Where do you fit in the Joint Information Center?
You’ve taken all the NIMS training for PIOs. You know Unified Command, you know the Joint Information Center (JIC). You’ve even taken Liaison Officer courses to be sure you’re aware of all the public communication channels that will be used by Unified Command. Your certificates are on your wall, and you keep them digitally on your laptop to be sure you can demonstrate your qualifications.
And you’re a pretty good communicator too! You’ve honed your skills to be good at your profession.
Congratulations, you’re ready to bring your knowledge, skills and experience to bear in the JIC. Based on a moderate-sized JIC, you may be ready to step into any of 15 + JIC positions.
But which position? Where do you fit best? Where will your unique set of skills and experience help response communications the most?
Consider the MQI Doctrine:
In Unified Command, the Most Qualified Individual Doctrine (MQI) should be followed: Each Unified Command position should be held by the most qualified and experienced individual available. The purpose for this is clear: The mission of Unified Command will be best met when the best people occupy each position.
In the National Response Team Publication: ‘UC Technical Assistance Document‘ the following statement reinforces the MQI concept: “Agency capabilities and resources, including agency personnel trained and available to fill key ICS positions, such as Command, Command Staff, and General Staff positions, should be identified.”
Translated, this means that each position within Unified Command should be filled with the most qualified and experienced individual.
Does MQI always rule?
No. I’ve covered this topic in another post: ‘What if Unified Command Doesn’t Work?’. Past practice, policy and politics can impact MQI, usually negatively.
- Past practice: Incident Commanders, themselves often selected for non-MQI reasons, often expect ‘their’ PIO to serve as the response PIO. They’re used to the working relationship, are confident of their PIO’s capability and are comfortable with their judgement. This can be beneficial, but it can also bite the response’s backside. Past practice isn’t an accurate determinant of performance.
- Policy: Some State or regional Area Contingency plans may specify which organizations can supply a PIO, often restricted from the Responsible Party. These considerations are usually practical; the State agency charged with response actions doesn’t want the added public opprobrium associated with the Responsible Party. So they require Agency staff to serve as PIO, relegating the Responsible Party to a less public position. Again, this arrangement can be beneficial when the named PIO is capable ands qualified, but sometimes the result is a lack of leadership that would have been available from the more experienced person from the RP.
- Politics: Some responses ‘go political’ from the very beginning; a powerful political voice takes over the response and forces appointment of their favorite, selected individuals in leadership positions. In today’s instant-news environment, this can seem a reasonable response to protect the reputation of the political denizens. It virtually always results with the leadership role not being filled as well as it would be via MQI. It also almost guarantees that some response decisions will be made for political reasons, reflecting neither best practices nor scientifically based logic. The end result is a lower quality response, often loss of trust: Unified Command’s mission is broken from the start.
The good news: Misapplied MQI isn’t pervasive, and usually doesn’t extend into the JIC structure. Even if you’re restricted from one position you may be manifestly qualified for, there are plenty of other positions where your capabilities can be fully utilized.
How do you practice MQI?
How do you rise to the level you belong in the Joint Information Center (JIC)? You’e already taken the most important step; you’ve learned about all the positions in the JIC. Your ICS courses have given you an overview and understanding of the varied positions needed in an effective JIC. They, with your skills and experience, should be enough to get you placed where you’ll be most valuable. But where?
There is a hierarchy of JIC positions that can help you make a good decision about where to serve. Remember that Unified Command is built on the span-of-control dictum: Regardless of response complexity, the JIC organization chart features at least three levels of leadership you can fit into: PIO, APIO-JIC Manager and APIO-Section Chief. Which level is for you?
