Collaboration in emergency management
As we move from the authoritarian model of incident command into the multi-agency coordination (MAC) systems that are needed to manage disasters, we must also move to a collaboration model of operation.
But how do we make that transition effectively, and what components do we need to make the transition? Can we understand everything to make collaboration work? Do we need to know everything?
One way to ensure that we can collaborate better is through the idea of being an expert in your area, but understanding others.
Being the expert in your area
When we begin our professions, we often start at the entry level and begin to work our way towards the chief executive officer. Once we enter our organization, we have much technical information to learn. And as we begin our management ascent, much of what we learn involves leadership and management competencies, but also expands our technical competence.
For example, in the fire department, we begin by learning how to pull hose off the engine. As we move to the company officer, we learn how to direct where the hose goes when deployed from the vehicle. At the battalion chief level, we understand how long it will take to deploy and how this affects the fire. At the chief officer level, we decide on the staffing needed to deploy the hose and how much the hose costs.
The whole way up, we become more removed from the actual hose pulling and towards the outcome of pulling the hose. But we must remember all of this information to maintain expertise
Knowing What Others Need
Looking from outside of the fire department, if I was a street department supervisor, I would need to know that the hose is only around 200 feet and that you must drive on the streets to get to the fire during a disaster. I would know that I could support the firefighting part of the disaster by matching snowplows or bulldozers with the fire engines to ensure they can traverse the streets.
Working together and matching resources from your organizations with others is the key to disaster response, as our typical self-contained, day-to-day operations will not often be available during a disaster.
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