Lessons from the Greatest Generation

Lessons from the Greatest Generation
The Value of Public/Private Partnerships in Critical Incident Management

Utilizing the data from the last Power Point slide (Joint Public-Private Partnership Processes), select four of the items and make a comparison between the public and private sectors. Based upon the readings, instructor comments, and personal experiences/observations/thoughts, briefly discuss the similarities and differences between the sectors. Also, please describe how a partnership can strengthen the selected areas.

It is important to understand the relationships and motivations of the stakeholders involved in a community's critical incident management public private partnership. Successful emergency management planning and execution requires the cooperation of a large and diverse group of parties, including:

Public Interests
- Elected Officials
- First Responders
- Civil Servants
Quasi-Government Agencies (i.e. Public Utilities)
Private Businesses
Citizens
Other Interested Parties (i.e. Community Organizations)

There are three primary factors that are crucial to the success of any public private partnership in this field:

Leadership - There must be a strong leadership team in place to develop a process and manage its implementation from Planning to Preparedness to Response through Recovery.
Communication - There needs to be as open line of communication amongst all the stakeholders that encourages mutual trust, understanding and collaboration. The key is to eliminate the "stovepipe mentality" and overcome the human psychological tendency that leads to denial.
Incentives - Stakeholder incentives need to be properly aligned to ensure mutual cooperation and commitment of all parties involved.

A critical incident management public private partnership is established to deal with events that result from manmade or natural events that threaten people, property, or the community and occur outside the normal scope of routine business operations or functions.(Jones, Handout, 2005) It is important to remember that the partnership is in place to deal with extraordinary incidents such as the Oklahoma City Bombing, natural disasters and pandemics, not run of the mill accidents, injuries, or robberies.

Issue	Public		Private
Issue	Focus	Description	Focus	Description
Risk	External	Focused upon community wide issues.	Internal	Focused upon company centric issues.
Procedures	Internal	Utilizes internally approved or developed procedures.	Internal	Utilizes internally developed procedures.
Resources	Generalist	Manages wide array of resources.	Specialist	Owns or controls a specialized set of resources.
Expertise	Generalists	Maintains wide array of expertise.	Specialists	Maintains a specialized expertise.
(Jones, Handout, 2005)

The diversity of interests and skill sets in any given community offers a resource during a critical incident that could not be duplicated by a similarly sized group of homogenous collaborators. As the saying goes "one plus one equals three" in public/private partnerships.

For example with the proper partnership in place, the private sectors intimate knowledge of their internal risks will help expedite the public sectors planning and response to a critical at a private sector facility. The public sectors knowledge of the overall community risks will help it to properly assess and prioritize the private sector's risk vis-a-vis the overall community profile.

A private sector participant with well established internal operating procedures adds a critical structural component that can be leveraged in a public/private partnership. The public sector tends to have its own procedures and the hope is that these procedures will ultimately be based upon the National Incident Management System (NIMS) standards. Once again a calm, well prepared and organized private sector participant helps to highlight and reinforce the value of the partnership.

Resources and expertise are very similar issues when it comes to critical incident management. For example, a well prepared private sector partner with expertise and resources to handle a specialized incident, e.g. nuclear power plant reactor situation, is the ideal partner for a public sector responder with a more generalized background. In situations like this, the public and private parties, must cooperate together to respond and recover from the incident.

When reviewing the virtues of this partnership, I am reminded of a commencement speech that Tom Brokaw gave at my brother's graduation where he spoke about The Greatest Generation. Mr. Brokaw described a generation of people who had grown up during the depression and come of age during WWII. "This generation was united not only by a common purpose, but also by common values--duty, honor, economy, courage, service, love of family and country, and, above all, responsibility for oneself."(Random House, 2005)

It is my belief that with the diversity of talents, strengths and united purpose created through a public/private partnership, there is no critical incident too large or difficult to handle. The key is that the leadership must be in place, lines of communication must be open and the incentive structure must encourage "everyone to row in the same direction." The Greatest Generation was able to overcome seemingly insurmountable odds and so can any community that is committed to a partnership that breeds trust, cooperation, and commitment.

Jones, R. (2005) Instructor's Comments on Perception Survey – Module 1: E-Mail.

Jones, R. (2005) Perceptions of the Public and Private Sectors - Module 3: Handout.

Michigan State University School of Criminal Justice. (2000) Critical Incident Protocol - A Public and Private Partnership. Retrieved June 1, 2005 from
http://www.cj.msu.edu/%7Eoutreach/CIP/CIP.pdf

Michigan State University School of Criminal Justice. (2002) Dialogue on Public/Private Sector Critical Incident Issues.