Fear…it’s an emotion shared by all creatures, both man and beast. The only difference between these two subsets is that man has been blessed with the ability to consciously choose how to react to fear inducing stimuli as opposed to simply being hard-wired to respond instinctively.
When I was quite young, my father had once asked me what I thought was man’s greatest fear. When I replied with what I undoubtedly believed to be the correct answer, spiders, he proceeded to tell me that the correct answer was “the unknown”. Of course, I didn’t believe him at the time, since the only thing scarier than a spider was perhaps an unknown spider that may have crawled into my ear while I slept. However, with age comes wisdom and through the years not only have I found the sword to slay this ‘unknown spider’ but I’ve also made some interesting observations.
Now, we’ve all had those horrible nightmares where you are seated in the auditorium with the final exam on your desk, realizing you hadn’t studied at all (unfortunately for me, this wasn’t so much a nightmare as it was a true story). You might have also dreamed of being in front of your classmates, clad only in your underwear, while frozen in place, unable to hide your embarrassment (again, another unfortunate true story). If you’ve ever given a presentation, you know all too well the frightening thought of being bombarded by questions you wouldn’t be able to answer. After pondering on these many misfortunes in my life, I came across the answer. The silver bullet or the sword to slay the unknown spider is preparedness.
It is only the foolhardy who go through life without taking responsible steps to plan for the unknown (another one of Dad’s pearls of wisdom). It is the reason we have life and car insurance, fire extinguishers, first aid kits or that spare tire in your trunk. It’s all for the just in case. Should the unexpected occur, most people would have no problem dealing with the situation by putting these preparedness tools into action.
Why is it then that so many businesses fail to prepare for unexpected events? It is astounding how many people don’t have an answer when asked “what would you do if your business suffered an extended power outage?” The same silence is heard when asked about a host of other hypothetical yet highly plausible events. Is it simply because so many days have gone by without incident and we just decide that the ‘unexpected’ won’t occur? Or perhaps it is complacency, or even the fear that planning for an event means uncovering a very real risk exposure to the business with no way to cover it. Whatever the reason, it is blatantly obvious that the old adage stands true, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”
I’d like to take this opportunity to use another old adage, and that is “It’s never too late.” Even if your preparedness plan is simply just some phone numbers for emergency vendors scrawled on a napkin in the top drawer of your desk, it is truly never too late to get a solid preparedness plan in place. Most businesses begin with a risk assessment, determining what exposures threaten the day to day operations of the business. You must take into account all facets of your business, your key elements being your workspace, power, connectivity (your phones and internet access) and your technology. Most importantly, you must have a plan that incorporates your people, as no business can function without its employees. You may also take comfort in the fact that you don’t have to do this alone. Agility is committed to providing the necessary tools to assist businesses in getting prepared and staying that way.
As September is drawing to a close, we are proud to present the final webinar in our FREE 2009 National Preparedness Month series. On September 30 at 2:00pm EST, the acclaimed former Administrator of FEMA, Mr. R. David Paulison, will discuss the need to re-energize America’s commitment to personal, family and business preparedness. Creating a culture of preparedness is critical for helping all of us better prepare for disaster response and recovery.
I strongly recommend you attend this particular webinar, so the next time someone says you “have nothing to fear but fear itself”, you can shoot them back a smile, wink knowingly and correct them with confidence. You can let them know that what we really fear is the unknown, and once we learn to adopt a culture of preparedness, we really have nothing to fear at all. Well, except for maybe spiders.
- Jonathan Prasad
Agility Recovery Solutions
Agility Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity Solutions
Our Agility Blog
Follow us on Twitter here.