Saturday, August 14, 2010

Re: [californiadisasters] ICS

Attempts to use ICS in a civilian setting face two relatively major hurdles:

1. Military and paramilitary organizations have a "corporate culture" of
command >> obedience which is not typical of civilian organizations (where
"consensus" is the modern "god", and decisions follow discussion and
agreement).

2. The military/paramilitary terminology and duty assignments are not going
to be familiar to civilians. "Ops"?! "Command" (when we work by consensus)?!

This is not to say that ICS won't work in a civilian setting.

The first suggestion I'd make is that the terminology be "civilianized"
(dressed in "civvies"), e.g. "Incident Commander" becomes "Incident Chief
Executive", "Logistics" becomes "Ways and Means". Seems to me this is a lot
more promising of results than trying to explain paramilitary terms to
civilians.

The first agenda item/outline point in presenting the plan to the
organization should be a complete explanation-with-full-rationale of the
concept of military command. "We are talking about an emergency situation
where every second counts, and things have to happen quickly...." (It also
may well be that the everyday command structure of the organization won't
work; the CEO may be very good at gaining consensus by ill-suited to issue
commands--or may travel too much to be relied upon for incident command. In
some places, the organization might contain volunteer firefighters,
auxiliary law enforcement officers, etc., who could very easily step into
command. How many Long Island, New Jersey, Connecticut, or "upstate" vollie
Fire Chiefs work 9-5 in a Manhattan skyscraper? Could the corporation's--or
the building's--Chief of Security be a better candidate than the CEO?
Additional thought: ICS provides for the smooth transition of duty
assignments as an incident is upscaled or downscaled; this might not be
especially useful in a corporate environment--I don't know; something to
consider.)

Now another, very related, issue: Even within the paramilitary fire service,
the ICS did not either take hold or work smoothly right away; much drill was
required. The fire agencies I monitor are well-practiced in ICS, having used
it (for actual incidents) nearly daily for a number of years, and they have
it DOWN. (But on the other hand, I know of small, quiet agencies that, at
least at the start of an incident, are Keystone Kops, for lack of practice.
Added note: In some of these latter cases, the command structure is
political, and the house burning to the ground is preferable to stepping on
the wrong toes. Truly unprofessional, but truly likely to arise in a
civilian environment.)

One drill per year is nowhere close to providing proficiency. All the more
so when the people drilling are not acquainted with even the concept of a
"command structure". Public schools typically have one fire drill per month
(and yet I've witnessed teachers not knowing what to do when an
"unscheduled" alarm sounds!). (My district has had one "district-wide
disaster drill" per year, which is way insufficient, but besides that, it's
usually in April, so that nearly the whole school year goes by with no
drill!)

Don't expect to see a civilian organization reach the point where someone is
told, "You're Water Supply," and that person knows completely what to do
with no further explanation or questioning. Even so, a poorly-executed
emergency plan will be a whole lot better than nobody knowing what to do or
who's in charge.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Frank Vitale" <sog13@sbcglobal.net>
To: <californiadisasters@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, August 14, 2010 3:18 PM
Subject: Re: [californiadisasters] ICS


Being in the private sector, I'm seeing more companioes use the ICS. Problem
is,
most fo the people that are assigned to a companies ICS are drafted to the
position with no experience or exposure to it. Much less try to remeber what
their role (command, general staff) is since they only get together once a
year
to do a table top exercise.

Try an explain the ICS to a contract administrator that his position is
Logistics and what that entails. The FEMA class is a waste for the comman
businessman to comprehend and implament.
I'm looking for somewthing that that takes the ICS and explaiins it so the
private sector layman can say "Ok, I get it.". Then be able to reveiw it a
year
later and remeber some of what was taught.


________________________________
From: Mickey Kopanski <gun4747@gmail.com>
To: californiadisasters@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sat, August 14, 2010 10:06:09 AM
Subject: Re: [californiadisasters] ICS


Depends on what you need it for. ICS is to for command, control and
operations
of an incident. It could be applied to private sector if you had something
that
needed such structure...


Mickey

On Sat, Aug 14, 2010 at 08:55, Frank <sog13@sbcglobal.net> wrote:


>All ICS training is geared to gov't agencies. Is there anything out there
that
>helps the Private sector adapt?
>
>


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