What Makes STANDARDIZATION So Important For Emergency Management? | With guest Todd Livingston of EMAP.org

Discover the crucial role of standardization in emergency services and how it saves lives. Standardization is the backbone of efficient emergency response, enabling services to respond quickly and effectively in high-pressure situations. In this podcast, we explore the importance of accreditation in emergency services, including its impact on communication, equipment, and procedures. By standardizing protocols and practices, emergency management can reduce errors, improve response times, and ultimately save more lives. 

Guest Todd Livingston of EMAP.org shares with Tim the importance and benefits of accreditation in this episode of the Wildfires, Floods and Chaos Communications Podcast.

Chapters

• 0:00 Standards - What are they and why are they important?
• 2:00 Building resilient communities ,one standard at a time
• 9:46 EMAP as a management tool
• 15:25 Common gaps and areas for improvement
• 20:01 The impact of leadership and culture
• 25:39 How standards feed creativity
• 31:32 Three questions

Transcript

00:00:02:16 - 00:00:32:22
Unknown
Setting the standard. It is one of those things we hear about at a young age, especially if we had an older sibling who maybe we would be judged against standards, advance quality and ensure precision. Fare heavily used by paramedics. Law enforcement and fire services, which involve many people working from standard approaches despite responding to unique emergencies that also require creativity with standards.

00:00:33:00 - 00:00:35:21
Unknown
We build stronger foundations together.

00:00:35:23 - 00:00:47:19
Unknown
Todd Livingston is responsible for the Emergency Management Accreditation Program's comprehensive training program, including online training, webinars and courses, as well as e maps, training course

00:00:47:19 - 00:01:00:07
Unknown
taught managers training courses and training orientation workshops, plan development workshops, qualifications and continuing education for both assessors and accreditation and assessment managers.

00:01:00:11 - 00:01:11:04
Unknown
He is also a former firefighter and type one urban search and rescue technician and leader, who has responded to major hurricanes, earthquakes and bombings.

00:01:11:06 - 00:01:32:12
Unknown
So we recently, saw each other at the, Disaster and Emergency Management Conference of Ontario, which is known as Dem con. When you're, you do some really interesting work when it comes to standards. When we think of standards, there are measurement of, of the require the required, requirement to meet a certain quality, or a normal expectation or output.

00:01:32:13 - 00:01:59:07
Unknown
It all depends on your industry or the project that you're working on. They can be organizational, individual standards. You may know a P, which is, in the engineering world, or a lawyer who has met the required standards in the fire service, which we were both in. You have NFPA, the National Fire Protection Agency, and in public relations, we have the accredited in public relations or a PR, which I attained in 2014 as a standard.

00:01:59:12 - 00:02:39:14
Unknown
So for those who may not be familiar, can you explain what the emergency management accreditation or iMap program is and how that iMap standard supports the development of resilient and accountable emergency management programs? Sure. Sure. Let me first introduce myself. I'm Todd Livingston. I'm, the training coordinator with the Emergency Management Accreditation Program. The Emergency Management Accreditation Program, better known as iMap, was established in the early 2000, predominantly for the reason that the emergency management community wanted to more professionalize their their positions.

00:02:39:16 - 00:03:07:00
Unknown
And and so they set out to, to start building a standard. And and over the years, that standard has evolved is, you know, iMap is a nonprofit organization who goes around internationally, accrediting emergency management programs against the standard. We ourselves are accredited organization. And the the iMap standard is accredited through the agency iMap emergency management standard.

00:03:07:02 - 00:03:39:22
Unknown
And what that what that standard does is it provides a framework for developing and implementing a continuous improvement for our emergency management, system itself. So, you know, it's it's all ultimately designed to ensure that our organization builds, you know, stronger, more resilient emergency management program, not just the job, but our stakeholders that, make up what we call the big P program for our jurisdictions, whether I'm a government agency or an, a private sector.

