build out a comprehensive active threat program. The more you educate your team and your employees, they're not going to have that deer in headlights look. They're going to know what to do. They're going to know who to talk to. Okay. So now we have a threat. This is happening. How are we responding? Who's in charge? You know, how do we notify employees don't come into the store? How do you make sure that leadership knows who to contact? Who's going to show up in that store? Who's going to speak to the national media? Because if you have an active shooter inside of a large retailer, you're going to have national media most likely show up. And so you've got to make sure you've, you know, understand, plan, train, participate in exercises, understand who your local law enforcement is. I went to an active shooter training in Houston in November, and they said, you need to tell your employees it could be 45 minutes to an hour before SWAT team can get to somebody that is hiding. Remember, SWAT team isn't just sitting there waiting for the next active shooter. And so educating your employees of what to expect, who's going to open that door. I mean, I have in my previous life done political advance, and I've opened a door with a counter team behind it, and it scared the mess out of me. And I knew they were there. Right. And so helping your employees understand that the person opening your door is going to be in full tactical gear, too. And that doesn't mean they're the shooter.