EnviroEmerg Consulting
The following provides a list of “timeless tactical truths” that remind emergency managers and response personnel why they need to plan and prepare.
IF YOU KNOW OR THINK OF OTHER TTT's.... feel free to e-mail to EnviroEmerg and will be added to the list.
- Move quick-young conditions are easier to control that old ones.
- The very worst emergency plan is no plan (the worst is two plans).
- To fail to plan is to plan to fail.
- The fewer parts of the plan, the fewer things can get screwed up.
- You gotta have a plan before you can revise it.
- Its people that respond, not plans nor policies.
- Hope for the best – plan for the worst.
- The only safe emergency assumption is to assume the worst.
- If you have lots of ideas, you need lots of resources.
- Don’t add resources to a non-plan.
- A little effort in the beginning can eliminate the need for lots of effort at the end.
- Safety prevents meetings.
- Effective command is made up of equal parts of passion and patience the trick is the where and when of each.
- Unless the walls are falling, the Incident Commander shouldn’t yell or run – neither reflects cleverness or composure.
- The capable Incident Commander always approaches the team with high expectations and kindness.
- You can fool the spectators, but you can’t fool the players.
- All emergencies go away eventually.
- Trust safety not luck (luck makes you DUMB)
- Something is wrong if you keep inheriting bad situations.
- Emergency management is the very smartest form of manual labour – respect the task.
- When you’re having problems, take on a partner to share them.
- Don’t spend all your chops – always have a tactical reserve.
- Remember courage is only fear that has said its prayers.
- Good procedures are so simple you don’t need to write them down to remember them or use a dictionary to understand them.
- Keep working on the basics – most of us are not advanced enough to make advanced mistakes.
- Educational times in the field are not always fun times.
- Consistent emergency reality: if you’re gonna order, you gotta pay the check.
- Experience and education are like oregano – they must be mixed with a lot of other stuff to be good.
- Its difficult to get a little excited.
- The treatment for screwed-up situations: education, training, reflection, and getting to do it again.
- Be careful of people who attach status to knowing things you don’t.
- Combining strategic modes (offensive/defensive) is like ordering artillery on yourself.
- The essence of emergency management, is that the emergency, and the Incident Commander can’t live in the same space – one has to leave.
- Beware of the Incident Commander who says, “Don’t do anything until I get there.”
- Never is a long time.
- The role of the effective Incident Commander is to direct and support the troops.
- Avoid the folks who say regular safety procedures take too long during difficult times (when you really need them).
- Standard management cycle: procedures – training – execution – critiquing- revising and back around.
- Manage procedures – lead people.
- There isn’t any middle ground in emergency response – you’re either responding or you’re not responding.
- If you think training is expensive, check out the cost of ignorance.
- Effective analysis must always be mixed with response to control the emergency.
- Don’t ever develop a plan that is so smart you can’t explain it to the people who have to carry it out.
- Procedures don’t have feelings.
- If you can’t control yourself, you can’t control anything else.
- Surprises are nice on your birthday.
- If you live with a bad situation long enough, you wear it.
- Effective communications = 1 part talking and 10 parts listening.
- Take the process seriously – not yourself.
- The things that lead up to accidents happen slowly – the accident happens fast.
- There are no credit cards on the emergency site – you’ve got to pay for everything you do at the time you do it.
- The more seniority a screw up gets, the harder it is to fix – this applies to both the emergency operations and (unfortunately) responders.
- The Incident Commander has to always go after the right piece on information at the right time; if you ask if everything is okay, it always is.
- If you aren’t dressed to play, stay in the bleachers and off the field.
- Considering what was going on at the time a decision was made will many times effectively refocus 20-30 hindsight.
- The Incident Commander must always initiate and move toward correct action. He must also be prepared and capable of stopping incorrect, unsafe action – he absolutely cannot live with a bad situation.
- They generally don’t call and environmental emergency response team because someone did something smart.
- The Incident Commander should be the first person who thinks the emergency is present and the last to believe it is over.
- Every emergency situation contains a discreet number of decisions – they can be made either by the Incident Commander or by the incident.
- Do not think you communicating just because you are talking.
- When someone screws up, ask the standard question, “Who taught him how to do it?”
- The longer you wait to make a decision, the fewer options you will have.
- The responder must be careful of what he says in difficult situations – offhanded, dumb command comments are like aluminium beer cans – they last forever in the environment.
- Basic emergency frequency axiom: the farther you are from the last emergency the closer you are to the next one.
- The responder must always be able to separate what is a hope from what is a plan.
- There is no necessary connection between the amount of boom in the water and the amount of oil that collected.
- The smart responder can tell what is going to happen – any dope can tell what has (already) happened.
- The more routine decisions the responder makes before the emergency the more time he will have to make critical decisions during the emergency
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