Prepared for Emergencies

Posted June 23rd, 2009

The youth in my class were discussing what they wore to church.  Most of the girls were wearing dresses; most of the boys had on shorts and polo shirts.  But Toby had on a suit, looking dapper.  The girls complimented him, and said, “Boys wear basketball shorts all the time.”  Toby replied, “I have basketball shorts under my suit.”  When I asked why, he said, “You never know when an emergency opportunity to play basketball will happen.”

I loved that answer!  It occurred to me that most people and most businesses do not consistently prepare for emergencies.  When I worked for a company that had some petroleum spills, we regularly trained and drilled for emergency responses.  And we kept our equipment maintained and prepared for emergencies.  We were good!  But we eventually took actions to prevent spills, instead of regularly responding to emergencies.

Did we remain prepared for emergencies?  Not really.  Why?  Some believed it was not necessary, since we were not having emergencies.  As a result, we were no longer good at emergency response.  We should have been like Toby.  You never know when an emergency is going to occur, so you should always be prepared.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009 at 7:36 pm and is filed under Leadership, Observations.