00:03:40:04 - 00:03:58:12
Unknown
You know, the standard itself is scalable for all of those levels of emergency management officers. Excellent. Just, you know, like how what are we talking how widely adopted is this, iMap standard now? Like what? How long has it been around for? And what do we, you know, kind of where are we at this point in time? Sure.

00:03:58:13 - 00:04:36:13
Unknown
Early 2000, 2099, 2000 is when this really kind of started getting that white paper and starting to move forward. And since then it's, it's evolved, to where we are today. And that standard, it is international. So we have programs as far as Saudi Arabia and Canada. We've, we've been in Africa and Australia and so we've taken the standard globally, and then we've expanded beyond just emergency management or, governmental, whether it be a state or a province or a nation or a county or municipality.

00:04:36:13 - 00:05:01:19
Unknown
We have transit organizations, we have international airports, we have health care facilities, we've got public utilities. All of those have gone through this accreditation process. Yeah, very interesting. That's and you know, the amazing that from the early 2000 to now already and, and already lots of global involvement there and lots of different types of industries it sounds like.

00:05:01:19 - 00:05:24:01
Unknown
And companies involved and different organizations. So yeah. Yeah very interesting. So emergency management is, involves significantly over the past decade. From your perspective, what are the trends or challenges that are helping shape the future of the profession. Well, so let's let's first start with, you know, as a great example, I took, as you know, Emap, we're based in Falls Church, Virginia.

00:05:24:05 - 00:05:51:04
Unknown
You know, one of the things I took is a, I took some data from, disasters that have occurred in the United States as an example, from 2020 to 2024, we've had 115 separate billion dollar disasters. And when we're talking about, you know, what we're seeing and you're all seeing, everybody sees it on the news globally with these disasters.

00:05:51:06 - 00:06:25:03
Unknown
These disasters are not just, you know, one sees in Tuesday's or, you know, small impacted areas. These are significant disasters that we're seeing on a much more frequent basis. So excuse me. So the frequency is is much more the complexity of these disasters are more because now we're seeing the frequency, which also means I don't recover from this disaster before I'm dealing with another one, especially when you're talking about wildfire season or hurricane season.

00:06:25:09 - 00:06:49:00
Unknown
You know, it's things like that. And then, you know, the the interconnectivity of these disasters. So I may have a hurricane, but I also have a dam failure. And I've got a significant flood. Yep. Or while all of this is going on, you know, folks who don't have great intentions decide to do a cyber attack during the entire, you know, initial disaster.

00:06:49:00 - 00:07:18:17
Unknown
So so we have to be prepared for multiple disasters going on simultaneously. So the standard helps build the emphasis on accountability and how we're dealing with equity and measurable outcomes. Because again, that's what we're seeing as this, as this, shifts and we start moving into our current time, those are some things that were, you know, being expected of us as professionals in that.

00:07:18:17 - 00:07:42:14
Unknown
So we've got to be able to operate in those environments. And it's also not just about the emergency management shop as as I mentioned earlier, it's the stakeholders that are part of this. And it's more of that whole community effect and how we we come together as that community to be able to try to respond and recover quicker.

00:07:42:14 - 00:08:02:21
Unknown
Yeah. And I think that's like it's really important for people to know nowadays that we do have these poly crisis, layers of crisis, happening within one emergency. And within one disaster. So the ones that I've been responding to here in Canada, I can tell you we've dealt with multiple layers of different things that we're we're going and, you know, when you're there.

00:08:02:23 - 00:08:31:01
Unknown
The other interesting thing too is, you know, you're doing an emergency for sometimes three months. So of course you're going to have other things pop up. Yeah. And and when you're doing this for three months, it's more important for people to come in and have a certain standard that they're meeting. Because when they walk through the door, they're at least meeting that standard that, you know, you're going to get a certain response out of that person, and they're bringing that skill into the team from their next door, or wherever they come from.

