May 2006

Bird Flu…What Would You Do?
By Jan Richards, J. G. Richards Consulting

If the bird flu hits, what will you do?

I scared myself researching this article. Really, I did. Yet I moved through, knowing that this is an important issue.

Avian or bird flu. It if hits humans, as many insist it will, what will you do?

Bird flu is caused by a Type A influenza virus, one of the type that has caused previous pandemics. Bird flu has been moving steadily around the world, and is picking up speed as it moves from continent to continent. So far, humans have caught the illness from infected birds, not from other people. If and when humans can catch it from each other, bird flu is likely to spread rapidly in the human population, too.

"Bits of the (bird flu) puzzle are missing," noted Dr. David Nabarro, chief avian flu coordinator for the United Nations in a recent New York Times article. "In six months, will we be cursing ourselves for missing some big phenomenon now?"

Estimates are that up to 40% of your workforce could be out for a month or more because they would be unable or unwilling to work face-to-face with others, or because they are busy caring for ill family members.

If these possibilities turn out to be even marginally true, even the best company in an otherwise perfect situation will be thrown into major disarray for some time. The same will be happening, of course, to many of your customers and suppliers. You won't be alone, which makes the situation better AND worse.

The Bird Flu Action Plan

So before some parts of your state become quarantined because the flu has arrived, develop a bird flu action plan. Among other things, the plan should include a description of how you will activate, communicate, shift, carry on and come together again. Specifically, the plan should answer the following questions.

Activate
Who has the authority to act? How will that person know it is time to respond?

Communicate
Who is in charge of each function in the company, and who are the primary backup, or backups, for each person? You need to spell out how decisions and information will flow within the company in what will inevitably be a tense and confusing situation. Also, make it clear who will communicate with customers, suppliers and employees; and who their backups are. In addition, decide and document how you'll know and then keep everyone informed about the health of the company and its employees. You need to be well-informed and prepared to change your plans, if necessary, as the bird flu moves through.

Shift
How could you change your work practices quickly to more flexible, more focused operations? This could be especially important with many employees telecommuting or working from other remote locations, if they can, for a month or more.

Carry On
How could you function in the face of uncertainty, bad news, and reduced or perhaps increased demand for your products and services that you may not be able to meet?

Come Alive Again
How would you come back together as a company, and rebuild a strong, successful team from those who can and want to return to work when you need them to?

Developing the Plan

Here are a few ideas to help you start making your plan.

Create scenarios
To stretch the limits of your thinking, pick out a few disaster movies to immerse your team in the right, if potentially exaggerated, frame of mind. (This is not a joke.) Outbreak, Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow are good places to start.

Get back to the basics
It's like a person who begins to freeze when caught in a snowstorm. His body shuts down its systems to direct energy to the most essential functions that will protect his life. Decide and plan how to shift resources to the functions that your company must continue, no matter what else happens.

Document
If you haven't done so, document your essential business processes – the ones you would protect above all others – in ways that will make the information readily accessible and usable by anyone who might need it. Make sure the information is available in multiple forms and multiple locations, as you cannot know ahead of time who will be fulfilling each role in each function. Build in accessibility, adaptability, and as much quality and consistency as you can protect.

Train
Train everyone in their assigned backfill roles. Select and train a supplementary workforce if you think your business survival and long-term success warrants it. Teach people how to access and use process documentation quickly and easily in case they need to step into positions for which they are not backfill-trained. It could happen.

Simulate
Test your plan, including the possibility of needing to suddenly replace key members of the company with the people who will backfill for them. Test a variety of scenarios, such as having one or more divisions unavailable, or having randomly assigned employees out of commission. Test other possible circumstances, such as having 40-50% of your employees unavailable to work in their regular locations for an extended time.

A Blessing in Disguise?

How could this extreme uncertainty turn out to be a blessing in disguise? As you may recall, the Chinese symbol for disaster is the same as the symbol for opportunity.

The best thing that could happen is that you could gain the benefits without ever having to pay the price.

Perhaps bird flu will never jump species, from birds to humans. In the process of planning and preparing, your company will learn to respond creatively, and build greater strength, trust and resiliency that will be valuable for some other challenge. This process could also help you improve communication and streamline operations as you identify ways you could simplify to survive, if needed.

What's the worst that can happen, if you don’t prepare? I'll leave that up to your imagination.

A Few Ideas about Resiliency and Innovation

Innovation comes when there is a tender balance between chaos and bureaucracy, and not too much of either takes over.
Brewster Kahle.

You don't see something until you have the right metaphor to let you perceive it.
Thomas Kuhn

Imagination is more important than knowledge.
Albert Einstein

History is a vast early warning system.
Norman Cousins

The problem with the gene pool is that there is no lifeguard.
C. Lindahl

©2006, J. G. Richards Consulting. All rights reserved.

About the Author: Jan Richards, J. G. Richards Consulting, helps Bay Area companies clarify their vision, goals and priorities, create strategic and action plans, and implement strong and effective process management, adding up to higher revenues, and lower costs. She has consulted for more than 10 years with clients in the high tech, biotech, financial services and Internet arenas. For more information, contact Jan at 408-249-7287 or email jan@jgrichardsresults.com.