The Indictment of Disaster Plan Templates

I was speaking to a group of museum owners in the Northeast a couple years ago, and, after the presentation was over, a group of them asked me about a disaster plan template they had purchased.  I have very strong feelings about this subject, so I said, “Get rid of it. It’s worthless. It’s worse than worthless; it’s detrimental to your program.”

They were a bit shocked with how forthright I was; however, I wanted to be blunt, because univerally, my professional experience has demonstrated that:  


Templates are ineffective disaster plans. Period.

I still see this a lot with companies that are trying to save a few bucks, because they are cheap, fill-in-the-blank disaster planning solutions. But, unequivocally, these provide a false sense of security, because experience has shown in disaster after disaster that these do not work, for a myriad of reasons.


Templates Don’t Account for Changes

This may not seem like a big deal, but in practice, it is one of the largest drawbacks of a template. Depending on the size and complexity of your business, there are dozens (sometimes hundreds) of variables that can change in a short period of time.

Employees, clients, new building contracts, homeland security policies and even a new fleet of company vehicles can have a massive impact on your planning calculus. Circumstances, policies, procedures and strategy can also change with critical vendors or even the government.  Your plan must take account for these changes, because they can have a huge operational impact when faced with a disaster.


Templates Don’t Account for Evolving Threats


Every plan has to have, as a foundation; certain set of threats it uses as a guide for responding and recovering. However, it does not account for unique community factors that will either make that disaster more devastating, or more likely to occur.

For example, communities in the US can either have underground or over-ground electricity wires. The ground soil could also be permeable, semi-permeable, non-permeable, and could have the composition of a dozen different compounds that would have a massive impact on the likelihood of, and extent of disasters occurring, including: flash flooding, erosion, wildfires, ground collapses, engineering disasters, or tornados.



Templates Don’t Account for Training


When I worked for a coffee chain as a young man, I was asked to train the staff on the disaster plan, since they noticed I had a propensity for speaking and an interest in disasters. So I trained the staff, and told each one individually that at some point they needed to read up on the evacuation routes embedded in the plan so they knew the best route to get home.

I intentionally omitted the evacuation route in the training so that I could conduct a little experiment. On that same page, I put a $10 bill and said “if you are reading your evacuation route, you can take this $10”. After 6 months, I retrieved the money; presumably, not a single person had read it.  Templates provide zero accountability on this factor.

Templates Don’t Account for Regulatory Requirements


If you run a business in an industry with a regulatory requirement for a disaster plan (or a derivative such as an EAP, ERP, BCP, IT/DR), a template will not only be operationally defunct, but they can also put you in legal jeopardy.  This is particularly true if you actually experience a disaster which results in injuries or property damage.

State and Federal regulatory agencies have held hundreds of facilities accountable for inadequate disaster plans with fines and criminal sanctions. Civil actions would not be far behind, which could keep you in courts for years.

We call these templates “checkbox” disaster plans, because they are used to meet the bare minimum requirements under a regulation or statute. In some cases, facilities purchase a template, but don't even bother filling in the blanks! You can imagine how effective that plan is when disaster strikes.

Conclusion


Perhaps inevitably, my words came back around to haunt me. About a week after my museum presentation, I got a phone call from the planner who had created the template, who was more than a little annoyed at my comments. You can guess the outcome of that conversation.

While I can respect that companies are trying to save a few dollars, don't waste your company's money with a useless disaster plan. They provide a false sense of security, and ignore the realities of a robust disaster program, which requires training, a good exercise program and evaluation measure.

Don’t be fooled; a template is simply not the way to Reverse Disaster.