00:08:31:01 - 00:08:51:00
Unknown
So you're you're always borrowing people, right? Absolutely. From other organizations. So it's it's key that you're on the same page, right? Yeah, yeah. And we talk about like, so we, you know, a couple other ones I'll throw in the mix there because we're, we are having a conversation about standards, but we have the and ICS system and, and IMS systems as well.

00:08:51:00 - 00:09:14:03
Unknown
So those are all standards. Right. So there are different types of standards. But then within that we'll have larger within the emergency management program. Standards as well, like what you're talking about here today. So yeah. Yeah, yeah. You're, you're kind of moving in or speaking to about like technical standard areas. Yeah. Where the incident management system is a technical component of that.

00:09:14:08 - 00:09:43:03
Unknown
But you're 100% correct. You know, the overall emergency management standard incorporates your utilization of the incident management system and how you do your management as a whole and how you're doing situational analysis and situational reporting, incident action planning, and being able to coordinate how we're not only dealing with the impact that's going on in this operational period, but how do we deal with it in the next operational period, 72 hours from now or a month from now?

00:09:43:03 - 00:10:09:17
Unknown
How are we managing and what are we planning and predicting for? Yeah, absolutely. So you often emphasize that the Emap standard isn't just about accreditation. It's a roadmap for managing a program. Can you elaborate on how programs can use that as it is a management tool. And and even before they're pursuing accreditation? Yeah, sure. The so the accreditation again, credit accreditation is the end goal for some.

00:10:09:21 - 00:10:36:16
Unknown
But you're right, the overall journey towards that is building your program to the next level, but not just building it in a paper or paper palace to where you're actually getting all of the right documentation for that plaque on a wall. But you're actually, you're actually building your program and emphasizing on how you're managing and how your how are you utilizing all of that documentation.

00:10:36:18 - 00:10:56:02
Unknown
Right? So, you know, it doesn't do any good to have, strategic plan. And so, as we all know, a lot of us is all gone through the strategic plan workshop to build a strategic plan just for that document to get put on the top shelf. And for 4 to 5 years later, it comes dusted off to just do it again, right?

00:10:56:02 - 00:11:25:04
Unknown
Yeah. That strategic plan should be, a living document, and we should be using it. So the, the standard is standard is a program holistic document. So it goes from how I oh my authority and my legal authorities and my, my, strategic planning and my, my financial administrative procedures go all the way through hazard identification, hazard mitigation, prevention.

00:11:25:04 - 00:11:52:04
Unknown
And then we get into my continuity of operations, emergency operations, recovery operations, training and exercises, communications, resource management, logistics, mutual aid or joint information or crisis communication and public education. So it's the whole gamut, this standard really, it's a great tool for a brand new emergency manager just to try to figure out how they want a course of action and run their program.

00:11:52:04 - 00:12:23:09
Unknown
But for a seasoned, operator or or seasoned, emergency manager, it's a tool to ensure that we, we stay away from the, the day to day fog of the minutia of not getting stuff done, but, ability to keep focused on what our true mission is and, and keep aligned with that. Yeah. Interesting. It sounds like a really, good thing to pull all of this together because it's, you know, and I was hitting on this earlier, and I'm glad you picked on it.

00:12:23:11 - 00:12:50:12
Unknown
You know, we have all these standards that exist within these technical standards, but what we don't have is something that pulls it all together into a nice, neat package and, and and makes it one and measures that, to give us a standard across it all. And so yeah, it's, it's, it's great to, to have such a program that, that can support that and and ensure that wherever we are, we can come in with a similar standards, on boards.

00:12:50:13 - 00:13:17:03
Unknown
Yeah. And that's a nice thing about utilizing the iMap standard. Again, it's a global standard. So, you know, if if I live in the state of Kentucky here in the United States and if I have a major disaster and I have pulled the international mutual aid trigger, and Tim Conrad is coming in to assist my emergency operations center, you know, and you've gone through that accreditation process, you know, the procedures and process.

00:13:17:05 - 00:13:40:01
Unknown
It's going to be very easy to play in the same sandbox. And that's and that's the that's the the critical thing about, you know, major disasters when you're bringing in so many folks from all over the place into your area, we can all play in the same sandbox without much of a ramp up time frame set. And we always have to remember we're working in emergencies here.

