MCS is assisting emergency service organizations in two important areas:
- Planning for long-term organizational impacts of COVID-19.
and…
- Capturing lessons from the COVID-19 experience while they are fresh.
Both these critical tasks are difficult to accomplish while the fight is ongoing, but success depends on moving quickly while the window of opportunity is still open.
Post COVID-19: Strategic Planning at a Whole New Level
COVID-19 illustrates a harsh reality: We are confronting an unprecedented situation that is unlikely to lead “back to normal.”
The strategic requirements for “managing” a pandemic response are well beyond the limitations of traditional Incident Command System (ICS) planning. The current crisis requires new tools. Specifically, response leaders need the means to visualize and plan for the “new normal.”
Intent-Based Strategic Planning offers such an approach. One that produces critical thinking proportionate to the complexity and scale of a pandemic. Using this process, a planning team develops a Common Operating Picture, strategic end state, and framework for action. These building blocks build a strategic vision that informs all decisions throughout the response network.
This approach has been “battle-tested” with agencies within and outside the US. Intent-Based Strategic Planning generates the rigor necessary for sound decision making in this complex and volatile environment. The plans generated through this approach enable operational teams to align mission and strategic intent.
MCS can train and facilitate your staff in developing and implementing this new level of strategic planning. Contact MCS for more information.
Learning from COVID-19
When the need is greatest, US agencies lack the ability to convert experiences into true organizational learning.
Our nation’s response to COVID-19 is, in reality, a collection of thousands of different incidents. Across the countless jurisdictions, individual agencies work to find the best way forward. Each one leveraging most of their capacity and focus on the needs of the response.
However, the learning from their experiences is often lost. Events move at breakneck speed, and memories of lessons learned fade as the next challenge – then the next – emerges to the forefront.
Because of this high operational tempo, few organizations are able to capture lessons learned in an organized or methodical way. Fewer still have the capacity to record, analyze, and manage lessons so they can be applied in the future. Beyond the typical PowerPoint briefing, virtually none are able to share their lessons with other agencies and cooperators.
At MCS we assist our clients in capturing lessons learned during critical events. Using our deep experience gained through assisting national agencies to collect and analyze lessons in the wake of significant incidents, MCS can provide a wide range of services:
- Fielding teams to collect and disseminate lessons learned
- Providing a long-term repository for storing and retrieving both internal and external data
- Developing processes to capture and share lessons for organizational learning
- Authoring post-mortem roll-up reports and facilitating large-scale After-Action Reviews
- Facilitating action plans to implement lessons learned recommendations
