Hazard Risk Resilience Magazine Volume 1 Issue 2 | Page 59

59 that when they’re not there our systems break down rather quickly, they’re not very resilient at all, and we might be more vulnerable than we realise. When standards fail to address the vulnerabilities inherent to the system new avenues need to be explored for managing crisis. Borodzicz recommends that generic training for crisis management should teach teams to respond more flexibly during crisis events, by encouraging them to develop and run their own exercises for example. Borodzicz argues, ‘the majority of the work is done by trainer, not trainee’ and, ‘…the players should become the exercise designers’. Trainees would design specific scenarios where the rules don’t work. ‘If the rules work it’s not a crisis exercise, it’s an emergency response exercise. This forces them to find inventive ways of resolving the problem. I believe that’s a really effective way of building capability’. he says. Going beyond the rules in order to manage crisis doesn’t mean that people should not work to prevent risk − yet preparations should be made for when risk management fails. According to Borodzicz, the protocols or standards relied upon for emergencies are not appropriate for resolving a crisis. In fact, the rules in place could actually have contributed to or caused the crisis to begin with, or may make us even more vulnerable if they fail. While reliance on technological systems in modern society has led to substantial improvements in quality of life, in some cases they have exposed human populations to new vulnerabilities. This is well-illustrated by transport systems that have become highly sophisticated, but can easily fail if exposed to the ‘wrong’ hazard. In many cases all that is needed is a volcanic ash cloud or in the UK particularly, a snow storm, and suddenly the systems in place are severely hampered or could fail to operate altogether. Borodzicz gives the example of communication infrastructure: In terms of communication, we take it for granted that communication facilities are there and we can just pick them up and use them. And