TECH WATCH

Disaster planning: a high-demand skill no one understands

By BOB WEINSTEIN, Special Sections Correspondent
The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 15, 2006

Want a job with a future? Do you want to build a career that can do some serious good such as saving lives and preventing mass destruction of towns and cities? If I struck a chord, you ought to consider becoming a disaster-planning expert. In fact, the field is so wide open that you can create your own job title.

I’ve seen job titles that come close, such as contingency planner, risk manager and business-continuity planner, but they don’t really hit the mark. We can do much better. How about disaster-planning consultant, business-continuity manager — better yet, chief disaster-planning technology officer or CDPTO?

Beyond job title, the major problem with this hard-to-define job is that no one has come up with an accurate job description that explains its qualifications. Does the position call for a combination techie/project manager who understands the ins and outs of data-recovery software and can actually create a multi-tiered recovery infrastructure? Maybe the position needs a smart business analyst with an MBA from Wharton who has managed a slew of multimillion-dollar projects.

Obviously, the job calls for a PM with quick reflexes and a good head on his or her shoulders who can take over in an emergency and make smart decisions.

Newburyport, Mass.-based project manager Lisa Olsen and many other PMs who have worked on federally declared disaster sites probably would go along with that.

Still, defining the job of disaster-planning expert is not easy for a number of reasons, according to Olsen. “Everyone hates disaster planning, because few people are totally clear about what it entails,” she says.

Olsen speaks from experience. One of her first jobs after graduating college was directing a local disaster-services agency during the 1985 tornadoes that ravaged Ohio and Pennsylvania. Since then, she’s worked for IT consulting firm Darwin Partners, the Trumbull County (Conn.) Disaster Services Agency and the Connecticut National Bank.

Getting companies and government agencies to do disaster planning is “like pulling teeth,” says Olsen.

“Almost no one takes it seriously. Usually, people do the plan just to meet some kind of qualification. In government, disaster plans are created to qualify for some kind of funding. In corporations, it’s done to meet a legal or financial requirement.”

The one crucial thing virtually everyone misses about the process of creating a disaster plan is that the only time to build relationships and harness the expertise needed to survive is when the disaster is taking place — and in its initial phases. “This is no time for pushing paper,” Olsen asserts. “This is when you need to meet the key people and mobilize them.”

This is when frank, no-bull discussions should take place, says Olsen.

How many corporate business-continuity planners know the local fire chief’s name? “If you don’t know his name, you probably haven’t talked to him,” she says. “How can things go according to plan, no matter how skeletal, if critical relationships aren’t cemented immediately?”

Even if the disaster plan is updated yearly, no disaster ever goes according to plan.

“One of the key skills PMs need is to be able to create mini-plans on the fly,” says Olsen. “It means key people get together in the same room and create them.”

The more effort that goes into coordination and planning, the better the results.

“The key to working a disaster efficiently is maintaining a broad spectrum of relationships,” Olsen adds. “In the early moments of the disaster, your emergency-response personnel are your first priority. In many cases, however, you are not managing them. They need to do whatever they need to do to save people. Your job is more likely to keep them supplied with the resources and personnel they need to do the job properly.”

When it comes right down to it, disaster planning amounts to a huge juggling act, according to Olsen. The heart of great planning is constantly building and redefining your relationships — first with team members, then with emergency services and government officials, both local and federal, and finally with volunteers.