Crisis Response Teams & Plans - virtually: Using Design Teams and the P.L.A.N. to build your COVID-19 Reponse
— Transforming Organizations, Revitalizing Communities and Developing Human Potential
The following is a suggested framework for a Collaborative Crisis Response [CRT] Team that works online/virtually.
I was a manager in a 100+ bed care facility during the water crisis in Toledo, OH in 2014, when due to an algae bloom in Lake Erie, the drinking water went to potentially burning people’s skin quasi overnight. Half a million people were unable to drink their water, cook with it, or brush their teeth. We did okay and were able to make it through that challenging time - but a flaw in the response was that management believed that because some of the managers, like me, had worked as direct care staff at some point in the past, they did not need to include front-line staff in the crisis response planning.
We suggest that your CRT must be a diverse microcosm of your organization that uses virtual tools to plan and deliver a learning-by-doing Crisis Response P.L.A.N. for your organization's COVID-19 Response.
The Framework for creating a Crisis Response Team that creates a Crisis Response Plan, leverages two main concepts that I want to share: Design Teams and the P.L.A.N. framework. To build a CRT you must:
Identify the right Team Members.
Review & Leverage the PLAN Template.
Identify the toolkit for your Crisis Response.
Develop and Adopt a Crisis Response Plan for your organization.
The most important step: IDENTIFY THE TEAM MEMBERS.
Solutions are born from Diversity! → Meet as Leadership Team to:
Identify as broad, yet focused as possible a group of representatives of those who will implement and are affected by your Crisis Response PLAN.
Track Roles and Responsibilities with RACI+F.
Include the voices of front line staff, community members/partners, administrators, facilitators, etc. as able and necessary.
To enable a Simple Structure for Solutioning to guide the creation of your Crisis Response PLAN - leverage the P.L.A.N. framework:
Purpose & Outcomes [WHY?] Identify a clear frame of the purpose and outcomes of your Crisis Response effort. Start with outcomes/benefits that help you identify a clear purpose - the blog post linked here and above offers details for facilitating this process. Examples amid COVID-19 might include:
To continue to operate during social distancing protocols,
To shift 80% of our process to online, or
To connect to customers without internet access, etc.
Leaders & Stakeholders [WHO? and WHO ELSE?] Who are the key representatives and stakeholders? Who needs to be involved? Keep asking: Who else? Who might we be missing? Use models like RACI+F, Design Teams, and stakeholder analysis as checklists to make sure you have a comprehensive view of your system.
Activities/Agenda [WHAT?] What activities, what agenda will serve the purpose and outcomes you have identified? These depend on your organization and your Purpose and Outcomes! Use “In order to” to ‘check’ your activities for alignment with your purpose: Identify the activity [add] “in order to: _______” the fill-in the blank answer should be an outcome or benefit that points to your purpose.
Some current examples might include:
Split our workforce into 2 teams (red team/blue team) that are not to be in the facility at the same time,
Alternating home vs. office work-days,
A Check-In-Protocol with temperature checks for everyone coming onto your campus, . . .
Needs [HOW?] This is your reality check of how the Action Steps in your PLAN will get accomplished: resources, budget(s), logistics, facilities, work hours, schedules, facilities, … virtual tools and more. Identify the Toolkit necessary for your PLAN to be realized. Current examples might include PPE [Personal Protective Equipment], an adjusted sick time policy, additional/different virtual collaboration platform[s] like Slack, Zoom, Google Suite, not currently in use in your organization.
Once you have identified the WHY, WHO, WHAT, and HOW or PLAN start working it. See COVID-19 and Collaboration: Some Ideas and 8 Simple To-Dos for Virtual Collaboration during the Coronavirus Scare and the rest of our BLOG4change for more.
Check out NEXUS4change’s webinar series of 30-min. high-impact change tool talks. Check our events page [www.NEXUS4change.com/events] for more on the power of Design Teams, the Change Formula, Collaborative Roadmaps, Appreciative Benchmarking and more.