Disruptive Event Management: Why might it be important?

When an organization is hit with an event that carries the potential for impacting its employees in some fashion, it affects their ability to perform their work, which often affects the productivity of the organization, which, of course, can hit the bottom line.

The organization can take a variety of responses, including the basic “ostrich style” of management, which is to stick your head in the sand and wait for the danger to pass. The problem with this response is that it is ineffective and gives a poor message to your employees.

A disruptive event has the power to make employees from the top down “vibrate” in an uncomfortable manner while they are trying to make sense of what just happened. It is frequently the unexpected death of a colleague (whether due to a health event, on or off-site accident, murder, or suicide). Or maybe it is the untimely death of a colleague’s family member in the same circumstances. Maybe it is a robbery. Maybe it is adjusting the size of your workforce.

In the immediate aftermath, leadership can be unsure of what to say or do to assist their staffs. The employees may not know how to talk with one another about some of their reactions to the event.

What can be useful after a disruptive event? An intervention that is proven effective in managing the aftermath and is tailored specifically to the company and its employees.

The primary purpose of all disruptive event management (DEM) activities is education. While our interventions are an effective series of techniques, at its heart is the provision of information. Information which other people just like them, who have experienced a similar event, have found helpful in their return to pre-incident functioning. We want to assist them in their natural resiliency and ability to “bounce back”.

Our national network of local consultants are prepared to deliver this education within your company or telephonically, to assist them in understanding their reactions to the event, to helping themselves and each other to return to productivity, and reestablish the stability of the organization.

It helps the employees, the managers, and ultimately the bottom line. Sure beats being an Ostrich.

.About the Author: Dennis Potter, LMSW, CAADC, CCS, FAAETS is the CEO of Kantu Consultants and a member of the R3 Continuum DEM Consultant Network. He is a licensed social worker, certified addiction counselor and a Fellow, by the American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress. Dennis helped to form one of the first community based Crisis Response Teams in the country, and was a founding member of the Mid-West Michigan CISM Team and the Michigan Crisis Response Association. Since 1989, Hehas helped to train many of the CISM teams in Michigan and in 24 other states.

Dennis has conducted or consulted on all manner of disruptive events for communities, businesses, schools, police, fire and emergency services personnel, the U S Post Office, and community mental health agencies. He is frequently called upon for consultation after particularly difficult events. In addition to his disruptive event response experience he has received training and supervision in Cognitive Therapy from the Beck Institute in Philadelphia, PA and participated in train the trainer courses in Motivational Interviewing. He is a national and international presenter and trainer. He has presented at the last 10 International Critical Incident Stress Foundation (ICISF) World Congresses and was awarded the ICISF Excellence in Training and Educations Award at the ICISF 2011 World Congress.

For more information on Kantu Consultants visit:  http://kantu.org/