00:13:40:01 - 00:14:03:07
Unknown
So the moment that we show up, it's already in a crisis and chaos mode at that point in time. Yeah, it's nice to know that we are working off the same stuff and at the same from the same place towards the same goal, right. So exactly. Yeah. And and it is I often have brought this story up by one of the emergencies I showed up for the very first moment, I'm showing up to check into the hotel.

00:14:03:07 - 00:14:21:13
Unknown
Standing next to me is a woman from the Red cross. She's from Texas. I'm in a little town in British Columbia here, and she's from Texas. So it just shows you that people do show up from all over. And the next day I met somebody from Australia. So they are absolutely. It is a global response when we have these large disasters.

00:14:21:13 - 00:14:35:06
Unknown
So yeah, absolutely. As you say, we're having a lot more of them. And yeah, I, I expected this year would be a little bit calmer for me. And I was still out there a couple times. So it was. Yeah. Busy. Yeah. I end up being a busy year.

00:14:35:08 - 00:15:03:13
Unknown
We are happy to be back after a longer break than we anticipated. Life definitely happened and I had to take a break. Sort of. While there aren't any new episodes posted recently, I've been busy going back and forth across the continent grabbing stories. We have many more new episodes to come. Thank you to our listeners and the country of Switzerland, along with the people in these communities.

00:15:03:15 - 00:15:13:18
Unknown
Rijeka, Croatia, New York, New York, Nelson, British Columbia, Harlow, England and Ankara, Turkey.

00:15:13:20 - 00:15:29:06
Unknown
you haven't stopped listening. And trust me, I know it. We now have listeners in over 50 countries and 500 communities around this beautiful marble we call home.

00:15:29:08 - 00:15:32:23
Unknown
what are some of the common gaps or areas for improvement?

00:15:33:00 - 00:15:58:05
Unknown
You see when you're working with programs seeking accreditation and how can leaders address them? Yeah, I'll say that there's there's probably three big areas that that we see. One is documentation and ownership. You know, a lot of times programs will have they'll have contractors will come in and write plans for them. So you need to ensure that I've got a plan that's being written for me.

00:15:58:07 - 00:16:19:14
Unknown
I've got a plan that's going to be effective for my jurisdiction. But whenever I'm putting documentation together, how am I managing that documentation? Right. So gets back to that strategic plan, getting put up on the shelf and never taken down until it's due to come, you know, to, that's not a usable document. Make sure documentation is usable for you.

00:16:19:14 - 00:16:43:05
Unknown
A lot of the a lot of us senior guys who may have been around the, around the block once or twice, you know, some some, some folks will wing it and come in. I grew up with a bunch of incident commanders who are really good about, handling this smaller scale incident, but once it goes to another operational period or multiple operational periods, then it is.

00:16:43:05 - 00:17:02:15
Unknown
Okay. Well, let's let's just do this because I know it at this lower level. So it's got to work for the bigger club. Not necessarily. So that's when that's when you come in with the procedure and you have the documentation or the the game plan in front of you. So that what went right three times ago. Right. We hadn't forgotten that.

00:17:02:15 - 00:17:30:11
Unknown
And we're still going to do what's right. And remember that we have a process for when something doesn't go right. We capture that information so that we fix it the next time, right? So we don't do so well. A lot of times in documenting how we do things, when I've got somebody with 30 years on the job and it's retirement, punch out time and they pop smoke and they leave, what did I do about capturing all of that person's experience?

00:17:30:11 - 00:17:54:03
Unknown
Is it in our policies and procedures? Is it in our lessons learned and action plans? Maybe not. So do we have these processes to capture our documentation? So that's one. The other one is stakeholder involvement. We don't really see programs, you know, as an emergency management program. I always talk about we don't own anything, but we coordinate everything.

