The greatest of all drills is the Worst Case Drill (WCD), designed to simulate a worst case incident that fully tests an operator’s response capability. A WCD gives oil handling operations a greater understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of their activation of oil spill contingency plans, equipment, personnel and procedures. A well planned WCD also tests the effectiveness of stakeholder communication.
Since communicators attend only their own organizations’ WCDs, I’ve compiled a set of lessons learned from multiple WCDs that I’ve attended on 2024, into ‘Lessons Learned’ to share with current and future PIOs and JIC participants.
I’ve included a mini ‘Improvement Plan’ for each of the lessons learned. The suggested actions can help ensure readiness for stakeholder communication in an actual incident. Each Improvement Plan action should fit into a coffee break, unless it reveals the need for more work – no guarantees then! (But contact me if you need help!)
I’ll post a new Lesson Learned each week over the next several weeks. Feel free to use this information to improve your own planning or response actions. I hope they help!
A quick reminder: Effective drill performance is NOT the end goal of attendance: Effective RESPONSE performance is. Don’t fixate on ‘winning’ a drill; focus on being ready for an actual event. If a review of your drill capabilities reveals shortcomings, don’t wait for the next WCD. Fix it now!
Effective initial actions ensure effective initial messaging
…Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride, booted and spurred, with a heavy stride, on the opposite shore walked Paul Revere.
Now he patted his horse’s side, now gazed on the landscape far and near, then impetuous stamped the earth and turned and tightened his saddle-girth;
But mostly he watched with eager search the belfry-tower of the old North Church, as it rose above the graves on the hill, lonely and spectral and somber and still.
And lo! as he looks, on the belfry’s height, a glimmer, and then a gleam of light! He springs to the saddle, the bridle he turns, but lingers and gazes, till full on his sight a second lamp in the belfry burns!…
Paul Revere’s Ride, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807 –1882
OK, we’re not quite Paul Revere saving a nascent nation, but communicators do have a clarion call in a response: We are the vital link between response actions and stakeholders’ trust!
It takes time for a response to roll out and this is reflected in drill scenarios, which typically start a few hours into the response. Actual incidents seldom start this way. They start with one person or a small group of people, in charge of all initial actions in reflection of a core tenet of Incident Command; “You are in charge!” The first people on site are in charge of the response until more qualified individuals arrive.
A response grows to match the incident. As additional responders arrive, the response coalesces into an increasingly complex Incident Command structure, to Unified Command if applicable.
This process occurs as rapidly as possible, but mobilization of people and equipment is bound by time and space; this is one reason on-location response equipment is a regulatory requirement for many facilities and operations.
Responses start with notification:
A key initial activity is notification, often mandated as the first action after ensuring the safety of responders and affected public. Every Emergency Response Plan includes some form of an Initial Incident Report, accompanied by a Notification List of key contacts: Facility and corporate leadership, responders and response organizations, regulators, sensitive populations, etc. This ensures that all the organizations that may have to take their own actions in response to an incident are notified promptly.
Even major responses start with a time-and-resource-limited initial response. It takes time to deploy boom, time to order resources, time to travel, time for briefings, time to actually begin the physical response! Notification begins the process of mobilizing responders, still bound by time and space
Rapid stakeholder communication is critical:
Of all the activities needed from the inception of a response, rapid stakeholder communication is the most critical. Public concerns increase at the scale of response awareness: Unbound by time or space, stakeholder awareness expands exponentially, driven by observations, interpretation, opinion, concern and alarm.
In a major event, the public will be aware, alarmed and active immediately. Without reliable, factual information this dynamic leads to escalating concern; missing information leads to misinformation!
Key resources for stakeholder communication:
Response communicators need five resources to respond in pace with erupting community concerns:
- Rapid notification: Communicators must be included on the notification list to receive initial information. Seconds count, minutes can’t be wasted: The communication team needs to be activated at the same time executive leaders are. No second tier! If you’re not notified, you can’t meet stakeholder needs.
- An evaluation tool: Communicators must have the capability to review initial response information and determine stakeholder concerns and sensitivity. If you don’t know the scope of stakeholder sensitivity, you can’t satisfy their concerns.
- Initial content: An effective evaluation will identify key facts to share, initial impact on stakeholders, and content needed to alleviate their concerns. An effective response communication plan will include initial statement templates and key messages for predetermined stakeholder concerns. Slow content creation will result in slow stakeholder communication.
- Rapid review and approval: Communicators need immediate access to individuals who can review and approve drafted content. These individuals must know the criticality of initial stakeholder communication and have approval rights. Slow review and approval in approval leads to delay. Delay leads to distrust.
- Dissemination capability: Communicators need immediate access to sensitive populations. Distribution lists should be identified, prepared and available for use, and the platforms for sharing approved content need to be available. You aren’t communicating if you’re not sharing information directly to your stakeholders!
Improvement Plan:
- Are you are included on all notification lists? Be sure you’re a top-level contact, so you have the most time possible for your initial activities.
- Do you have an evaluation process? Be sure you’re ready to effectively conduct an incident evaluation to determine stakeholder concerns and quickly share it with leadership.
- Can you write your content? Can you rapidly provide drafts of information that meets initial stakeholder concerns? Your timeline to do so should be minutes, not hours!
- Can you use your content? Test your review and approval process by drafting content and sharing it with known approvers.
- Can you share your content? Review your dissemination lists and tools. Determine if they’re up to date and available for your immediate use.
Confused? Alarmed? Want more information? Contact me!