Every profession, every course, and every instruction manual starts with the basics.
I am just wrapping up another exciting vacation adventure with my aunts, uncles, siblings and kids. We have spent a week on Vancouver Island, and despite a series of mishaps, we have seen some amazing things – waterfalls, 800 year old trees, whale watching, hiking, spelunking, sand castle competitions, bathtub racing, and more. A few mishaps along the way prompted me to remember a few basics of disaster recovery / business continuity planning we managed to neglect during our vacation planning:
Trust, but verify. Our first day on the Island we took two cars to see the bathtub races. After just missing the launch, my aunt said the finish line was “just over there” – pointing to a harbor that looked about one mile away. Not a bad jaunt we thought. Starting out on a nice paved path along the water, we gradually encountered fences, industrial parks, and eventually a dead end. A very friendly Canadian public works employee guided us “just across the street and down the bend.” When we arrived at what appeared to be a neglected entrance to a rocky beach, a very nice Canadian couple told us this was the best place to watch the finish line. After climbing over rocks and trees for a ½ km or so, it began to downpour. Soon we saw the finish line to the bathtub races – all the way across the bay!
I am just wrapping up another exciting vacation adventure with my aunts, uncles, siblings and kids. We have spent a week on Vancouver Island, and despite a series of mishaps, we have seen some amazing things – waterfalls, 800 year old trees, whale watching, hiking, spelunking, sand castle competitions, bathtub racing, and more. A few mishaps along the way prompted me to remember a few basics of disaster recovery / business continuity planning we managed to neglect during our vacation planning:
Trust, but verify. Our first day on the Island we took two cars to see the bathtub races. After just missing the launch, my aunt said the finish line was “just over there” – pointing to a harbor that looked about one mile away. Not a bad jaunt we thought. Starting out on a nice paved path along the water, we gradually encountered fences, industrial parks, and eventually a dead end. A very friendly Canadian public works employee guided us “just across the street and down the bend.” When we arrived at what appeared to be a neglected entrance to a rocky beach, a very nice Canadian couple told us this was the best place to watch the finish line. After climbing over rocks and trees for a ½ km or so, it began to downpour. Soon we saw the finish line to the bathtub races – all the way across the bay!
Business application: trust is essential in any relationship. When your vendor states they can do something, trust but verify through references and a work portfolio. Based on my adventure, you may want to vet the references as well!
Be prepared – and remember the plan. Given that we just planned to make a short stop at the harbor, we didn’t bring anything with us but a small backpack with the camera and a sweater or two. When the downpour began we were in a secluded area of the bay, trudging over sharp rocks, fallen trees (ok, it was only one tree) and a stream and both my daughters were in flip flops. We were not prepared for the trip and were soaked to the skin in short order. After about 20 minutes into the downpour, my oldest daughter remembered she had an umbrella! At that point, we decided it was too late to be of any help. At least we had the camera to capture our little adventure on film.
Business application: take time to identify the systems and tools your staff may need in an emergency, whether it be a power outage or a tornado. Make sure there are flashlights, a phone tree and offsite system backups – before you need them.
Communications are essential. Back at the harbor (oh, how I longed for those civilized times with paved paths and food trucks!) we decided to split up and meet at the finish line of the bath tub race about 1 ½ hours later. No problem, we thought! A couple of hours later we still hadn’t connected and we never did make it to the finish line. Furthermore, we had no plan of action of what to do if we couldn’t connect. While walking to the bay (allegedly that is where we were heading), Uncle Dave drove by us and honked his horn to say hello. A couple kilometers later, we were pretty ticked about that. We broke down and decided to pay the $0.70 per minute for international calls to try to connect with the rest of our group. Uncle Dave answered, but he was no longer with Uncle Tom, who had the car and was out looking for us. Uncle Tom didn’t have a phone. “When he finds you, come down to the bay – there is free ice cream”, suggested Uncle Dave. We found this less than helpful. Sometime later we finally emerged from the bay, to see Uncle Tom drive by us on the road looking for us. He never found us. Remember all of those trips to amusement parks? Wear the same colored t-shirts and meet at the Carousel if anyone gets lost! There was true wisdom in that.
