Key Takeaways:
A binder on a shelf won’t save lives. A forgotten PDF won’t stop a cyberattack. In today’s world, facility executives at institutional and commercial buildings need emergency plans that actually work.
Todd Greenwald, a commercial real estate veteran with more than 30 years of experience, warns that far too many emergency plans check a box but may not work in an actual event. In today’s world, where workplace violence, cyberattacks and other critical events can strike without warning, a minimal approach is no longer enough.
Greenwald argues that facility leaders must rethink how they approach emergencies. Rather than focusing solely on reactive preparedness, he says organizations must adopt a comprehensive strategy known as critical event management.
“Everybody thinks they’re ready and everybody thinks that their plan is good,” Greenwald says. “I can emphatically say that they are not ready and their plan is not as good as they think.”
In many buildings, emergency action plans exist because regulations require them. These documents often outline procedures for fires, evacuations or other emergencies. Yet Greenwald, who recently authored Critical Event Management: A Business Guide for Commercial Properties, says they are rarely used in real-world crises.
“I think almost everybody’s emergency action plan — the red binder that’s sitting on the shelf somewhere — is outdated,” Greenwald says. “It’s probably not practical, and it’s rarely used.”
Those plans grow stale, and during an unfolding emergency, few people have time to pull out a binder and flip through pages of instructions. In addition, Greenwald says many existing plans are narrow in scope and fail to address the broader operational impacts of disruption.
For example, a fire in a commercial building may damage the physical structure, but it also can affect the building's automation system, access control, alarms and tenant operations.
“People think about a fire as simply putting out the fire,” Greenwald says. “But you have to ask what that event might impact. What if it affects your building’s automation system? What if the fire alarm system doesn’t operate as it should? What if security systems fail?”
He says a comprehensive approach to critical event management begins with understanding how specific threats affect the entire facility.
When Sept. 11 occurred, Greenwald was managing a federally leased property in Milwaukee and had to coordinate closely with the General Services Administration and Federal Protective Services to develop an effective response strategy. Since then, he has overseen a wide range of critical incidents, including a mass shooting, cyberattacks, fires and floods. He defines a critical event as any incident that disrupts building operations or poses a threat to life safety.
“It’s anything that impacts business operations, threatens life safety or disrupts the operation of a building,” Greenwald says. “It can affect the supply chain to the building, life safety systems or the building itself.”
Because every facility is different, risk assessments must consider site-specific vulnerabilities. A downtown office tower may face different threats than a data center or healthcare facility, he explains.
The first step is identifying potential threats, from workplace violence and infrastructure failures to severe weather or social unrest. After naming those risks, facility managers must evaluate how those events might escalate and what their consequences would be.
For example, if a facility executive is developing a response plan for workplace violence, Greenwald says they need to consider:
The responses to these questions will help a facility manager develop strategies for detection, response, mitigation and recovery.
Post-incident reviews often reveal a widespread problem: communication breakdowns. And these communication gaps often complicate response efforts.
“Communication is always forgotten about,” he stresses. “The intent is there, but there’s rarely anything executed.”
Greenwald recommends that organizations prioritize transparency and redundancy when developing communication plans. When Greenwald oversaw a workplace violence incident, his team used a mass notification system to alert everyone in the building.
“One of the first things we did was push out a message saying there was a report of an active shooter event and instructed people to put their emergency action plan into action,” he says. “It was transparent without creating chaos.”
Organizations can now simultaneously send alerts via text, email and mobile notifications using modern communication tools. This redundancy helps ensure that critical information reaches building occupants quickly.
Communication strategies should also extend beyond tenants and employees, he adds. To ensure the public gets accurate information when needed, Greenwald suggests organizations cultivate relationships with local media.
“They’re going to find out about an event anyway,” Greenwald says. “If the public needs to know what’s happening, the media can be a valuable partner.”
Ronnie Wendt is the owner of In Good Company Communications and a freelance writer specializing in articles for the facilities management, aviation, RV and automotive, meetings and events, security, logistics and business technology industries.
