We know that the purpose of most exercises in emergency management (ref HSEEP) and related fields is to validate plans. That concept, though, is built on a fragile premise: that the plans are good.

Over the years, the more plans I see from various jurisdictions, the more disappointed I am practically to the extent of losing near-total faith in our profession’s ability to develop quality plans. Most emergency plans out there are crap. Garbage. Not worth the effort that has been put into them. Typically, they don’t have enough detail. Not that they need to have procedure-level detail (but those procedures should be found somewhere), but they are often written so high level that they are merely conceptual or policy-esque.

The premise that exercises are intended to validate plans would indicate a belief that the plans themselves serve as quality standards of practice for the organization(s) they are built for. The sad truth is that they are not. So, what are our exercises proving?

Gaps in exercise evaluation are a significant hurdle which are often based upon poor evaluation practices, poor AAR writing, and/or the assumption of quality plans. I find many AARs to be very superficial. They provide observations and recommendations, but no analysis. Without analysis we have no context for the observation and no examination of root cause or other contributing factors. Absent this analysis, the AARs aren’t able to truly identify what needs to be addressed. So, with the superficial, come the obvious statements and recommendations that communication needs to be improved, more ICS training is needed, etc.

What I don’t see enough of are observations, ANALYSIS, and recommendations that indicate:

1. Plans need to be drastically improved (updated and/or developed)
2. Responders need to actually be trained in their roles to support implementation of the plans (ICS does NOT teach us how to implement plans… in fact ICS training largely ignores the importance of existing plans)

What of the AARs that are better and actually do recommend improved plans? This leads us to the next potential point of failure: implementation of corrective actions. I see so many organizations are simply bad at this. They seem content to exercise over and over again (typically at the expense of taxpayer dollars) and come up with the same results. They largely aren’t fixing anything, or perhaps just the proverbial low-hanging fruit (i.e. more ICS training), but they aren’t tackling the harder-to-do, yet more impactful development of quality plans.

We need to stop assuming our plans are good. Exercising bad plans has little value to us and is typically more wasteful than beneficial.

Just like the potential causes identified above, there are numerous issues to be addressed. First of all, we need to recognize that not every emergency manager has the acumen for writing plans. The development of emergency plans is a hybrid of art and science. It includes hard and soft skillsets such as technical writing, systems thinking, organization, research, collaboration, and creativity. We have standards for developing plans, such as CPG101, which overall is a good standard (though it could be improved to help people use it). We have some training available in how to develop emergency plans, but there are some issues.

• The G-235 Emergency Planning course (now IS-235) was a great course, but the big push 15-20 years ago to put so many classroom courses online to make them more accessible and to save costs largely resulted in decreased learning outcomes.
• The classroom training in emergency planning has largely been replaced by the E103 Planning: Emergency Operations course, which is part of the Emergency Management Basic Academy. This is a pretty good course but being part of the Basic Academy (which is a great concept) also limits access to some people as the general practice is (understandably) to give registration preference to those who are taking the entire academy. Sure, the entire academy makes for more well-rounded EMs, but if someone wants to focus on emergency planning, some of the other courses, while complimentary, constitute a larger investment of time and possibly money.
• Finally, FEMA has the Planning Practitioner Program, which is a more intensive experience and certainly provides some improved learning outcomes, but with the expectation of a huge percentage of emergency managers (and those in related professions) to be proficient in emergency planning, this program simply isn’t available enough. (Note re training: yes, there are an abundance of other planning-related courses out there… I just highlighted these as examples).

I’ll also say that simply taking some classes does not make you a proficient emergency planner. Because there is art and science to it, it can’t simply be taught. It needs to be learned and experienced. Practice and mentorship are key – which is something else most EMs don’t have access to or even seek out. Training is not the only solution.

So, while this article started out with identifying the fallacy often seen in our exercise practices, I end up, once again, pointing out what I think is the biggest gap in the entirety of emergency management – bad plans. Plans are the foundation of our practice, yet we can’t seem to get it right. We are too dismissive of the necessity and process of plan development and upkeep. We are too accepting of inadequate plans that are not implementation ready. We don’t do enough to build personnel capability in plan development. So many of those who are writing plans, be they civil servants, consultants, or others, are simply bad at it. And while some have potential that is underdeveloped, others simply don’t have the acumen for it.

And the worst part about it all… we, as a practice and professional culture, are accepting it!

Many of my posts through the years have ended with a similar statement… we are treating emergency management like a game of beer league hockey. We aren’t taking it seriously enough. We need to do better and demand better. So what are you doing to support improved emergency planning practices?

© 2024 Timothy Riecker, CEDP

Emergency Preparedness Solutions, LLC®