A Five-Day Educational Workshop
Recommended Schedule
1pm Monday - 12pm Friday
That feeling of we’re all in this together is most evident in disasters. The Us of Emergency Management is an educational program designed for learning the competencies and actions that are at the core of collaboration.
The manner in which we collaborate defines Us - and the opportunity to redefine Us exists in every emergency and disaster.
Learning Modules
- The nature of collaboration & the reality of Us
- Five States of Collaborative Interaction
- Essential language skills of collaboration
- Four foundational principles at the intersection of collaboration & Us
- Interacting with collaboration stoppers & saboteurs: bridging & connecting versus dividing
- Collaborative leadership: standing tall when we are uncertain, hesitant, and feel like giving up
Responding effectively to a disaster is essential in the short-term.
Leveraging collaboration & Us generates resilience for the long-haul.
This is not a metaphor! Every disaster presents challenges for individuals, agencies, and communities. Needs and priorities often compete, and even the best planning can’t anticipate everything. Emergencies require us to adapt, work in new ways, and engage with diverse perspectives under pressure. In these moments, when emotions run high and conditions feel chaotic, effective listening and clear communication are critical.
Learning Objectives
- Foster effective communication and reliable commitment in high-pressure settings.
- Identify and apply methods to build and empower community.
- Strengthen and model practices that promote individual resilience.
- Utilize proven methods to reduce stress and mitigate burnout during disaster operations.
- Integrate compassion and humanity into emergency management practices.
The Us of Emergency Management builds a bridge between documented preparedness and data driven decision making - covering a space defined by the human side of disaster work, with its spontaneous and unpredictable interactions. In this space, collaboration generates possibilities that extend (1) beyond the essential work of those involved with response and recovery, (2) beyond the requirements of checklists and job descriptions, and (3) beyond restoring balance to daily life.
Lead Instructor: Alexander Berlonghi
One-Day Educational Programs
The Foundations of Collaboration in Emergency Management
Listening for Commitment: When building the right team is essential
The Foundations of Collaboration in Emergency Management
We’ve all experienced unforgettable moments of an US-of-collaboration in our work with the victims of a disaster, as well as in our shared work with emergency management practitioners. It seems to show up naturally and spontaneously. However, it’s important to understand the dynamics of how this takes place.
This program provides the foundational principles for the science and art of the US-of-collaboration. We have an opportunity to recalibrate who we are as individuals, and who we are as ‘US’.
So much of what we do involves spontaneous actions that cannot be written into plans and procedures. Our dedication as professionals requires learning what it takes to generate ‘US’ in every interaction before, during, and after a disaster. The emergency management community is changing. Learning to consistently collaborate is an opportunity for the US-of-community to emerge during incidents of all sizes and complexity, as well as in the evolution of the emergency management profession itself.
Learning Objectives:
- To identify the core framework and elements of collaboration.
- To recognize how learning ‘US’ is a down-to-earth way of increasing professionalism.
- To understand how to build community while facing overwhelming challenges and adverse conditions.
Standing with Resilience
Listening for Commitment: When building the right team is essential
The Foundations of Collaboration in Emergency Management
We’re all in this together. In every disaster, there’s an inevitable bond that connects those impacted with those in service. Getting to the heart of that experience, which is unique for each of us, is essential for understanding one another.
Disasters are lived experiences that go beyond all the best made plans. True resilience requires recognizing what we are all going through. Getting into the shoes of those impacted, being empathetic, goes to the core of ‘US’. This is fundamental to serving survivors, supporting colleagues, and staying in balance ourselves.
Topics covered:
- The core experience of the undeniable breakdowns and disruption of life.
- Resilience requires learning to re-orient, re-design, and re-build.
- Feeling the vulnerability of being a victim of a disaster is not the same as falling into disabling victimhood.
- The overlap of being a responder, victim, and member of the community.
- Taking care of ourselves in the emotional pendulum of unimaginable loss.
- Trauma, courage, and going beyond.
- Coming home to ‘US’, and standing-in-life together.
‘US’ is at the heart of sustained resilience. Resilience must go beyond temporary encouragement, or brief moments of uplifting motivation. We cannot deny or escape the aftermath of disaster that often takes longer than imagined. It’s time to be practical, balanced, patient and smart.
Listening for Commitment: When building the right team is essential
Listening for Commitment: When building the right team is essential
Listening for Commitment: When building the right team is essential
Grounding our judgement calls & the rapid discernment of reliability
Who’s here to get the job done? There are many times when we’re on the spot, and we have to pick our team. No one can choose for us. What do we listen for in those moments? Our decisions can make or break us. We don’t always have the luxury to consider levels of training, education, references, and experience. There’s a way of listening for commitment to assist us in choosing the right person for our team.
Listening for commitment is an x-factor method that provides a way to work with intangibles, and a way of grounding judgement calls. It’s extremely useful when we’re on our own with limited time or resources. Listening for commitment can also be utilized when we hire beginners, coordinate volunteers, and collaborate with stakeholders.
Topics covered:
- Overcoming uncertainty and hesitation when there’s little time to screen people.
- Five levels of commitment.
- Two levels of detriment.
- Finding a balance between the Us of mutual accomplishment, and look-at-how-good-I-am.
- Well-grounded performance evaluations.
- Learning to be at peace with our choices.
While our application focuses in particular on the realities in the domain of emergency management, we’re dealing with a human phenomenon. Life presents opportunities to make choices when we don’t have much evidence to rely on: now-or-never moments, first impressions, first dates, and gut feelings.
Listening for commitment is a method for selecting our team, and assessing how their performance will align with the mission.
This program is not a now or never offer. But why wait?