When "Burning It All Down" Has Begun

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Wednesday, July 11, 2018

The thing is, when people take action meant to burn it all down, there's a chance it will actually all burn down.

Once a disastrous fire is burning, you don't know where it will go, or when it will stop.

What will happen depends on the actions of everyone fighting that huge fire, on all of the fronts.  What happens also depends on existing vulnerabilities.  Some things are easier to burn up than others.

Once the disaster has started, you can't go back and stop it from having started.

You can mitigate some of the damage, though.  So how do you do that, after the (not always metaphorical) fire has started?

You look at the risks that an active fire presents, because operating within a disaster is different than the steady-state.  What's burning now?  What's likely to burn soon?

You triage.  What is most important to you to protect?  What resources do you have to get started?

What actions can you take now to mitigate the threats you would face if that fire heads your way?  What can you keep from burning up?

You anchor and flank.  Find a safe spot to anchor to and be grounded in, and work out from there.

You build resilience.  Personally.  In your family.  In your community.  In your business.

You protect your critical infrastructure, and make sure it's resilient too.

You make sure your state and local government are fully functional, and that they are resilient.  Are they ready to deal with the effects of all that could burn down?  Is your community strong enough to handle disaster?

Then you work more contingencies . What would you do without that critical infrastructure?  What's Plan B, and Plan C, if you lose your health care?  Are you ready to help your neighbors, if the fire gets to them first?

Essentially:  what could go wrong given this chaos, and how can you mitigate the risk?

We don't really understand how much is damaged until the end of any disaster.  And no one knows when that's going to be - until it's over.  You don't do damage assessment until the smoke clears.  Then you start thinking about rebuilding, and what that could look like.

This here could be a long burn.  I think so far we've only seen the flanks of the fire.

Seems like the wind is picking up though.

When that huge fire makes its runs - and it will - you can absolutely be more ready for it than you are now.  I can too.  We all can.

So what are you doing?


Looking for help finding a way forward?  Building a team?  Getting resilientTaking action?  Check out private coaching at inclusive pricing ratesThere are ways to navigate this, to stay grounded, and to do some good while we're at it.

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