Lessons Learned and Next Steps
In September 2007, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security published 15 National Planning Scenarios depicting “the broad range of natural and man-made threats facing our nation.” The scenarios include biological attacks of aerosol anthrax, food contamination, foreign animal disease, and the plague; chemical attacks involving a blister agent, nerve agent, toxic industrial chemicals, and a chlorine tank explosion; and a disease outbreak of pandemic influenza. Each has the potential to disrupt national and even global economic activity through rapidly spreading illness and death. All would require businesses and government organizations to adopt social-distancing and infection-control measures in order to continue operations.
Our study justifies cautious optimism that business and government organizations could, in fact, work through a crisis — if they prepare. Although the preventative measures adopted by our experimental group disrupted normal routines, employees found ways to incorporate the new behaviors into their work regimen without measureable impact on performance. Not only did a majority of participants express overall satisfaction with the measures, they also said the experience had given them the knowledge, tools, and confidence to handle a real, and even lengthier, pandemic.
We are preparing a more detailed article for a peer-reviewed academic journal to publicize our findings and lay the groundwork for follow-on studies that can replicate our results and help us understand how to implement pandemic response plans in other industries and workplace environments. But the key lesson, as Safe America Foundation CEO Len Pagano notes, is clear: “Businesses need to adopt a pandemic response plan and to prepare their employees accordingly.” Our study suggests that people will rise to the challenges presented by an infectious pandemic when given an effective plan, training, and tools.
Mike Magoon is a senior consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton, specializing in applying behavioral concepts, principles, and tools to improve organizational effectiveness and individual performance.