00:17:54:07 - 00:18:34:10
Unknown
Right. So that coordination is somebody else, some other agency or some other department that I'm bringing to the table to fix a problem. I have to have that relationship in blue skies established and in place so that there's a trust factor there for us. When Gray skies occurs. And I need something from that person. Right. So I need to have that stakeholder involvement and that stakeholder relationship and programs don't do real well with reaching out and saying hi and getting some folks to the table and, and having some good dialog and communication to kind of fix something that might be they're going to have to deal with, you know, down the road.

00:18:34:16 - 00:18:58:08
Unknown
And then the last one, I would sit there and say, is this sustainability? How do we sustain what we have? How do we maintain it, keep it, and always have corrective action plans to make that ultimately better? Continuous improvement, our evaluation tools and how we go about evaluating and maintain documentation is a key factor. So those are some probably the highest ones that I see.

00:18:58:10 - 00:19:15:14
Unknown
That can be easily fixed and, and, and taking care of that doesn't really cost a whole lot of money. Oh that's right. And, and it's always interesting, you know, for me, I've been we were chatting a bit. We've, we've, we've been to a lot of different spots and seen a lot of different things. And we've also seen a lot of the repeated mistakes.

00:19:15:14 - 00:19:38:15
Unknown
And, and it's not needed. You don't need to keep repeating those mistakes. And it's, it's tough when I've walked into an emergency where I'm not well known and I'm going, hey, I kind of seen this before. And and they go through twice. Yeah. And I'm like, and they'll go, well, well, maybe once, you know, maybe that one time it didn't work this time.

00:19:38:15 - 00:20:07:12
Unknown
Well there was like four times that it was tried and didn't work. It also I kind of don't try that anymore. Yeah. There's you know, so yeah. Yeah. And so it is you know I think when we have standards, one of the things that we need to get to learn from others right as we're going and, and realize that you know, we, we can come in and, and you know, documentation is probably one of the biggest ones that I see when I walk into many folks is like, we got to bring it up.

00:20:07:14 - 00:20:30:04
Unknown
Always have to bring it up a notch, right? So get your documentation a little bit better because it does come up later whether you want it to or not. It's, it's extremely important piece of what we do. So. Yeah. So you you've spoken, as well about leadership and culture and emergency management. And how does organizational culture influence preparedness and what role?

00:20:30:07 - 00:20:53:21
Unknown
I'm just curious, what role does leadership play in building a resilient program? I think I think culture is everything. Right. So if you have you can have the best plans, the best tools, the best people. But if there's not an organizational culture, that and that organization doesn't value the preparedness or doesn't value the collaboration or accountability, then it's all in the trash.

00:20:53:21 - 00:21:29:20
Unknown
Nothing's it's not going to it's not going to work. So leadership sets the tone right. You know, so when leaders prioritize training and and support after action reviews or reward, proactive problem solving, they create a culture where the preparedness becomes the norm and rather than the afterthought. And, you know, so in my experience, you know, the most resilient programs are those that have leadership, that have empowered their team to think critically, to act decisively, continuously, learn.

00:21:29:20 - 00:22:02:17
Unknown
So standards like iMap help reinforce that culture by providing a structure. Right. So there's a structure there. But it's the leadership, the it's the leadership that that or that, structure. Right. So a strong culture will, will turn a compliance into a commitment and capability. And it's it will completely transform that emergency management program, making it from, you know, a department into a shared responsibility across the entire enterprise.

00:22:02:17 - 00:22:28:05
Unknown
And I grew up, you know, emergency managers, you know, that, you know, my, my background was in Florida, so we had a disaster or two on a regular basis during hurricane season. Right? So, yeah. So, as you know, and at that point, my, my role there was the state urban search and rescue coordinator. So I was coordinating all of our urban search rescue teams and everything.

