Catastrophe

At the office, we had an interesting staff meeting today. We bought tortas, from one of our favorite taquerias, for all the staff. My wife made her killer guacamole, with fresh jalapeños. We spent the lunch hour talking about upcoming projects, who needs to be aware of what, etc. And then we launched into the meat of the meeting: developing a crisis management plan.

I was impressed with the ideas that came out and the obvious depth of thought that some of our folks had given to the issue, the assignment for which was given about a month ago.

It's astonishing to realize how incrediby complex it would be to react to a catastrophe in our very small company. If a fire destroyed the entire office or if thieves stole our computers or if all our client websites when down simultaneously, we'd have a horrific problem to solve. Our conversations delved into many of the problems we might have to deal with and the kinds of things we need to do to enable us to immediately react to them. How would we set up a new office if ours were destroyed? What about our data? Even though we have backup tapes, etc., do we know exactly how to get them restored to new computers and who would do it? What would we do if we were off-site at the location of a soon-to-start conference and all meeting materials were destroyed in transit? What happens if we cannot reach our offices for several days due to storms, etc.?

All this stuff is frightening, but planning for how we'd react is the sort of thing that helps one sleep at night.

I'm not overwhelmed with my staff's response to my challenges to them to think about this, but I am impressed and appreciative. And I actually told them. That's not my style!