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By Cole Emerson
Planning for and managing disasters is very much like
a military operation. Those at the front lines and in the midst
of battle know the actual conditions with which they must deal.
A Corporate Command Team located in the headquarters hundreds of
miles away from the incident cannot possibly assess and respond
to the incident as well as the on-site Command Team. The site must
have the authority to make key decisions without requesting that
authority for each action. This is not to suggest that the remote
sites have carte blanche to do anything they want to do. Flexibility
within pre-defined boundaries is the objective for establishing
decision rights agreements during the crisis management or business
continuity planning efforts.
The Problem…
The issue faced by many organizations at the time of disaster is
they have not identified and agreed upon decisions to be made by
the Corporate Command Team versus decisions to be made by the Site
Command Team. The lack of clear-cut decision rights guidelines leads
to both confusion and contention during the coordination of response
to incidents affecting remote sites.
The following is a proposed approach to help companies
clarify decision rights between the Corporate Command Team and the
Site Command Team. The objective is to encourage self-sufficiency
and a high level of authority at the sites, while maintaining corporate
control over policy, contractual and image issues. Another objective
is to ensure that Corporate does not try to "manage" an incident
remotely.
The Objective…
Decision rights must be established for all organizations potentially
involved in responding to, managing or monitoring an incident. Decision
rights should be defined for issues likely to occur at both the
Corporate and Site Level. While there are always exceptions, based
on the individual situation, a common policy related to the decision
rights of each organization must be established. Without this policy
and supporting guidelines, confusion, conflict and avoidable delays
will occur.
Corporate decision rights are typically focused on
policy, corporate image, and variance to policies or defined priorities
and corporate-initiated contracts or agreements.
Site decision rights are focused on local issues posing
safety concerns and requiring immediate response, execution of predefined
plans, communication to staff and site related vendors, acquisition
of equipment (within the site budgetary authority), and deployment
of staff within the immediate geographical area.
Decision Rights Process
The acronym for the process is PEACE. Assuming that a majority of
the entities involved in the decision making process evaluate and
establish decision rights during their respective planning process,
much confusion and conflict will be avoided during an actual incident.
For specific issues, each entity, Corporate or Site,
will have one or more of the following rights to:
- Propose: The entity submitting the requirement. During the
planning or execution phase either Corporate or the Site may propose
a course of action.
- Evaluate: Assessing the proposed or completed action in the
context of the overall implications to the corporation or the
site. Corporate and the Site must evaluate the action and understand
clearly how each action would affect each entity.
- Authorize-Decide: The entity having the decision right to go
forward or stop the action. This decision right is identified
and delegated during the planning phase. Delegation of authority
at the time of disaster would be handled on a case-by-case basis.
- Concur: A level less than authorization where prior to, during
or immediately post action the entity agrees with the proposed
or completed action. This also helps ensure interested parties
are kept engaged in the process and are given the opportunity
to provide feedback.
- Execute: The entity responsible for acting on the proposed
action.
The process addresses the following types of issues
requiring discussion, decision and actions by involved parties.
This process may not address all issues. Common sense and good judgment
should prevail and where there are serious doubts on the correct
action and time permits, the issue should be discussed prior to
either entity taking action.
The following matrix illustrates some key issues and
decision-making authority of a company's Corporate Command and Site
Command Teams.
As stated, this matrix is not all-inclusive and needs
to be expanded to cover the issues unique to the specific organization.
Summary
The bottom line is that discussing, agreeing on decision rights
within the organization and documenting the guidelines will save
hard feelings, reduce resistance and lower confusion during an actual
incident. It will prevent sites from defaulting in their decision-making
responsibilities and help lessen the potential for the Corporate
Command Team trying to totally manage the remote incident.
About the Author
Cole Emerson, President, Cole Emerson and Associates. Cole has
over 25 years in the business continuity profession, is a published
author and internationally recognized speaker on business continuity.
He most recently served as DRII Chairman of the Board. He can be
reached at (916)797-6272 or by email at cemerson@bcpconsulting.com
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