“establishing the
parameters for invocation and managing the process”
A
Barrier to Effectiveness
Having a plan is one thing. Knowing when to use it,
how to get it started, how to adjust the tempo and when it is right to call an
end are other things all together. In our experience, and in the findings of
official enquiries, these wider aspects of plan employment can go awry[1]. Perhaps the
most fundamentally important of all of these relates to when and how to invoke
plans and procedures. As obvious as it seems, and despite this being a stock
component of every plan, it is often not well thought through, understood or
even used. Examples of the failure to trigger and formally invoke procedures and
teams are evident in case studies. For example, and at the Operational level, the
1999 Landbrook Grove rail crash inquiry recommended that ‘instructions for signallers should provide a set of options … to send
an emergency stop message to a particular train or a general stop message’ and ‘that the type of circumstances in which
each option is or may be appropriate’ should be clear[2]. More recently, and at the Strategic Level, concerns have
arisen from the Gatwick Airport Limited Terminal Outage on Christmas Eve in
2014; ‘namely airline complaints that GAL
refused to move to the Gold level of its contingency planning’ and that
this ‘was driven by the terms of GAL’s
plans that adopt a definition of Gold which seems not to be well understood
outside the company’[3]. This also emphasises the added complexity presented
when responding alongside other organisations.
Overcoming
Inertia
Perhaps the fist
point to note in relation to understanding the inertia to using plans properly is
that escalation is often wrongly seen as synonymous with invocation. Escalation
is the act of telling others about the situation being faced and is nearly
always done. These may be people or teams at the same level or indeed at subordinate
or superior levels, meaning escalation can occur sideways, up and down. Telling
others that something has, or is potentially about to, happen is of course a
vital aspect of any response procedure. However informing others is not the
same as formally invoking teams and procedures. Invocation, which is often less
well done, is about evaluating a situation and then formally establishing set
teams along with associated support and response mechanisms and procedures. The
very act of doing so carries meaning for all concerned, both internal and
external to the organisation, and allows for a more informed decision making
capability to be put in place quickly.
The reasons for
the failure to invoke, even when escalation has taken place, are complex and
many. They can include a technical fixation by those who discover the original issue
meaning that they don’t appreciate the wider implications in time. Others may
see the need to invoke as an admission of failure or believe erroneously that
they can solve things before they get out of control. Still others don’t want
to bother people, especially senior staff and particularly on weekends or
holiday time. Part of the solution is to ensure that the plan has a clear
invocation process, linked to escalation, which mandates the steps for authorising
plan enactment, establishes the response structures and that enables a
meaningful operational status to be defined for various teams that respond.
Triggering
To be able to effectively invoke plans
requires the establishment of criteria for doing so[4]. Such triggers need to be clear and measurable and must
allow assessments to pick up early warning signals as much as define when a
significant incident has taken place[5]. These triggers may usefully be based on the factors
the organisation feels best define the impacts it is keen to avoid, rather than
the causes themselves, such as service or product quality, safety, finance,
resource availability or reputation. The process also needs to reflect existing
hierarchal structures. The situation whereby the level below is required to decide
to invoke or not invoke the level above, as opposed to simply escalate to that
level, should be avoided. Decisions to invoke teams and responses need to be
taken at the right level and by appropriately authorised personnel.
Invocation is not always an all or
nothing game. There can be states of operation that result from invocation
decisions and these may escalate or deescalate as the understanding of the situation
clarifies. Such states will have associated levels of response for teams and
procedures. For example the invocation process itself requires core people,
armed with the right information, to assess the situation as a precursor. The
initial call out of key decision makers is therefore not the same as invoking a
plan.
Once the active choice has been taken to
invoke then a formal declaration of this decision must be made and promulgated.
This should have meaning for others, including those external to the
organisation, and act as a ‘trigger’ for known and predefined responses. As
such it is important to consider the impact upon others of any invocation
decision and the operational state required. It is hard to hold 100% internal
readiness for an impending possible crisis for very long and any declaration
may mean that other agencies move to a certain enhanced states of operation as
well. That is way a graduated system is useful.
The
Process
When building an effective invocation
process there are a few key concepts to consider. Firstly notification is not a
one-way street. It must be able to occur both up and down the chains of command
and hierarchal structures. People need to have the confidence they will be
listened to when they escalate an issue and that those receiving this information
will act appropriately regards plan invocation. Often it is technical knowledge
and competency that is key to understanding the implications of a situation and
not simply position or rank.
Secondly the physical means of calling
out and engaging with staff need to be clear and effective. For senior and
middle management teams it may be appropriate to consider virtual methods as people
are often distributed across the country or globe. The response must also not
be hindered by the failure of any one person to be reached. That is why
assigning roles with responsibilities in teams, and not just names, is vital. When
a person does not respond their responsibilities can be allocated to others and
not missed. Technology can help in this regard but it is important to define
the processes first before selecting systems[6].
Thirdly when teams have been notified
they need to be able to analyse the situation against the trigger criteria that
have been set. To do so they need access to an accurate picture of the situation[7]. Often this means that others responsible for
gathering and consolidating information, such as the Incident Control Centre
team, must be notified at the same time as, if not before, the decision makers.
Fourthly active and unambiguous
decisions need to be taken in time to enable the tempo of the response to be
effective. As we have seen this requires that the level of incident or crisis
is defined and declared so that this can trigger appropriate responses[8]. It will also be important at this early stage to decide
on any adjustments to the response that may be required. As the situation is
unlikely to be static by consistently monitoring the picture the response can be
increased or reduced proportionally, through changing the declared crisis level.
Summary
Invocation
procedures need not be complex but they do need to be well thought through and
understood by those who will use them. There must be a clear delineation
between the processes for escalation and invocation, although they will also
need to be linked as the former influences the latter. A system for calling out
and notifying people and teams is required, along with the capacity to provide
early invocation decision makers with as comprehensive an understanding of the
situation as possible. The authorisation required for invocation at each level
should be set and clear triggering criteria must point to defined levels for
the crisis or incident. Once declared the crisis or incident level should in
turn drive others, both internal and external to the organisation, to achieve
set states of readiness in terms of response. Finally graduated invocation
processes can be useful in enabling escalation or de-escalation of response as
the situation changes.
[1]Bazerman
M and Chugh D, Decisions Without Blinders, Harvard Business Review, Jan 2006, pp 94
[2]
Landbrook Grove Rail Inquiry
Part 1, Rt Hon Lord Cullen, 2001
[3]
Disruption at Gatwick Airport, D McMillan Feb 2014
[4]
Societal Security – Business Continuity Management Systems – Requirements, ISO
22301, 8.4.2
[5]
Boin A and Lagadec Preparing
for the Future: Critical Challenges in Crisis Management, Journal of
Contingencies and Crisis Management, Vol 8, No. 4, Dec 2000, pp 189.
[6]
Husband R, How John Lewis
Partnership Connected 200 Business Continuity Plans To An Emergency
Notification Database, Journal of Business Continuity and Emergency Planning,
Vol 1, No. 3, Jan 2007, pp 261 - 270
[7]
Elsubbaugh S, Fildes R and Rose M, Preparation for Crisis Management A Proposed
Model and Empirical Evidence, Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management,
Vol 12, No. 3 Sep 2004, pp120
- 123
[8]
Good Practice Guidelines 2013
Global Edition, BCI, page 82
