April 2021 Chapter Meeting
Cascading Events and Unintended Consequences
A Timely Update for Business Continuity Professionals
The April chapter meeting of the Colorado chapter of ACP was special! First, our speaker was one of the most experienced, well known, and well respected members of the Colorado emergency management community. Second, because of a renewed partnership with InfraGard, members from that group helped double our normal attendance. And third, publication of our meetings in the National ACP newsletter brought us attendees from other states and other chapters.
Lori Hodges has over twenty-five years of experience at state and local levels in the fields of emergency services and emergency management. Her presentation covered a topic that affects every business continuity professional: when planning for or responding to crisis events, one of the largest concerns is that the disaster will cascade into new events and, most concerning, unintended consequences that will cause critical disruptions.
Lori began by introducing the topic of Chaos Theory. She quoted Margaret Wheatley: “A system is defined as chaotic when it becomes impossible to know what it will do next. The system never behaves the same way twice.” Lori also explained Complexity Theory, a concept designed to lead us to think with flexibility and examine all possibilities rather than rely only on more typical results and expectations. Both of these theories have been woven into training across the DRBC field.
Truly large disasters within Colorado over the past few years have challenged this approach and expanded professionals’ use of these theories. Large wild fires from 2012 and 2013 left expansive areas of the state with burn scars susceptible to landslides, mudslides, and erosion. Abnormal rainfall caused massive flooding. Officials struggled with fires again in 2020 and dealt with thousands of people displaced from their homes – and 2021 has conditions in place to surpass the dangers from last year. All of us can add our stories to results that have cascaded from the pandemic, and we are still living through those health and safety and economic effects.
Lori challenged us as industry professionals to capture lessons learned from recent events and to strengthen our functional systems and our public/private partnerships to greatly expand our preparedness.
For Lori’s full presentation, click here. Below, we've listed a number of books Lori recommended.
For the Zoom recording of the April presentation, please click here
Speaker:
Lori Hodges is the Director of Emergency Management for Larimer County in Northern Colorado. She serves on FEMA’s National Advisory Council. Lori’s education includes a Master’s Degree in Defense Studies from the Naval Postgraduate School’s Center for Homeland Defense and Security; a Master’s Degree in Political Science and Public Policy from the University of Colorado at Denver; and a Bachelor’s Degree in Emergency Management from Metropolitan State University of Denver.
Book Suggestions from Lori:
Books on Chaos / Complexity
Black Swan, Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Chaos: Making a New Science, James Gleick
Bak's Sandpile, Ted Lewis
Antifragile, Nassim Nicholas Taleb
The Medici Effect, Frans Johannson
Leadership in the New Science, Margaret Wheatley
Books on Leaderless Organizations
The Starfish and the Spider, Ori Brafman
Team of Teams, General Stanley McChrystal
Lori Hodges has over twenty-five years of experience at state and local levels in the fields of emergency services and emergency management. Her presentation covered a topic that affects every business continuity professional: when planning for or responding to crisis events, one of the largest concerns is that the disaster will cascade into new events and, most concerning, unintended consequences that will cause critical disruptions.
Lori began by introducing the topic of Chaos Theory. She quoted Margaret Wheatley: “A system is defined as chaotic when it becomes impossible to know what it will do next. The system never behaves the same way twice.” Lori also explained Complexity Theory, a concept designed to lead us to think with flexibility and examine all possibilities rather than rely only on more typical results and expectations. Both of these theories have been woven into training across the DRBC field.
Truly large disasters within Colorado over the past few years have challenged this approach and expanded professionals’ use of these theories. Large wild fires from 2012 and 2013 left expansive areas of the state with burn scars susceptible to landslides, mudslides, and erosion. Abnormal rainfall caused massive flooding. Officials struggled with fires again in 2020 and dealt with thousands of people displaced from their homes – and 2021 has conditions in place to surpass the dangers from last year. All of us can add our stories to results that have cascaded from the pandemic, and we are still living through those health and safety and economic effects.
Lori challenged us as industry professionals to capture lessons learned from recent events and to strengthen our functional systems and our public/private partnerships to greatly expand our preparedness.
For Lori’s full presentation, click here. Below, we've listed a number of books Lori recommended.
For the Zoom recording of the April presentation, please click here
Speaker:
Lori Hodges is the Director of Emergency Management for Larimer County in Northern Colorado. She serves on FEMA’s National Advisory Council. Lori’s education includes a Master’s Degree in Defense Studies from the Naval Postgraduate School’s Center for Homeland Defense and Security; a Master’s Degree in Political Science and Public Policy from the University of Colorado at Denver; and a Bachelor’s Degree in Emergency Management from Metropolitan State University of Denver.
Book Suggestions from Lori:
Books on Chaos / Complexity
Black Swan, Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Chaos: Making a New Science, James Gleick
Bak's Sandpile, Ted Lewis
Antifragile, Nassim Nicholas Taleb
The Medici Effect, Frans Johannson
Leadership in the New Science, Margaret Wheatley
Books on Leaderless Organizations
The Starfish and the Spider, Ori Brafman
Team of Teams, General Stanley McChrystal