TEST (FMF31 2019 Day 28)

I am participating in 31 Days of Five Minute Free Writes 2019 (all of my submissions can be found here).

Today’s prompt is: TEST

“Don’t fall in love with Plan A.”

This statement was written on a little table card at a state-of-the-art public safety center I visited last Monday. The host had just told us about how the building was designed to foster collaboration. There were small areas with tables scattered all over the center, and there were whiteboards everywhere that could be used as part of discussions.

I assume these people are put to the test when a disaster happens and they must play their role, whether it be communications, dispatcher, IT or any of the many duties that have to be done.

The thing is, you can prepare over and over. You can train and drill, but you can’t always anticipate the change in events that will make your Plan A impossible or at least not preferable.

I felt the same after reading Five Days at Memorial, a book about Hurricane Katrina. The hospital had just done a hurricane drill. What they couldn’t anticipate was a triple threat: a hurricane, flooding and a power outage.

I seriously love procedures and following rules, so this situation would present a challenge to me. I know I’m not the one who would take charge, but I hope I would be the one to ask the questions to help people find a Plan B (if necessary) that increases productivity and potentially saves lives.

It is challenging to break through groupthink. It’s challenging to keep from succumbing to groupthink.

Yet the moments in our lives that matter call for us to do exactly that.