Category: Uncategorized
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Wicked problems: How we get stuck knowing risks exist but not knowing what to do about them.
One thing I often hear from my students is that some of the research we read about risk management is “obvious”–we know climate change is happening, especially. They are surprised we aren’t doing more to address it. But knowing a risk exists and doing something about it are two very different and very large conversations.…
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Why are we calling emergencies “incidents”?
This week the AP style book suggested that writers should not refer to emergencies as “incidents.” This caused some good chatter among emergency and risk management professionals, who say incident all the time, so much so that the word is encoded in systems for managing emergencies (FEMA encourages all emergency management organizations to use a…
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Should you be assessing risk like NASA?
There are a variety of metrics we can use to assess the risks and benefits of decisions. Informally, I love a good pro-con list, but for NASA, risk assessment is a matter of life, death, and millions of dollars, so it’s unsurprising that they have a method for rating risk scope and likelihood. Here are…
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Our boldest ideas for avoiding natural disasters: bombing them
It’s the start of camping season, or as I like to call it, voluntarily being beat up by nature. Even a simple rain storm can really humble me when I’m camping for the weekend–we humans like to think we control our environments but take the house away and I am suddenly such a delicate creature.…
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What can the history of FEMA teach us about managing risks?
FEMA’s birthday was this week! I totally forgot to give them a gift, but if I could, I might gift them separation from the Department of Homeland Security. That’s right, welcome to this blog’s first hot take, let’s talk about the history of disaster management in the US and just how it came to be…
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What goes in the office emergency plan?
Recent emergencies have got me thinking about office emergency protocols. That’s probably because the other week I was driving to campus when I received a text alert about a bomb threat to the building next to my office. Huh, I thought. Do I keep driving in? I ended up turning around and heading home to…
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