Lessons from the Unthinkable

Courtesy NBC
What more can be said about the images from New Orleans that have not already been said? That the damage wrought by Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath are of Biblical proportions. That the heartbreaking tragedy exposed the desperation of an underclass that many of us either did not know, or did not want to know, existed. That the delayed response will prompt a long-overdue examination of how we ignore the most desperate among us until events force us to confront them.

There's an inherent unfairness in Monday morning quarterbacking. It's so darned easy to know what I would have done if only they had been smart enough to have me in charge. And yet, when we confront the real crises that our businesses face all too often, it's the post mortem examination that keeps us from being condemned to repeat history.

Crisis planning is an indispensable part of prudent corporate and organizational governance. But how often do we nod our heads at the resulting crisis plan...and then immediately set it aside while we tackle those front-burner issues? After all, a crisis may never happen if we're lucky, but we know the board meeting next week will happen all too soon.

That's what happened just a few months ago, in June, when the New Orleans Army Corps of Engineers budget was cut by 44 percent. That meant a study to determine how to protect the Big Easy from a Category 5 hurricane was seen as unimportant in comparison with more pressing needs (see Molly Ivins' column of September 1, 2005).

No one today would even attempt to justify such a study as unessential. But in June, when Katrina was not even a ripple off the African coast, it was. No, actually, it was always essential. We just didn't choose to see it. And that's the lesson for us. We need to plan now, and then go a step further and actually implement the recommendations that will help us to deal with the unthinkable. The possibilities that are most frightening to confront are often the most important.

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