Business application: have concrete connection points (e.g., in case of disaster “X”, meet in the NW corner of the parking lot, or “the employee-only message line will be updated every 24 hours with a message to staff with business updates.”). PS - be sure to tell employees these connection points exist.
Know the language. After finding our way out of the treacherous bay, we climbed some stairs to find ourselves in a residential neighborhood. We wandered for a few minutes (tempers were starting to get short at this point). Finally, we found our way to Departure Bay Road – a main thoroughfare. While we discussed (a/k/a argued) what to do next, we found a strip mall. I ventured into a small ethic restaurant. It took me a bit of time to communicate my request to use the telephone and call a taxi. Fortunately, the owner was very clear in her mandate that the call better not be long distance. Eventually, I was able to use the phone to call a taxi. I wished I could have stayed for the dim sum buffet, but alas, we had to find back to our car – the meter was expiring in 30 minutes.
Business application: take time to learn the basics of disaster recovery planning and a bit of IT speak – understand offsite vs. cloud backups, server farms, and more before you need to use them. If you have multiple sites, make sure your plans are applicable and effective in all site locations. Adapt to local and regional differences as necessary.
Have a leader / decision tree. While in the isolated bay, and later in the strip mall parking lot, we faced multiple decisions. Once in the downpour in the bay, some of us wanted to venture forward, while others wanted to retrace our steps. We stood in the downpour for several minutes before some of us finally just took off. (Yes, we ignored lesson number 3, above). While wandering the neighborhood, we debated which way to turn and whether to pay the fee for international calls. We silently cursed the residents driving by us in their nice warm minivans. After finding the strip mall, we couldn’t decide whether to walk back to the car or try to meet the others for free ice cream. We were still mad about the ice cream. While I appreciate collaboration and consensus building, I had had enough. Being the control freak I am, I told everyone that I was taking a taxi and went to the restaurant to place the call. We were probably rain soaked at least 20 minutes more than we needed to be, simply because we had no leader or clear decision making process.
Business application: Brainstorming ideas, collaboration and consensus are important tools for teams, but in a crisis decisions need to be made quickly. If everybody owns it, nobody owns it. In your disaster recovery planning, it is critical to identify who has the authority to make decisions about what aspect of the recovery plan and when each decision needs to be made. The manufacturing manager does not need to decide which customer parts need to be made, before facilities has secured a production location and equipment and IT has been able to find the orders in process.
Explore and apply lessons learned. We had many during this trip. Unfortunately we only applied some of them to our subsequent adventures. Next month, I may share lessons learned about banana slugs, spelunking and long distance driving strategies.
Business application: “Those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it.” Whether you are launching a new product, hiring a staff member or firing a customer, take time to discuss and record the successes and failures. Most importantly, refer back to those lessons the next time you encounter a similar situation.
Be bold, enjoy the adventure, and remember to bring an umbrella.
Be prepared – and remember the plan. Given that we just planned to make a short stop at the harbor, we didn’t bring anything with us but a small backpack with the camera and a sweater or two. When the downpour began we were in a secluded area of the bay, trudging over sharp rocks, fallen trees (ok, it was only one tree) and a stream and both my daughters were in flip flops. We were not prepared for the trip and were soaked to the skin in short order. After about 20 minutes into the downpour, my oldest daughter remembered she had an umbrella! At that point, we decided it was too late to be of any help. At least we had the camera to capture our little adventure on film.
Business application: take time to identify the systems and tools your staff may need in an emergency, whether it be a power outage or a tornado. Make sure there are flashlights, a phone tree and offsite system backups – before you need them.