00:22:28:07 - 00:23:02:03
Unknown
And I was working with an emergency manager that had a concept of leaning forward and leaning fast. So you make that decision, make it early, make it decisive, but also be willing that if it's wrong to correct, make a course correction and go about it. But lean forward. Don't. Because if you lean forward, your decision making and resources that you've put in place are oftentimes ahead of the game and pre-positioned and in place when an incident is needed versus let's sit on it, let's not make a decision.

00:23:02:03 - 00:23:25:04
Unknown
Oh, crap, I need to, you know, I need to push the resources. And now they're a day late or too late. Two days late. Right. So that becomes now I've created a much bigger bell curve that I needed to. And, you're you're much better off to make the mistake leaning forward. Then make a mistake by not making a decision or not, you know, leaning forward.

00:23:25:04 - 00:23:50:14
Unknown
So if I'm looking to get fired, I'd rather get fired for for pushing forward and leaning a little bit heavy and and versus not having the right resources to help bring a community back to their, their normal, whatever it is anymore. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's right. Yeah. And it's. Yeah, I mean, it it it's we we ultimately want to get through a response into recovery as clean as possible.

00:23:50:14 - 00:24:13:02
Unknown
Right. And as, as quickly as possible. And I, I talk about this with my team a lot that we want to put as little effort into the stuff that we have to do on a regular basis, you know, and I say that with respect, it's as little effort as possible so that we can focus on the other areas where we need to spend our time thinking of stuff that's really challenging us.

00:24:13:02 - 00:24:36:05
Unknown
So but for us in the communications world, we're putting out evacuation orders and alerts all the time and then changes to them. Well, that process can be very refined and we can have that down. And it's the same process every time with just different information. So we can have that process refined. And if we do that really well, that means we open up a few minutes here and there to think about other things.

00:24:36:05 - 00:24:56:10
Unknown
And again, having a good program, having good processes in place and having those standards in place ultimately helps us to do that and then gives us time to think, gives us time to do the things that we need to do. So yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And leadership by itself is its own multiple series of podcasts, you know, when it comes to just leadership.

00:24:56:12 - 00:25:15:15
Unknown
Yeah. And then you know, you mentioned just on the com side of the House, you know, from a leadership perspective I need to make sure that we're exercising. But but as a leader I'm going to be mad if you give me an exercise where you're going to be all fine and dandy and everything is fine. Yeah, right. Yeah.

00:25:15:15 - 00:25:39:21
Unknown
I absolutely refuse to accept those type of exercises you have to exercise to fail, break something during exercise. So that way we we've got an idea how to fix it when it actually does break, or we can preempt it and mitigate it. And it won't break when we actually need it to need it to function. That's right. Yeah, yeah.

00:25:39:23 - 00:25:57:09
Unknown
And I, I also want to like just take a moment here and let's talk about like when we have standards in an organization and we're auditing against them. There's this belief, I think out there that when we have that kind of a standard in place and have that kind of auditing happening, that people are like, this, this, it must be killing of creativity.

00:25:57:09 - 00:26:21:03
Unknown
And, and I, I go back I, I earlier in my career, I worked in an organization that was ISO certified so that that was extreme, extreme certification that we had to go through every document, every process, every policy was all tied to the other policy, like everything was interconnected. And, and everything that we did, we were we are also a training and audit organization as our operation.

00:26:21:06 - 00:26:37:16
Unknown
So everything that we did fell into that program and we had to follow the processes. What was interesting, though, was like when I entered that I never been in an organization quite like that before, was I was like, this is is it going to be boring, a bland because we're doing the exact same thing the exact same way all the time.

00:26:37:21 - 00:26:51:10
Unknown
And again, I go back to my communication stuff. It's like, yeah, we're going to do the stuff that we do that we have to do on a regular basis, the same way all the time, but then we can have all these other opportunities to have other conversations and really, really start to dig in on this other stuff. Yeah.

00:26:51:11 - 00:27:17:05
Unknown
And that was I actually found in that organization, we had more time for creativity than any other organization. I've been in all the time. Like it was just shocking to me how much time we had. So, you know, and I will put that into, you know. So from my world was always in special operations. Right. So in special operations, you, you know, you have the higher quality of personnel.

