Q: What Do You Do in the First 5 Minutes of Disaster? A: Heroic Improvisation has the Answer!

For the first time, Gabe and I did two workshops in one day.  We did two employee groups of a regional Filipino airline.  (They also donated six airline tickets for our team to go to the Super-Typhoon Haiyan disaster site February 28 - March 2.)

The morning group was mixed group of senior leaders and front-line staff.  This airline has a safety culture and is used to having protocols for every situation.  We needed to shake it up a bit for them.  Therefore, Gabe emphasized our workshop focused on responding to the first five minutes of an unimaginable event that was outside of protocols or  “off-script”.

The group was uncomfortable with the “off-script” concept, which was perfect for the goals of our workshop.  We need to take people out of their comfort zones to use their imaginations powerfully.

We had the group rate its response to our opening scenario on a scale from 1low - 10 high.   They rated themselves low for surviving the scenario and a little higher for working as a group.  Our workshop demonstrated that standing around brainstorming is not the best response for an unimaginable situation.   During the opening scenario, the group shared feelings like:  being silly, scared, and waiting for a leader.  Towards the end of the workshop, the group got better at moving into action despite feeling uncomfortable and practicing fluid leadership -- regardless of current work assignment.

Then we went to lunch, where were joined by one of the airline’s senior leader and our newest Heroic Improvisation facilitator recruit.  Katy Mixter is a American who has come to the Philippines to volunteer in community building and disaster preparedness.  She is working on a variety of projects during her three-month stint, which ends April 30th.  Katy is working with Galwad Kalinga http://www.gk1world.com/.  Along with facilitating the Heroic Improvisation workshop, Katy will help me develop and edit the facilitator guides.

The afternoon group from the airlines was different than the morning group.  This group had the emergency response team and front-line staff.  Their natural action orientation got them up and moving quickly, so their experience of the workshop flowed more easily.  They did well in our opening scenario and also improved their response as a group in our closing scenario.

I learned that an ingrained team culture can be a vice when responding to an unimaginable event together.  The legacies of the team and established hierarchies can limit a creative response.  By using the power of imagination, we were able to give these employee groups a fresh view of how they can work together in the moment instead of relying on stale protocols that don’t apply to a unique disaster situation.