Communications are essential. Back at the harbor (oh, how I longed for those civilized times with paved paths and food trucks!) we decided to split up and meet at the finish line of the bath tub race about 1 ½ hours later. No problem, we thought! A couple of hours later we still hadn’t connected and we never did make it to the finish line. Furthermore, we had no plan of action of what to do if we couldn’t connect. While walking to the bay (allegedly that is where we were heading), Uncle Dave drove by us and honked his horn to say hello. A couple kilometers later, we were pretty ticked about that. We broke down and decided to pay the $0.70 per minute for international calls to try to connect with the rest of our group. Uncle Dave answered, but he was no longer with Uncle Tom, who had the car and was out looking for us. Uncle Tom didn’t have a phone. “When he finds you, come down to the bay – there is free ice cream”, suggested Uncle Dave. We found this less than helpful. Sometime later we finally emerged from the bay, to see Uncle Tom drive by us on the road looking for us. He never found us. Remember all of those trips to amusement parks? Wear the same colored t-shirts and meet at the Carousel if anyone gets lost! There was true wisdom in that.
Business application: have concrete connection points (e.g., in case of disaster “X”, meet in the NW corner of the parking lot, or “the employee-only message line will be updated every 24 hours with a message to staff with business updates.”). PS - be sure to tell employees these connection points exist.
Know the language. After finding our way out of the treacherous bay, we climbed some stairs to find ourselves in a residential neighborhood. We wandered for a few minutes (tempers were starting to get short at this point). Finally, we found our way to Departure Bay Road – a main thoroughfare. While we discussed (a/k/a argued) what to do next, we found a strip mall. I ventured into a small ethic restaurant. It took me a bit of time to communicate my request to use the telephone and call a taxi. Fortunately, the owner was very clear in her mandate that the call better not be long distance. Eventually, I was able to use the phone to call a taxi. I wished I could have stayed for the dim sum buffet, but alas, we had to find back to our car – the meter was expiring in 30 minutes.
Business application: take time to learn the basics of disaster recovery planning and a bit of IT speak – understand offsite vs. cloud backups, server farms, and more before you need to use them. If you have multiple sites, make sure your plans are applicable and effective in all site locations. Adapt to local and regional differences as necessary.
Have a leader / decision tree. While in the isolated bay, and later in the strip mall parking lot, we faced multiple decisions. Once in the downpour in the bay, some of us wanted to venture forward, while others wanted to retrace our steps. We stood in the downpour for several minutes before some of us finally just took off. (Yes, we ignored lesson number 3, above). While wandering the neighborhood, we debated which way to turn and whether to pay the fee for international calls. We silently cursed the residents driving by us in their nice warm minivans. After finding the strip mall, we couldn’t decide whether to walk back to the car or try to meet the others for free ice cream. We were still mad about the ice cream. While I appreciate collaboration and consensus building, I had had enough. Being the control freak I am, I told everyone that I was taking a taxi and went to the restaurant to place the call. We were probably rain soaked at least 20 minutes more than we needed to be, simply because we had no leader or clear decision making process.
Business application: Brainstorming ideas, collaboration and consensus are important tools for teams, but in a crisis decisions need to be made quickly. If everybody owns it, nobody owns it. In your disaster recovery planning, it is critical to identify who has the authority to make decisions about what aspect of the recovery plan and when each decision needs to be made. The manufacturing manager does not need to decide which customer parts need to be made, before facilities has secured a production location and equipment and IT has been able to find the orders in process.
Explore and apply lessons learned. We had many during this trip. Unfortunately we only applied some of them to our subsequent adventures. Next month, I may share lessons learned about banana slugs, spelunking and long distance driving strategies.
Business application: “Those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it.” Whether you are launching a new product, hiring a staff member or firing a customer, take time to discuss and record the successes and failures. Most importantly, refer back to those lessons the next time you encounter a similar situation.
Be bold, enjoy the adventure, and remember to bring an umbrella.