dispatches from the new world of work

Great Read! Important Read!

I've rarely seen such raves as for Amanda Ripley's The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes—and Why.

Read it!

The idea, told almost exclusively through compelling stories, is that we can do better than we imagine when shit hits the fan—and that it's up to you and me, not the pros, to do most of the work for ourselves and others. If there is a "secret," and there more or less is, it is practice. Fullscale drills, among other things, but little stuff is at least as important. For example, the office worker who walks down the stairs (many floors) to lunch once every couple of weeks—it's a way to train the body, when virtually paralyzed by fear, to do the right-useful thing.

Here are a few one- or two-liners from the book:

"Regular people only feature into the [standard] equation as victims, which is a shame. Because regular people are the most important people at a disaster scene—every time. ... The vast majority of rescues [are] done by ordinary folks."

"Since 9/11 the U.S. government has sent over $23 billion to the states and cities in the name of homeland security. Almost none of that money has gone to intelligently enrolling regular people like you and me in the cause. Why don't we tell people what to do when we are on Orange Alert against a terrorist attack—instead of just telling them to be scared?"

London 2005: "Emergency plans had been designed to meet the needs of emergency officials, not regular people."

"Without too much trouble, we can teach our brains to work more quickly, maybe even more wisely, under great stress. We have more control over our fate than we think. We need to stop underestimating ourselves."

"Realistic practice brings out our faults—and then makes us stronger." "Abilities we think are innate almost never are." "Skill is my ability to do something automatically, at the subconscious level. How do I get that? I do that by repetition, by practicing the right thing. The only way you learn it is to program it."

The idea here is not to scare the hell out of you or me. Or to turn us into fanatic Exit sign watchers. It's to tell some useful stories, and to provide us with some useful strategies. When it comes to the terrorism bit, anyone who thinks we have seen the last of it is living in la-la land.

Great beach read?
Whatever.

Tom Peters posted this on 07/16/08.

Comments

I remember driving home in a snow storm and intentionally weaving and spinning a bit... my passenger was upset... asked why would I do that.. I replied that I was practicing, testing the road, myself, my car, should something bad happen. She though I was crazy.

I still practice, and have survived every snowstorm since... my passenger? she moved to California.

tom sullivan

Posted by tom sullivan at July 16, 2008 10:13 AM

Young men are in more accidents than young women, because they take more risks. They also do better in avoiding greater damage because... you guessed it... practicing!

Posted by Lois Gory at July 16, 2008 11:17 AM

In 1978 when I was 25 and very naïve (now I’m 56 and more naïve) I was a manager in a 140 bed Hospital in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, England that was flooded at 8pm when the river in the town burst its banks due to a storm combining with a high spring tide and north east gale force wind. The hospital had at least two feet of water on the ground floor and we were cut off completely. I was called in as the manager on call. I managed to wade in down the main vehicle entrance but after me there was no way anyone could get in on foot as the water was rising. There were about 10 of us inside the building – that included the night nursing staff, a porter and an engineer who had also managed to wade down the main vehicle entrance to the front door. From 8 pm to 6 am the following day we were on our own with no one able to get in to the site.

During the following 24 hours we evacuated 120 or so patients to be re-housed in various hospitals all over the region and it was just an amazing learning experience.

The miracle is that no patients died overnight although sadly a couple of patients died a day or two later in the hospitals we managed to evacuate them to.

I have many vivid memories of that night. The overwhelming learning is about how, at times of great adversity, ‘unconnected’ people can work together as a wonderful team and ‘deliver’ effectively even though there is no precedent, no plan and no experience of dealing with such a major incident. A wonderful experience and I was so proud to be a member of that team. The cold clinical writing of emergency procedures in a comfortable warm office somehow didn’t seem helpful at 1am on a freezing January night as the water rose another foot and we still had patients on the ground floor to get up to the next floor.

We developed a wonderful process that night called MIUAYGA (Make It Up As You Go Along)

Posted by Trevor Gay at July 16, 2008 11:26 AM

Those of you that enjoy this book might also enjoy Deep Survival by Laurence Gonzales. He details the physiological effects of crisis, danger and survival as well as writing about case studies involving people who made it and those who didn't and why.
Really compelling read.

Posted by tony sheng at July 16, 2008 11:33 AM

I'm intrigued enough to read the book. Just the little snippets posted make a lot of sense. I am always amazed by how people respond in a crisis, whether it is a natural disaster or something personal.(both good and bad)
I like the idea that it is ordinary people who make the difference in an emergency, because that is difinitely the case. It takes several minutes for first repsonders to get to a scene. It is the by-standers who make the difference in those critical minutes.

Posted by Chris at July 16, 2008 12:54 PM

I find the following to be true in many instances. It seems to me that to be effective at all we have to know what we should be doing and then maybe, I don't know, practice ...

Posted by Dean at July 16, 2008 5:53 PM

A practical suggestion: practice noticing where the fire exit is. It may be too late to look for it when the room is full of smoke and panicing people. Do you know where it is right now?

Posted by Mike L. at July 17, 2008 12:24 AM

Mike L, yes. I've started listening to the airline safety announcements again--not much effort.

Posted by tom peters at July 17, 2008 5:28 AM

Also, big deal, hotel fire exits ... left or right from my room door, maybe even count the steps.

Posted by tom peters at July 17, 2008 5:30 AM

Chris' use of the word 'by-stander' reminds me of 'bystander syndrome' - where one person witnessing an emergency is more likely to respond if they are the sole bystander than if there is a crowd of people. Large groups can create paralysis as people wait for someone to take the lead. There was that terrible case of a woman murdered on the subway decades ago in an assault that lasted 38 minutes, with hundreds of bystanders passing, each assuming someone else would do something. It led to deeper studies of what makes people act and what makes them hang back. I guess at a more mundane level, by-stander syndrome is evident at work; the tendency not to challenge ("Someone else will say something. Surely.") and not to step out of the crowd or behave differently. In these challenging economic times, we can learn from the extreme example of disasters and emergencies, and reel the principle back in to our daily lives at work - We all need to step up and do what needs to be done rather than waiting for someone else to take the lead.

Posted by Phil Dourado at July 21, 2008 11:44 AM

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Three things:

1. Love & totally agree with the quote about the fear levels created - to no productive end - by the "threat warning" levels.

2. Re fire exits. As we went to and from vacation last week, I took the chance to train my kids to look forward and back for the exits. They're already old enough to know that they have to keep their tray-tables up, fasten seatbelts, etc., but I want them thinking practically about what to do in a fix.

3. Following on Phil Dourado's comment: bystander syndrome is also often called "Kitty Genovese syndrome," since Ms. Genovese was the unfortunate New York woman who suffered the fate he describes. For whatever it's worth, I blogged about it here:

http://www.hooversbiz.com/2008/03/27/avoiding-the-kitty-genovese-syndrome-in-business/

Posted by Tim Walker at July 23, 2008 10:54 AM

dear tom
hello
how do you do?
I’m sorry to write at this way. As a matter of fact, I’m looking for some information about mckinsey seven s model. Some information about how can we assess an organization using this model, for example what metrics we should consider in each s. and I couldn’t find any information anywhere. I was wondering if you could send me any information about it if its possible for you, any case study, paper and etc. I really need it. Please help me.
Best regards
Babak

Posted by babak at July 29, 2008 11:09 AM