Got one? Let us know. And, if you're working on one, or know someone who is, join us May 22-24 at Harvard. Click here for more (http://3ecompass.net/public/May_2006_Description_and_Agenda).

The problem I was thinking about is responding to homeland security disasters - situations like the World Trade Center or hurricane Katrina.

Disaster response is clearly and important problem, given that security is a first-order goal for any society and -- unfortunately -- we've recently demonstrated we are NOT secure. It is also urgent, given the frequency of disasters over the past decade. "Two hundred year" hurricanes or fires seem to be happening every other year rather than every other century. Terrorism has become a global threat that continues to grow.

But is it truly feasible to improve how first responders handle disasters? It OUGHT to be, since much of the challenge is coordinating people who have an overwhelming desire to work together effectively -- or at least they do once disaster strikes. Further, as we work on these issues, technology should be our friend in coordinating responses to infrequent, jurisdictionally dispersed, and unpredictable disasters.

However, if these problems were easy, we probably would have solved them already. The threats of weak levees and strong hurricanes around New Orleans were known well in advance, but we couldn't get it together to act in time. As we failed for Katrina, will we also fail for avian flu? If the bombs of Madrid, Baghdad, or London hit Boston, will we respond effectively? How can we get prepared?

To answer such questions we ran a workshop last month with about 70 first responders and researchers. Our focus was not on the federal and state governments, but instead on the institutions that actually show up during the critical first 72 hours -- i.e., local governments along with the local community groups and businesses. We were working with police and fire chiefs, hospital administrators, mayors, business leaders, and others.

We organized the workshop along with the National Council on Readiness and Preparedness - a group led by former Virginia governor Jim Gilmore. Governor Gilmore had earlier headed the the Advisory Panel to Assess Domestic Response Capabilities for Terrorism Involving Weapons of Mass Destruction (known as the Gilmore Commission). Through this work he became among the very first to see the need to organize disaster preparedness from the ground up, and NOT to rely primarily on the federal government (and certainly not on the Department of Defense, except as a truly last resort).

At the workshop I learned that front-line practitioners see huge room for improvement in first responder performance. One in four saw risk management overall as poorly handled at present (the lowest grade on a four-point scale), and almost no one gave first responder performance overall a top grade (on the same four-point scale).

One area that the group identified as both important and feasible for improvement was transportation and logistics -- our ability to stage and move personnel and materiel during emergencies.

The workshop focused heavily on five particular initiatives to be further developed as NCORP continues to pursue these issues at other workshops to be held around the country. The five priority initiatives and the activities at Harvard are described in a recently published magazine article. Click here for "Ready America" by Dan Verton

Click here for a video of the keynote address by Governor Gilmore, and here for the text of that address

From my work with the group, I personally thought that a highly leveraged possibility would be to develop versions of the table-top games now used for disaster planning into report cards that could be used to measure with some objectivity and depth the degree of preparedness of various regions. I have a daughter who is a junior in high school, so I naturally considered this possibility as sort of an SAT test for regions. If it were clear that Boston was NOT as well prepared for disasters as Atlanta or Columbus, and if this information were communicated clearly to the public, institutions that now find it hard to prepare in advance might have a stronger motivation to come to the table and work things out.

I'll perhaps report some more on those ideas later.

Meanwhile, I'll keep an eye out for the cross-boundary challenges that you see as important, urgent, and feasible.  Keep those cards and letters coming…

Regards,

Jerry

Please join us:
May 22-24: "Portfolio Management and Communications" for cross-boundary implementations: http://3ecompass.net/public/May_2006_Description_and_Agenda