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By Al Martinez-Fonts, Former Assistant Secretary for the Private Sector at the Department of Homeland Security Over the past several months I have repeatedly been asked: What advice would you give to your successor about what DHS, and particularly the Private Sector Office (PSO), should be doing? |
By Al Martinez-Fonts, Former Assistant Secretary for the Private Sector at the Department of Homeland Security
Over the past several months I have repeatedly been asked: What advice would you give to your successor about what DHS, and particularly the Private Sector Office (PSO), should be doing? This question is not as easy to answer as it may seem at first blush. The work of DHS and the role of the PSO are quite complex. I actually believe that part of that complexity is what made my six plus year tenure at DHS so exciting.
There are so many people, places and things for us to protect. There are so many ways that the bad guys can come up with to hurt us. Where do you begin?
My advice to my successor would have to begin and possibly end with preparedness. We can enter the debate of preparedness versus resilience, but for now lets not get hung up on semantics; after all, English is my second language.
The key message is that we must prepare ourselves to deal with a number of events that are natural or man-made in a way that it becomes second nature to a majority of the population. There is a fine balance that is implicit in this message. Prepare but dont panic. Better said, prepare so you dont panic.
A great example of this is what we have seen recently with the H1N1 flu (also referred to as swine flu) outbreak. Over the past three years a series of teams first led by HHS/CDC and later by DHS went around the country talking about pandemic influenza. HHS/CDC focused on the public health side and DHS focused on continuity of operations.
What do businesses have to do in order to cope with a pandemic influenza? How do you keep your doors open, or in some cases closed, for business? How do you deal with your employees, and they in turn with their families? How do we keep our economy going?
As I watch the flu outbreak unfold, I was very heartened to see emergency managers, public health officials, mayors, governors and others face the cameras and say something to the effect of: &over the past couple of years we have established plans, we have exercised them and we knew exactly what to do. We are carrying out our plan.
The self assurance by our leaders at all levels helped calm the fears of a concerned public. The messages were relevant, timely and actionable. They made sense and asked people to take action based on instructions they had heard before. In this case it was cover your cough, wash your hands and if you show symptoms, go see your doctor.
So how do we translate this so more individuals and more businesses are better prepared?
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