Speed Over Perfection in Crisis Management

Is perfection always beneficial?

While browsing through my Twitter timeline, I came across a video of Dr Michael J Ryan. He is the Chief Executive Director of the WHO Health Emergencies Program, tasked with the international containment and treatment of COVID-19.

He was explaining the strategy of fighting these types of epidemics and made a very interesting statement concerning such emergencies.

If you need to be right before you move, you will never win. Perfection is the enemy of the good. When it comes to emergency management, speed trumps perfection.

Dr Michael J Ryan

Challenges in Emergency Response

Being a part of emergency service delivery operations for over 15 years, I fully agree with him. As he says, ‘Speed’ is the essence of managing emergencies.

Emergencies don’t appear at once. They manifest over a period. It is hard to predict their magnitude and impact with a high degree of accuracy in the beginning.

Perfection is near impossible in response planning as there are a lot of known as well as unknown factors. We can only make an informed guess after making certain assumptions based on our experiences and historical data. Just like Actuaries and Underwrites do while evaluating insurance risks.

While we work towards evolving possible solutions and our subsequent response strategy, new variables and scenarios would keep emerging and throw our planning out of gear.

Why Perfection Is Impractical

In other words, it is almost impossible to achieve perfection in our response plan from the very beginning. To make matters worse, the more we wait, the more complex the situation becomes, thus further complicating and delaying our plans.

It is, therefore, a better strategy to start with a workable basic plan that is flexible and allows us to make changes on the fly without disrupting the overall response. In other words, keep executing while continuously moving towards perfection.

“Perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time.”

Voltaire

Key aspects to consider while making our initial action plan could be;

• The extent of the problem at that moment
• Expected immediate and long-term results. For example, in the current COVID-19 crisis, the immediate goal is to check the spread of the virus, and the long-term goal is to treat all patients.
• Resources available for immediate deployment  
• Additional resources that could be mobilised in the next 24/ 48/ 72 hours
• Factors that might change later, and flexibility in our plan to accommodate those
• Key performance indicators are vital to implementation and achieving desired results
• Back-up plans for the worst-case scenario
• We also have to consider that the people and the equipment (non-human resources) that are being mobilised may also face problems, and we need to plan for that also

Real-Life Examples

While I was heading Service Delivery Operations in my previous employment, we mastered this art quite well. Our journey started with managing the flash floods in the erstwhile state of J&K in 2014. Instead of planning to perfection, we quickly mobilised all resources at hand and started the rescue. We helped our clients and were recipients of many accolades. We took our lessons from the experience and documented them.

This came in handy as India saw some of the worst natural calamities in Kerala, Chennai, Mumbai, Gujarat and more in the later years. My team by then knew the drill. Starting with a ‘War Room’, dedicated response teams and equipment, we could mobilise quickly and respond well. In some events, we were even able to help some of our competitors, too, as this was about saving people and their assets, no matter to whom those belonged.

But even then, we had to have well devised back-up plans in place. In one of our flood rescue operations, we gave debit cards to our equipment drivers so that they did not have to carry cash and could use the cards for buying fuel and withdrawing money from ATMs. A few days into operations, we found that both Fuel pumps and ATMs were running dry due to a lack of replenishment.

This temporarily threw our plans out of gear as we would have had to wait till the situation with the Fuel and ATMs was normalised. However, we were able to assess the situation quickly and could mobilise backup teams and resources from nearby locations. So, the disruption was contained.

Benefits Of A Speedy Response

A speedy emergency response has some inherent benefits;

• Mitigating a situation requires fewer efforts during the initial stages as compared to controlling the full outbreak
• Once we start working, various stakeholders like customers, clients, etc., see the movement on the ground and develop confidence in our capabilities. This helps a lot in keeping their anxieties and panic in check.
• Unless it is a big natural calamity, during the initial phase, various external support systems like connectivity, roads, electricity, etc., are still operational, making the job easier
• It is easier to mobilise resources when the situation is not in “Full Panic’ mode

Prioritising Emergency Response

During any emergency response, it is very important to prioritise our actions depending on the level of impact on the persons/ assets being rescued. Most of the time, these can be broadly classified into 3 types. We need to devise our strategy based on the availability of resources and target each group separately.

Minor Impact

These have faced minor or negligible impact. They usually would not require too much effort to find a solution. Most of them would need the right advice and guided actions to manage the situation on their own. Only a few of them might need our support.

Serious Impact

This is the actual target segment. They may have suffered considerable damage and need immediate attention. If not quickly attended to, their condition may deteriorate. We have to deploy maximum resources towards this group.

Beyond Immediate Help

These are the worst affected. The damages caused to them are beyond salvage, and we may not be able to make an immediate impact on them despite our best efforts. We need to plan situation-based actions for them in the longer term.

During execution, we may encounter hoarders who may wish to hog our resources by manipulating the system using their clout. They need to be handled tactfully to avoid unnecessary stress on our resources.

While our immediate action plan is being implemented, we need to keep refining and updating the processes and guidelines continuously in line with the developing situation and strive for perfection. These need to be circulated regularly among the stakeholders to ensure clarity and a common understanding of the situation and action plan.

We have to be flexible, pragmatic and just in our planning.  Sad but true, we have to also be ready for a scenario where we might not be able to rescue 100% of the people or assets.

Conclusion

In the realm of emergency response, the pursuit of perfection must never come at the cost of timely action. As real-life situations have shown us, success lies not in waiting for the perfect plan, but in acting swiftly with the best available resources and refining the approach along the way. Perfection, in such scenarios, is a moving target. Something we inch closer to with each decision, each lesson, and each adjustment.

While we continue to evolve our strategies and build more robust systems, we must remember that the perfection we seek is not in flawless execution, but in our unwavering commitment to act, adapt, and save lives when it matters most.

In the end, remember:

Have no fear of perfection – you’ll never reach it.

Salvador Dali

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