Is efficiency making us vulnerable?
Art Botterell, community warning systems manager for the Office of the Sheriff in Contra Costa County, Calif., warned that it may be.
During his presentation, “A Shifting Landscape: Emerging Challenges and Opportunities,” he argued that an institutional culture that rewards efficiency may be opening the door to catastrophic instances, eliminating organizational flexibility and “trimming the fat” before a cold winter sets in. Instead, he suggested that campuses should move away from a “monoculture” approach with technology to a process for cultivating rich technologies. It’s not, for instance, about delivering warnings from the same system. But accessing all warning notification systems from a single interface.
This approach, he said, may “future proof” processes and open the door to greater diversity and competition.
He also offered his own “Five Simple Rules” for emergency management:
