STATES OF EMERGENCY - Patrick Lagadec

248 Landmarks for action. Questions about managementimmediate corrective measures. If this is not done, tiny cracks in the edificecan rapidly become yawning gulfs that are impossible to close;- rapidly identifying roles or responsibilities that have been left unfilled,despites what was foreseen by the emergency plans prepared. It is imperativethat problems and people not be left without answers or someone chargedwith handling them. And we must insist on the importance of identifying allthe publics to be addressed and dealt with - especially as the typical errortoday would be to restrict this effort to the undifferentiated mass mediapublic;- working continuously to find the major initiatives the system should take.As we have seen, there is an underlying tendency to make due with reacting todifficulties, which lets crisis make its own laws. It is important to fight againstthe inertia of such a reaction, and to realize that the occasions when you canact effectively are few and far between. Your organization cannot let suchfleeting opportunities slip by;- constantly focusing people's attention on the long run and remindingthem that a crisis always lasts longer than first expected. Such remindersshould be repeated periodically, with insistence. Under the shock of the event,there is an overwhelming tendency to forget the time dimension;- developing efforts to anticipate at every stage. Most actors tend to focuson the most recent difficulty (just at the time when it has already made itsgreatest impact and is no longer the essential problem). This is when peopleshould raise their sites and ask of technical and organizational crisismanagement resources themselves what state the system will be in tomorrow,next week, or next month: in short, what next? In addition, thought should begiven to ways in which the system itself may evolve (i.e. "what if) should thecrisis continue to reign;-highlight landmarks within the network involved in managing theproblem to help understand what an emergency situation is and what itsdynamics are. The same prejudices (e.g. people will panic, the risks must behushed up, beware of the press) and the same behavior patterns (e.g.withdrawal, conflict, escape into fantasy) tend to invade events and determinereactions everywhere. If some degree of understanding of crisis problemsexists at the highest levels, these classic tendencies can be put in context, andthis will help to soothe the turmoil somewhat;- also place crisis management within the larger picture of the system'songoing life:• don't forget that the organization's life must continue outside the crisisstrickenarea.• don't neglect to think about the return to normal (or at least to someform of balance, even if it is new): this means you cannot make short-termdecisions that are untenable in the long term.Various means have been developed to guide this multi-tiered action,notably the crisis unit. The idea is not simply to plug in a bunch of telephones,but to bring a previously tested organization into play. Three essentialfunctions must be fulfilled: