Systems Under Pressure: Emergency Response
On 29th January 2020 we hosted the National Leadership Forum, bringing together 400 public service leaders for discussions about how we are Working Together; as a system. In the spirit of sharing the insights from the day, we have written blog posts describing the content of the discussions.
Leaders across the system collaborate in emergency response situations more easily than they would otherwise in business as usual. The very nature of leading in a crisis requires new partnerships across multiple sectors and organisations. But what tools and strategies can we use to make the crisis response of working together part of our everyday psyche?
This National Leadership Forum panel, chaired by Dame Sara Thornton (Chair of the National Leadership Centre Advisory Board, former Chief Constable and now Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner), discussed practical tools for leading in a crisis, joined by:
● Joanne Roney, Chief Executive of Manchester City Council who oversaw the response to the Manchester Arena attack
● Kier Pritchard, Wiltshire’s Chief Constable who found himself responding to the Salisbury attack on his first day in the role
● Saleh Saeed, Chief Executive of the Disasters Emergency Committee who leads emergency aid for those affected by humanitarian crises
● John Herriman, Chief Executive of the National Emergencies Trust who has oversight for raising and distributing money and support for victims of domestic disasters
‘Practice, practice, practice’
This mantra was echoed by all the panellists: it is essential to run exercises to test how local and national teams can work better together in times of crisis. By necessity, this involves leaders working outside of their siloes and engaging pragmatically with cross-public sector agencies, local businesses, and faith and community groups.
Training exercises help all parties to develop a common language and understand the nuances of organisational cultures well in advance of a crisis. The contingency plans also help leaders to make better decisions in an emergency, which by nature means navigating ambiguity and not always having sufficient evidence to hand.
This preparation enables leaders to build strong working relationships with your peers that you can then call on not only in a crisis, but all year round and throughout your career. As Kier Pritchard put it “build relationships in peacetime, not war, as calling someone at 3am in the middle of an emergency isn’t the time to start building a relationship.” Cue a shameless plug for the NLC’s digital Connect service which helps you to find contact details for your peers…
The 24/7 news cycle
A key challenge of leading in the 21st century is responding to intense public and media scrutiny. The nature of social media means that all incidents are in public view, and once public trust is lost, it is very difficult to get back. As a result, setting the tone of public confidence from the very start of a crisis is critical for leaders.
Social media can be a galvanising force for good, enabling members of the public to share information, stories, messages about the impact of a particular emergency. However, in order to respond to the 24/7 news media, it is important for systems leaders to be on the front foot. This requires installing a multi-agency comms team that can stay on top of evolving news stories. As a leader, your role is to ensure they put support for victims and survivors at the heart of their work.
Leading staff in a crisis
As Joanne said, “leadership needs to be visible, immediate and everywhere.” With this in mind, our panellists acknowledged the importance of recognising the impact of crisis response on members of staff. They recommended putting in place mental health counselling, ongoing longer-term support for all employees affected, and ensuring that each and every member of the team is recognised for their role.
Another piece of advice is ensuring that lessons learned exercises include examples of staff who went above and beyond to deliver excellent outcomes for citizens, as well as exploring what could have gone better in hindsight.
Conclusion: how can we apply emergency response thinking to solve wicked challenges?
Collaboration and common purpose are the key reasons cited for the relative ease of working systemically in a crisis, as it is much harder to convene around a problem that is not seen as immediate and urgent during ‘business as usual’ work. However, if we can get our partners to work around a common cause, in an agile and flexible way, we may be able to embed the most appropriate elements of a crisis leadership approach into all aspects of our leadership.
We would appreciate your thoughts on these issues. In an emergency situation, how do organisational cultures hinder or support a system response? And how can we ensure lessons are learned and shared between services? If you have any reflections do get in touch either by commenting below or contacting the NLC: NLC@CabinetOffice.Gov.Uk
