Since the first cases of COVID-19 were found in the United States, the professional expectations for emergency, disaster, and crisis managers have continuously changed and continue to evolve. To match these new expectations, how we prepare ourselves, our organizations, and our communities for crisis events needs to change too.
From 2020 to Today
If I were to compile a list of “things that have changed” in the disaster management profession since the beginning of the pandemic, it could easily go on for pages. One of the most notable changes is that these roles have expanded immensely with broad new requirements. Consider the following:
Many emergency managers were establishing supply chains at the start of the pandemic to address unprecedented constraints around personal protective equipment, connecting international suppliers with individual healthcare, government, and community end users.
Today, emergency managers are not only leading the responses to natural and human-caused disasters such as hurricanes, tornados, wildfires, and acts of violence, but also long-term humanitarian crises and failures in our nation’s electrical grid and energy supply systems.
As the impacts of attacks on corporate, nonprofit, and government technology systems are driving organizational and community-wide impacts, emergency managers are involved in the highly technical responses to breaches in cybersecurity, helping to ensure the continued performance of critical enterprise-wide operational processes and functions.
For any readers who aren’t emergency managers, it is worth considering some of the challenges that industry professionals face while leading their organizations and impact their ability to successfully address the expanding responsibilities. For example:
Emergency response operations for many cities and counties are led by a small team of professional emergency managers and supported by community volunteers and government employees who have been temporarily reassigned from their actual jobs (and who likely have a list of other responsibilities that are being delayed). This leads to a high degree of turnover in response staffing.
Emergency management programs are often under-resourced (both in staff and compensation), and emergency management directors have to be financial strategists leveraging multiple grant programs to fund progress in their organization or community disaster readiness efforts.
Emergency managers are leading through scenarios where they must creatively adapt emergency plans, organizational structures, and staffing policies during disasters. Historically, there has been an underlying assumption that most incidents would be relatively short in duration. Wildfires, hurricanes, or tornadoes don’t impact the community indefinitely and, while stated or unstated, that assumption has informed decisions about staffing, facilities, and resources available to emergency management agencies. However, the COVID-19 pandemic and many recent and ongoing operations, such as migrant support, are not short-duration incidents but are still being led by emergency managers around the country. These are not disasters that will see the emergency operations center (EOC) closed within just weeks of its activation, so public safety leaders are having to address the limitations of emergency plans, staff, facilities, and resources while also working to address the impacts these incidents are creating within their communities.
From Today to Tomorrow
What I personally find so impressive about the emergency management industry is that most emergency managers aren’t complaining about these broadened expectations or the often stressful conditions that they work in. Could support for the field from executives be better? Sure. Would emergency managers argue against additional resources in their programs? Probably not. But that isn’t holding these professionals back from putting in the work to prepare public and private entities for future risks either.
I have found that there is often an incident that has put emergency managers on a path that has made this field their professional calling. This might have been a hurricane they experienced firsthand, September 11th, a mass shooting, a fast-moving wildfire, or many other types of incidents that have led them to say, “I can help someone on their worst day.” As a result, industry professionals will often do what is needed to serve their communities.
However, it would be unprofessional to confuse a passion for service with a readiness to lead.
As we consider the future and the uncertainties that it holds, emergency managers, risk managers, preparedness professionals, and crisis leaders will need to prepare for new disaster scenarios and with new levels of influence within their organization. While there may be some naturals in our field who elevate to higher levels of organizational leadership seamlessly, most of us will have to put in the time to develop and prepare ourselves to succeed in these high-stakes, high-pressure leadership roles.
The list of skills that equip professionals to lead organizations through a disaster isn’t short either. Emergency management leaders are being forced to learn:
Technology Platforms: Modern EOCs are integrating GIS platforms and mapping technologies, analyzing real-time data for decision-making, and (to an increasing degree) leveraging artificial intelligence to support response actions, requiring technical skills and competence.
Operational Leadership: Whether for a private or public-sector organization, emergency managers need to be able to navigate the entire enterprise and make policy or operational recommendations during disaster response.
Organizational Development and Talent Management: As the field grows, emergency managers need to be able to design organizational strategies, select the right candidates for roles, and effectively develop their teams.
Industry/Technical Competence: This is a given, but having comfort with the core skills required of an emergency manager and being capable of developing plans, designing training programs and exercises, and facilitating post-event analyses for emergencies and business disruptions is a must.
That list might be daunting depending on your level of comfort with any of those elements, though it continues to evolve and expand right along with the profession. I also acknowledge that these are skills developed over the course of a career. But the sooner that emergency managers set themselves on the path to developing these skills and abilities, the better.
The challenge is that there isn’t necessarily a set program to turn to get this education. There may be similarities to an MBA or a public policy-focused graduate degree, but neither of those programs covers everything that is needed for professional emergency managers. FEMA’s Emergency Management Institute (EMI) covers some of these areas in the various courses it offers, but not all of them. On-the-job training (OJT) can provide experience in all areas, but growing through OJT also requires a certain degree of initiative and time for reflection to take lessons away from those experiences and integrate them into your professional portfolio.
Preparing for an uncertain future requires that the professionals who have a responsibility to prepare their organizations for disasters find the time and resources to facilitate that growth. It won’t always be easy, and it’ll likely have to be self-led, but that is what it will take.