00:27:17:09 - 00:27:40:21
Unknown
All of you, all of them are the type A's. Go get it, get it done. And if it's if it's not there, then you're going to create something to fix it right. So with that same mentality you're absolutely correct. You're you're taking a standard. And the standard is interconnectivity. Right. But my very first thing that I need to do is determine who I am.

00:27:41:00 - 00:28:00:16
Unknown
I'm an emergency management program. Here's my legal authorities what I can do. And here's the core submission that I that I have. Right. The very next thing is what are my hazards? I need to identify what am I up against as an organization, right. And as an emergency management organization. And then from there, what are my mitigation efforts?

00:28:00:16 - 00:28:21:14
Unknown
What are my prevention efforts? I got to train and exercise on those hazards. I have to have resource management and logistics and mutual aid to deal with the resources needed to respond to that. I have to have an incident management structure to be able to manage this incident. And then my communications around my the common operating picture or what else can happen.

00:28:21:14 - 00:28:46:00
Unknown
So my redundancy systems and making sure that I have those redundancies in there. And then how do I communicate my with my community? How do I let the community know about these hazards and how when we do have an incident, how do I make sure that I've got a joint information system that is designed to communicate to the community, let them know what's going on that we have leadership, we have things under control, and we have that all of that's interconnected.

00:28:46:00 - 00:29:07:03
Unknown
But if you look at if you listen to what I just said, we should be doing that anyway, that's all of the stuff that we do, right? If we're doing that and we, you know, we're just using the opportunity to make sure that I've captured the document because every emergency manager and every emergency management program does it. We just don't document it very well.

00:29:07:06 - 00:29:27:21
Unknown
This helps you take it to that next level. And just like you said once I'm at that level now, I get to look at what else is out there. What kind of research and development can I now do? Because we're doing these things. What else can make that work better, more efficient? You know, what are some other things in the horizon that I need to be prepared for?

00:29:27:21 - 00:29:53:06
Unknown
What's the new trends that are coming out? You know, all of those things is what helps. You know me, be a better emergency manager and a better program and how I can coordinate with my stakeholders, my partners, better. How can I be more efficient on this little widget situation that comes up? I don't have that widget, but these three agencies have that widget when it's all combined together.

00:29:53:08 - 00:30:14:09
Unknown
Now we can now we can approach that in a whole different manner. And yeah. And you're right, you have to by having a meeting that standard. Now you can up your game. Yeah, yeah yeah. It's a, I can't say enough I it's through my time in both the fire service and public relations and emergency management because I've bounced all around, all over the place.

00:30:14:11 - 00:30:34:23
Unknown
It's, it's been neat to see how standards have impacted things and, and, and, and improved organizations, but also improve things for the public. And I don't think people realize that that it's even as simple as, you know, when you hear those sirens going, you'll hear two sirens all of a sudden and then maybe three sirens. Well, that's a standard being applied right there.

00:30:35:03 - 00:30:54:07
Unknown
You're absolutely correct that if you get a certain call that these vehicles are going to go out the door right away with these people in them, and this specific set of technical skills are coming at you right away. And it's just immediately right off of that 911 call. So that's how to kind of think about it as a standard approach that we are going up through the system that way.

00:30:54:07 - 00:31:00:15
Unknown
Right. And they go all the way through. Yeah. Go.

00:31:00:17 - 00:31:31:04
Unknown
We are always looking for interesting guests and topics. Jump on the communications podcast.com to send us a message, which is where you can also leave us, review or subscribe or share the podcast. We appreciate any of those. Thank you so much. You will also find transcripts, links and information from our guests on our website, and I would appreciate it if you shared this podcast with someone who works for an airline, where we definitely want standards applied and no emergencies.

00:31:31:06 - 00:31:57:19
Unknown
last up, I've got three questions that I ask all guests that I have on. So what is one book, documentary or resource that you recommend for those learning about crisis emergency management or firefighting? Let's see. There's there's one, there's one leadership. There's one leadership book that, that I just, read, not it's called extreme ownership.

