iluminr week 2020

Preparing for La Niña vs COVID-19

This session deep dives into the unique lessons learned from COVID-19 response and debriefs, natural disaster response during previous La Niña years, and lessons from the USA’s hurricane season, wildfire season and COVID-19 outbreaks.

Key discussion points:

• Lessons from COVID-19 debriefs
• Losses, impacts and lessons from previous La Niña events
• Considerations for facing La Niña preparations, taking into account COVID-19 health exposures
• Q&A

Panellists:

• Dan Shields – CEO RiskLogic
• Craig Taylor – Head of Property, Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance
• Lucia Mullen – Research Associate, Johns Hopkins University
• Marcus Vaughan – Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer, Catalyst Technologies

Session highlights:

• Adaptability is key: organizations need to be able to quickly respond and re-prioritize in the face of multiple events.
• Prepare to respond confidently: what an organization does before an event will influence how well they navigate a crisis.
• Re-assess your supply chain: Supply chains will continue to show fragility in 2021, with some being exposed to the global prioritization of vaccine distribution. Reassessment and contingency planning is key.

Thriving through the emerging threats of 2021

As COVID-19 continues to shape how our societies operate globally, new threats are emerging. This session explores the unique perspectives on key emerging threats of 2021 and considerations for organizations to evolve their operations, and embed a dynamic approach to risk and preparedness.

We deep dive into our new normal and the compounding critical events that come with it, the importance of bringing flexibility and new approaches to manage these ongoing events, and the importance of ensuring people are physically and mentally resilient against crisis paralysis.

Key discussion points:

• Lessons from 2020
• The evolving threat landscape and forecasted projections for COVID-19: 2021
• Evolving operating rhythms to thrive through the emerging threats of 2021
• Q&A

Panellists:

• Professor Nigel McMillan – Program Director (Infectious Diseases and Immunology), Menzies Institute
• Jason Thewlis – Group Head of Business Continuity, QBE
• Simon Petie – Director, Escalate Consulting
• Marcus Vaughan – Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer, Catalyst Technologies

Session highlights:

• Get used to the new normal: Professor Nigel McMillan brought some reality to our new normal this morning stating “Rest assured that this virus is now with us forever, it’s not going away”, which frames a wealth of considerations that need to be made when managing teams, well-being and compounding critical events as they arise.
• Planning and adaptability: Jason Thewlis highlighted the importance of bringing flexibility and new approaches to managing disruptions in the new normal. “Don’t plan for the last battle, we need to be flexible enough to be scenario agnostic.”
• Crisis paralysis is a real thing”: Simon Petie reinforced that response team capacity is finite. “The ongoing focus should be on resilience to make sure people are in a good space physically and mentally.”

Managing burnout in the crisis room

This session explores the very real effects of fatigue and burnout associated with slow burn crises and multiple event management for leadership and operational response teams.

We deep dive into empathic leadership, the significance of rest and recovery, job design and psychological agility.

This includes:

• The accumulating effects of COVID-19
• The impact of stress on capability and effective decision making
• Strategies to manage team fatigue and burn out
• Considerations for ongoing COVID-19 waves, natural catastrophes and other critical events.

Panellists:

• David Burroughs, Principal Psychologist, Australian Psychological Services
• Brad Law, Country Manager New Zealand, RiskLogic
• Marcus Vaughan – Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer, Catalyst Technologies

Session highlights

• Empathic leadership: David Burroughs from Australian Psychological Services noted that the best 2020 leadership styles have proven to be those who are willing to demonstrate voluntary vulnerability. “Understanding that our leaders aren’t going to get out of this unscathed is important.”
• Rest and recovery: Brad Law from RiskLogic noted the importance of having bench strength and organizational depth when managing ongoing events. “Don’t overstretch your good people.”
• Job design: Both David and Brad highlighted the need for role clarity during critical events as a means of streamlining communication, matching capabilities with expectations, and minimizing crisis fatigue.
• Psychological agility: We are now functioning in an ambiguous operating environment, and one of the key skillsets to take into 2021 will be the ability to navigate ongoing, multiple critical events with flexibility, clarity, and a long-term perspective.

Critical Event Technology MasterClasses

Establishing Risk Thresholds

Using iluminr, this session takes you through the importance of operationalizing your response capabilities with digital tools to map your assets, establish risk thresholds, set up automated alert recipes and how to review, escalate and action potential threats.

Facilitators:

• James Sharp, Client Success and Community Manager
• Leon Israel – Customer Success Manager, Catalyst Technologies

From Threat Alert to Initial Response

This session takes you through the importance of team collaboration, using new digital toolsets to effectively coordinate and manage simultaneous disruptions – moving your teams from threat alert, to initial response.

Facilitators:

• James Sharp, Client Success and Community Manager
• Leon Israel – Customer Success Manager, Catalyst Technologies