What are the steps to prepare emergency response guidelines?

The essence of compiling emergency response guidelines is to transform scattered emergency experience into standardized operation plans that can be implemented and replicated. The core should cover the four core modules of risk assessment and calibration, scenario-based disposal link design, definition of aftermath rights and responsibilities, and dynamic iteration rules. If any one of them is missing, it will be a "wall guide" that is useless but useless.

In the past two years, I have worked on the unified revision of fire emergency guides for more than 30 local supermarket chains. The first drafts submitted by stores were basically general templates found online. They often wrote "report a fire immediately". They didn't even include whether to report to the store's duty manager or regional safety specialist, or what the contact phone number was. If something happened, new employees would panic while holding the guide.

Many people may think that the first step in writing a guide is to find a template. But if you actually do it, you will know that the first thing to do is to go to the site to get a feel for it. Don’t just focus on the common high-risk scenarios in the industry, you have to calibrate your priorities based on your own actual situation. It is also a restaurant store. Those who make Japanese food have a large number of sashimi cold chains. The weight of food safety emergency response is higher than that of Chinese fast food. Stores opened in basements have flood prevention emergencies. The requirements are also much higher than those of stores on the first floor facing the street. In the past, an Internet company wanted to save trouble and directly modified the hazardous chemicals emergency guide of the cooperative factory and used it. Half a page was devoted to how to deal with chemical leaks. The entire company did not even have hazardous chemicals. It was a completely useless effort.

After you understand the risks, when you write down the handling process, you have to put yourself into the most panicked scene. For example, if you are the first operation and maintenance person to discover that the server is down at three o'clock in the morning, and your mind is too confused, the guideline says "assess the risk level and deal with it according to the plan", which means it does not say anything. You have to directly give unambiguous judgment criteria: if the number of affected users exceeds 100,000, call the technical person in charge first, and switch to the backup cluster at the same time. If the number of affected users exceeds 200,000, it will be directly synchronized to the public relations person, and even the template for comforting users is directly attached. Speaking of which, there have always been two different operating ideas in the industry regarding the details of the guidelines: one group advocates that every step of the action, time limit, and contact person should be stuck tightly, so that even new employees with no experience can go directly through the process. The other group believes that it is necessary to leave enough flexibility for front-line processing personnel to avoid too rigid rules that will delay the battle. In practice, we generally use the middle value - the core processing actions must be clear enough to have no ambiguity, and non-core judgment links can be given sufficient flexibility. To put it bluntly, a good emergency guide is like a first aid kit at home. You don’t need to know pharmacology. When you open it, you will know that if you get a bruise, wipe it with an iodophor cotton pad and then put a band-aid on it. It will not make you jump in pain while pouring alcohol on the wound.

Many people feel that they are done after writing the disposal process. In fact, the definition of rights and responsibilities for the aftermath is the key to reducing subsequent wrangling. We previously made a rainstorm emergency guide for neighborhoods and communities, but we missed this part from the beginning. Last summer, heavy rains soaked the basements of more than a dozen residents. After the water was drained, no one knew who to contact to register the damage and what process to follow to apply for compensation. It took half a month. It was straightened out, and later when revised, the contact person and contact channel for "visiting to register the disaster situation within 24 hours and providing feedback on the compensation plan within 7 working days" were clearly written. When there was heavy rainfall again this year, the aftermath was dealt with particularly smoothly.

Finally, don’t forget to include the rules for dynamic iteration. Guidelines are not written out and then nailed to the wall to gather dust. For example, the company has changed its office address and the fire escape has changed, the employee responsible for emergency communication has resigned, and there has been a high incidence of telecommunications fraud in the surrounding area recently. The corresponding content must be adjusted accordingly. We usually do a small information calibration every quarter, and make a major revision after the emergency drill every year. During the last drill, we found that everyone could not find the emergency broadcast switch. When we went back, we posted a photo of the switch location directly next to the corresponding page number in the guide, which is more effective than writing "located on the west side of the front desk against the wall" in 100 words.

Really, the emergency guide has never been a face-saving project for leaders to check. What is important is that anyone can pick it up and use it when something really happens.