Emergency Readiness Mindset

Bruce Blythe, Owner and Chairman of Crisis Management International, is a guest blog author for Allied Universal.

You worked late. As you get into your car in the parking lot, you answer an incoming email. The car door is unlocked as you sit behind the wheel focused intently on typing your response. Then suddenly, a gunman jerks open the car door…

Two important concepts are at play that led up to this personal crisis: dissociation and its accompanying lack of vigilance. Being prepared for emergencies and crises of all sorts requires readiness. 

Dissociation is a “mental distancing” that doesn’t allow us to think deeply about traumatic events happening to us. We have dreams of falling, but no one hits the ground. Our minds naturally won't go there. However, mental preparedness can be accomplished by consciously attending to the “what ifs” in your world. 

Write down three places and incidents where you are most at risk of a traumatic incident in your daily living. Is it in a parking lot, at a metro train station, driving, at home, the mall, at work, etc.? Now, think about what you need to do to prevent or minimize the likelihood of occurrence. What can you do to mitigate the damage if it were to occur? 

Vigilance refers to a mental awareness. In this case, it's about mindfulness related to potential dangers. While we can't be hyper aware of potential dangers all the time, we can develop a “vigilance habit.” If one of your top three risk situations was the car intrusion situation above, think about what you should habitually do to avoid exposure. You should look before getting in the car, lock the doors immediately, and start the engine and put it in gear before responding to your email. The best emergency response is to avoid the situation and secondarily to be prepared to respond quickly and effectively. With an emergency preparedness mindset, you can turn a potential crisis into a near miss if you visualize what you should do and follow through behaviorally. 

A readiness mindset in our personal lives also helps to achieve a readiness mindset in the workplace. Are you ready to respond to challenges in the workplace? 

About the Author
Bruce Blythe is the CEO of Crisis Management International, Inc., a worldwide organization of crisis management specialists, business continuity planners, and former FBI and Secret Service agents. He has worked with hundreds of companies in crisis prevention, preparedness and response. He has served as a consultant to the FBI on terrorism and workplace violence. He has made repeated appearances on NBC, CNN, ABC’s 20/20, CBS’s 48 Hours, CNBC, NPR, national talk shows and many others.