The first question isn’t as important to me while the second is what I want to focus on.  Do you care that there was a day focused on preparing for disasters?  Do you care that there is actually a whole month dedicated to the same concept (September is National Preparedness Month)?  Let me take a pretty educated guess and (be honest now) – you really don’t care much, nor do most people.

In my experience I know that most people don’t care because I’ve seen the numbers of how many people and families are unprepared for a disaster.  I know that most companies (around three-quarters) don’t do anything to prepare their business for a disaster or disruption and have no idea what that disruption will cost them.  I have seen the direct result of those failures – both with families and businesses.  It’s not like we don’t know about these risk.  On any day I can look at your favorite local news broadcast, national news website, or your favorite newspaper and highlight a dozen or more threats to consider from every source.  Bad things make good news – which I think is a major contributing factor to why most people don’t pay attention = mental disaster saturation (meaning we hear about so many disasters that we block them out).  I’m sure psychology experts know a formal term for this concept.  I do think there are other contributing factors to our societies overall preparedness apathy but this is a big one.    

Now this next part is where I need your help.  As a business continuity professional and a new business owner that has to break through those barriers with potential clients, I would like your honest feedback to this simple question.  WHAT WILL MAKE YOU CARE?  In other words, what message and method of communication would get you to decide to prepare your family for disasters?  What key message will get you as a manager or business owner to take notice and decide to prepare your company so you don’t lose reputation, customers, or revenue?  Getting past all the doom and gloom stories – what do I need to focus on to drive action with the people I speak to and in the classes I teach?

You see, I already believe in these things and every argument I pose includes that natural bias.  So I am asking for your feedback and ideas to help me improve and focus on what is important to you.  Please post your thoughts or send via email or message over LinkedIn.  I would like to use your great ideas to drive more discussion in future articles.  Thank you.

Until Next Time – Be Aware, Be Prepared, Be Safe.