Steps to prepare emergency response guidelines

The core path to compile an emergency response guide that is usable, easy to use, and can really save the situation is to "first understand the real risk base → establish a rights and responsibility framework for hierarchical response → output scenario-based operational guidelines → bring together all parties involved for cross-checking → continue to dynamically iterate after the final implementation." There is no need to pursue 100% perfection from the beginning. The biggest pitfall that many teams have encountered is that they initially thought about making a perfect document once and for all, and finally left it to collect dust in the archives. If something goes wrong, no one will look at it.

There are actually two completely different establishment schools in the industry. One is the "top-level design school", which believes that the organizational structure and division of powers and responsibilities must be determined first, and then the risk scenarios can be broken down.； The other group is the "practical first" group, which believes that the operation steps of high-frequency accident scenarios should be listed first, and then the management rules can be supplemented. I have personally compiled five or six guides for different industries. To be honest, both can be used. It depends on the nature of the industry you are in - for example, chemical plants, which have strict regulatory requirements and clear chains of rights and responsibilities, mostly follow the path of top-level design, otherwise they will not pass the inspection of the safety supervision. ； The Internet and restaurant chains are highly flexible and have glitches every day. On the contrary, it is faster to prepare practical scenarios first. Last year, I helped a barbecue chain brand make an emergency guide for gas leaks. At the beginning, I listed three items: close the valve, open the window, and do not touch the switch in the first minute when a gas leak is discovered in the kitchen. I printed it out and posted it on the wall in the kitchen, and then slowly added the reporting process and assigned responsibilities to the people. It was much more useful than working on a management framework for half a month.

Let’s first talk about the step of figuring out the risk base. Don’t just copy the general risk list from the national standards. You have to put your own feet on the ground. For example, when making an emergency guide for fire protection in a park, which corner of the fire hydrant is blocked by a pile of express delivery? Which building's escape route is locked at night to prevent thieves? Which company's warehouse is stocked with unreported flammable and explosive goods? If you can't reach these, the guideline that says "get the fire hydrant as soon as possible" is nonsense. If something really happens, it would take three minutes to move the express, and the best time to deal with it has been missed. Oh, by the way, many people will ignore "marginal risks". There was a team that made emergency guides for industry summits before. They only considered fires and stampedes, but did not consider that there were many elderly invited experts at the summit. When someone actually had a heart attack, no one at the scene knew where the nearest AED was. Thanks to the speed of 120, no major accidents happened. So when looking for risks, don't just focus on the ones that are most likely to cause accidents. You should also cover the ones with low probability but serious consequences.

Let’s talk about the hierarchical response framework. The core is to push everything to the top leadership. Last year, I saw an Internet company’s operation and maintenance guideline, which said, “Any server failure must be reported to the CTO as soon as possible.” However, a small bug that only affected 10 users appeared at three in the morning. The operation and maintenance personnel gathered the CTO according to the rules. The CTO could not solve the technical problem, but it delayed the troubleshooting time. Therefore, the essence of classification is "what level of things to do, what level of people to find, and how much decision-making power they have." For example, for general faults, the front-line personnel on duty can handle them themselves without reporting them. ； For major failures, the department manager will take the lead and have the authority to mobilize people from two departments to cooperate. ； Only major failures require the company's senior management to coordinate external resources. There is no standard answer here. If your team is all well-trained veteran employees, it will be more efficient to delegate decision-making power to the lower levels. ； If most of the front-line staff are newcomers, it would be more stable to have less decision-making power to prevent random operations from causing bigger troubles.

The easiest step to fail is actually the scenario-based operation guide. Don’t write empty words and clichés, such as “do emergency response as soon as possible”. Who knows what “doing it well” means? You have to write as straightforwardly as the delivery boy’s instructions for picking up food: “After discovering a gas leak, the first step is to immediately close the stove valve and the pipe main valve. The second step is to open all the windows in the back kitchen for ventilation. The third step is not to turn on the range hood, do not press the light switch, and do not make phone calls in the store. The fourth step is to walk 5 meters outside the store and call the store manager.” It’s so straightforward, even long sentences should be used as little as possible. When something goes wrong, people are panicked and complex expressions cannot be understood at all. It is best to attach a palm-sized "red list to avoid" after each scene. For example, the red list for gas leaks has three crosses: ❌Don't light the lighter to check for leaks ❌Don't turn on the exhaust fan ❌Don't make phone calls in the store. It's more effective than any lengthy article.

Many people just skip the cross-checking step because they find it troublesome, which is a huge disadvantage. No matter how thoughtful you are when you are sitting in the office, the front-line operators can see the problem at a glance: There was a property management company that issued an emergency guide for people trapped in elevators. It said, "After the trapped person presses the emergency call button, the maintenance staff will arrive at the scene and open the door within 10 minutes." As a result, the cooperating maintenance team said that their site is on the other side of the city, and it takes 25 minutes to arrive at the fastest. Doesn't this become a decoration? When checking, you must recruit three types of people: The first type is the front-line employees who directly deal with it, such as operation and maintenance, security, and kitchen ladies. They know where the stuck is during the actual operation. ； The second category is related external collaborators, such as maintenance, fire protection, and nearby community hospitals, to determine their actual response rhythm. ； The third category is for legal or compliance positions. Don’t write anything that violates regulatory requirements. If something goes wrong, you will have to bear additional responsibilities.

Don’t believe the saying that “one establishment is effective for three years”. Emergency guidelines need to be dynamically iterated. This year the company moved to a new address, and the nearby fire station changed from 3 kilometers to 1 kilometer. The fire response time in your guide will have to be changed. ； We have hired new on-duty personnel this year, and they will not be able to use the old operation and maintenance system. The operating steps in your guide must be updated. ； Even if the express delivery storage point in the park has changed this year, your fire exit guidelines will also have to be adjusted. It is best to go through it every quarter, or every time something goes wrong, go through the guide and make two changes if there is any inappropriate part. It is much better than spending a month every year to redo it.

I have made so many guides, and my deepest feeling is that this thing is never a display for leaders to inspect, but an operation manual for ordinary people with trembling hands and feet in panic. When you write, imagine that you are at the scene of the accident. Write whatever content you want to see most. Those fancy formats and red tape are really unnecessary.