- PIO: The Public Information Officer occupies a Command position, so they will spend the bulk of their time with Unified Command, overseeing a two way information flow of facts TO the JIC and product FROM the JIC. This is the dominant responsibility, but not the most important one: Above all else, the PIO should be providing communication counsel to Unified Command. Other Unified Command staff are experts in their field; they know boom, birds and bodies. The PIO is the expert in stakeholder communication; the only person in the room to weigh command decisions in light of public opinion. The PIO’s primary role is to ensure that Unified Command understands the ramifications of their actions on public perception, just as much as the Environmental Unit will inform Unified Command on the safest and best protection strategy.The PIO must be a strategist, able to engage Unified Command in high-level thinking about how to inform an affected public. This ensures that the affected public both supports Unified Command objectives and obeys Unified Command decisions. As an example, the PIO will help Unified Command understand why notifying the public about dispersant use beforehand is a good policy.If the PIO position is held by a sycophant of the Incident Commander, strategy is one of the first things to go. And Unified Command will pay a price for this.If you’re an industry-recognized communication strategist, you may be able to promote or preserve MQI, but practice, politics or policy may simply take the opportunity off the table. Focus on ‘strategist’ if you want this role. Your job will be to influence leadership to make good response decisions.
- APIO-JIC Manager: The JIC Manager is the most critical position in response communications. An effective JIC Manager can actually compensate for an ineffective PIO, by managing the JIC well. This is a tactical position that may shade into strategy if the PIO isn’t doing their job.The JIC Manager plans all response communication, identifies product, sets a schedule, provides quality control and maintains performance. They may influence strategy by building it into the JIC’s Public Information Plan (PIP), by including known stakeholder concerns and weight of each concern into the PIP.If you’ve managed teams, overseen complex projects with tight deadlines, and maintained long term staff commitment and performance in high stress environments, you’re qualified to serve as JIC Manager. You will ensure a focused, output oriented, high performing team of individuals drawn from multiple organizations. This is your spot!How do you demonstrate your qualification beyond training? If you’ve produced a corporate sustainability report or written and implemented a crisis communication plan, you’re probably going to be great at this role. If you’ve overseen complex agency initiatives or managed your agency’s public outreach programs, you’re probably going to be great at this role.My counsel here: If you only have one management superstar, put them in the APIO-JIC manager position. Oh, and most policy restrictions on RP staff to NOT specify APIOs – usually only the PIO. So in the JIC, MQI has a solid shot!
- APIO-Section Chief: In the JIC structure, functional roles are often separated; information production may be separated from dissemination, which may also be separate from information gathering. Inquiry management may be broken out, as may Media management from Community Outreach. While the JIC organization chart will be adjusted to match response communication needs, leadership of each Section will be universally enforced. Unified Command’s span-of-control genesis ensures this.This translates to ‘Section Chiefs Wanted‘. Each Section Chief function has two leadership requirements; knowledge of the specific function, and management capability. If you’ve created content and overseen content creation for your organization, you’ll be a good APIO over Information Production. If you’ve planned and conducted multiple public meetings, you may be a good fit for overseeing Community Outreach.MQI Doctrine can be canonized at the section level, as the JIC Manager reviews capabilities and assigns APIO-Section Chiefs.
How do you decide where you fit?
Here’s a guide, based on one Crisis Communication Plan: JIC Positions and Comparable Skills Needed
REMEMBER that JIC structure is flexible, so Section titles can change.
Leave your ego at the door!
A warning: Serving in a position you’re not really qualified for will eat you up, and it may jeopardize the entire response. Failure to effectively communicate response information to a concerned public can have severe impact on response reputation, your reputation and the safety and security of the public.
Don’t fall into the trap of becoming a legend in your own mind. I’ve seen gifted communicators fail badly in Unified Command because while they may be really good at public speaking, or highly photogenic, or possess a great ‘bedside manner,’ they’re neither strategists nor tacticians. Unified Command is a machine and so is the Joint Information Center. Practice MQI and place gifted people where they’re needed — including yourself.
The response and the affected public will thank you.
Questions? Did you see ideas in this post that you’ve never heard of before? Contact me!
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