00:31:57:21 - 00:32:35:09
Unknown
And, by, Babin and Willis. Williamson. They're a couple of Navy Seal guys, but they took the concept of, as a leader. You own it, you know? So take ownership of that leadership and that, that that book is a is a is a good, good book on on making sure that you put your ego in check and you know, when things go wrong, take a look at yourself first on how you're managing things and how you're leading, because that might be where the actual problem is versus pointing fingers someplace else.

00:32:35:09 - 00:33:08:17
Unknown
Yeah, yeah. Excellent. And next up is what advice could you offer information officers or communicators managing crisis or emergency that would help them perform their job more effectively? Don't stop learning, don't stop training, don't stop. You know, building. You're going to I'm going to I'm going to throw my age out or continue that Rolodex of resources and, you know, keep, keep building on your, your, your, your contacts to like, like, you know, Tim and I, you know, met at the dim con.

00:33:08:19 - 00:33:36:21
Unknown
So there's a lot of learning and a lot of education that occurs just in the halls of those conferences is not just in the classroom. So having that, having that opportunity to go out and continue to build your profession to, to make yourself better never ends. So always continue to do whenever you think that you're you're done learning something, then that's probably the time you're looking at retirement.

00:33:36:23 - 00:33:58:21
Unknown
Are you should be thinking about retirement because you really are, at a point of always learning because there's always something. Yeah. Not really. Always is. And it's just it, I don't know, it's a lot of fun to learn what can't go wrong in my eyes. So when you're learning something new. So how do you how do you maintain your mental well-being during the most intense moments of response?

00:33:58:22 - 00:34:18:11
Unknown
So I've I've had a few in my career and you know, the, you know, the the biggest thing about those things is, is, you know, coming back to the firehouse or coming back to your team and your crew and talk, you know, let it out, you know, talk what you know, talk what you know, how you're feeling and what's going on.

00:34:18:13 - 00:34:42:15
Unknown
Continue to do that and then you know, and take it one step further and have, you know, a buddy that you can always call upon and just have that conversation and, and never, ever feel like, but especially in my era, it was was suck it up, you'll be fine and get over it type of thing. That's not the case anymore.

00:34:42:15 - 00:35:06:10
Unknown
And and it really shouldn't have been the case back then. There are any number of, of, of programs that you can reach out and communicate and talk with, but, getting that out and having some conversation is, is a is a big, big deal. Yeah. Yeah. Excellent. That's great advice. Yeah. Thanks a lot, Todd, for joining me today.

00:35:06:10 - 00:35:25:01
Unknown
I really appreciate you joining me here on the wildfires, Floods and Chaos Communications podcaster. Been great to have you. And if you don't mind, you know, for anybody, you know, feel free. You know, go to the website at iMap dawg. And and you can pull up the standard and you can get a copy of the standard and takes a look at that.

00:35:25:01 - 00:35:42:21
Unknown
And, and how that can apply and work on that. And then you can always reach out to me at Todd at the map, dawg, and I'll be happy to help answer any questions of anybody who might be thinking, to, you know, just improve your program or seek the creative accreditation. So please don't, don't hesitate to reach out.

00:35:42:22 - 00:36:01:02
Unknown
Excellent. And, we were talking already. We're going to have you back on for another episode to talk about Urban Search and rescue, because you got a little just a little bit of background on that. So. Yeah. So we'll we'll see you on a future episode, for that. And I look forward to it. It sounds great. Thanks a lot, Todd.

00:36:01:04 - 00:36:26:17
Unknown
If you like this episode, check out season two, episode 11 with Shawna Bruce. Crisis Communications Management Training for the worst performing at your best where we talk and standards. Thank you for joining the wildfires, Floods and Chaos Communications podcast. A production of Butterfly Effect Communications. We are masters of doom and gloom. Bringing calm to chaos. Goodbye. Hear me later.