Crisis-ready Leadership

2 Operating Contexts – Command and Coordination

In Chapter 1, we developed a context for the spectrum of incidents and explored emerging threats and hazards which could impact future response actions and decision-making. In this chapter, we are going to explore the organizational context along the spectrum of incidents. Single organizational operating contexts present their own challenges, but when combined with different jurisdictions and public–private interests, the organizational challenges become much more complex and political. Therefore, it is not only important to understand how the scale of an incident and the multitude of organizations involved in the response are supposed to interact, but also the practical issues encountered. This foundation is essential to preparing an organization or community for an incident so that these issues can be explored with response partners and aid agreements can be constructed in a way to minimize friction and optimize cooperation and coordination.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this chapter, you will be able to:

• Identify sources of dissonance between various groups that respond to threats and hazards.
• Understand the significant challenges to interoperability.
• Understand the importance of engaging both the private and public sector in emergency response, annual exercises, and pre-incident planning.
• Construct a unified command system.

2.1 Public Safety Context

Let’s begin with the public safety context. In 2004, the Department of ...