Fast, Flexible, Creative: What Emergency Managers Can Learn From Entrepreneurs

Given the current tightening of funding in the emergency management field, there are lessons emergency managers can take away from business startups, as there are similarities between both professions. While the self-reliant nature of startups is especially relevant, given the expected reduction in federal funding for emergency management agencies, the similarities and potential for adopting startup practices extend beyond self-reliance.

Similarities Between Professions

Common characteristics of startups and their founders include curiosity, adaptability, decisiveness, and risk tolerance. Startups and the entrepreneurs that help run them are typically mission- and vision-oriented, are resourceful, and fulfill multiple roles as needed—for example, the small business startup founder acting as a salesperson, bookkeeper, warehouse clerk, tech support, and marketing specialist. These are shared traits with emergency managers, particularly at the local level, where the majority of emergency managers indicate that they routinely wear multiple hats, from planners and grant writers to public information officers or incident commanders.

Emergency managers focus on the mission of securing community members’ lives and property. Unlike in emergency management, an altruistic mission is not fundamental to every startup. However, it is clear that both fields pursue their goals with hard work, long hours, and sacrifice. With abundant similarities between the two fields, the benefit of adopting startup practices and mindsets in emergency management is the opportunity for the field to not only survive but even thrive in the coming years. Fewer than 1% of startups have access to venture capital. Startups are typically funded and sustained by their founders and their immediate communities (family and friends). To succeed without large amounts of cash, startup founders must be resourceful and play different roles every day until they succeed. This is another set of shared traits between startups and emergency management. Being resourceful, having multidisciplinary skills, and maintaining versatility are embedded into the culture of emergency management.

Differences Between Professions

Startup teams, by definition, are independent. They are often described as scrappy, hungry, fast-moving, or creative. Local emergency managers, on the other hand, are government employees who work within bureaucracies, and may not be able to exercise such qualities. Because the profession is overwhelmingly dependent on reactionary budgets and grant-fundingthat take long periods of time to finalize, processes are slower. While restrictive budgets motivate scrappy, hungry entrepreneurs to achieve fast, creative solutions, government bureaucracy does not lend itself to dynamic, creative problem-solving. In fact, many emergency management positions are either entirely or partially funded by grants, fueling uncertainty during periods of economic and political instability. During normal day-to-day conditions, emergency managers have less opportunity to be scrappy, hungry, fast, and creative, or to challenge the status quo.

The Importance of Adopting Some Startup Traits

Although it may not be immediately obvious, economic downturns create conditions conducive to scrappiness and creativity. Bureaucracies and government organizations, particularly smaller ones, become more open to outside-the-box thinking under these circumstances. Innovative ideas, attitudes, and flexibility are key to thriving with limited resources, and this is where emergency managers can learn a lot from startups.

How to Be Scrappy

Many people are naturally scrappy, but this characteristic can be triggered by necessity or even desperation. Just because there are no grant funds and no budgets does not mean failure is an option. Emergency managers should never stop looking for money, even if previous funds have dried up. There are funds available, although they may be more competitive. For example, local emergency managers primarily familiar with Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grant programs, need to expand their search to across the government, private, and non-profit sectors. Agencies traditionally not associated with emergency response may have funding to offer, including Housing and Urban Development, the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Forestry Service, and even the Department of Commerce, which has rolled out a new recovery grant program.

Thinking like a scrappy startup entrepreneur will help emergency managers keep looking for new funding sources. Do not limit the search to money—capital also comes in the form of people, equipment, etc. For example, if funds to retain an engineering firm to scope a mitigation project are not available, maybe there are engineers in other city or county departments that can be borrowed temporarily.

Moving Fast

Time is a luxury that disasters do not respect. In fact, the “move fast and break things” mantra of some startups over the past decade has a whole other implication in the emergency management field. Moving faster is more easily adopted during the response phase of emergency management, and arguably, less so during preparedness and mitigation phases. The time spent obtaining and applying for funds, as well as making related decisions, needs to be significantly sped up. Working faster with less will involve whole local government buy-in, so urgency must be conveyed to elected and appointed officials. Startup entrepreneurs have their thirty-second elevator pitches ready to go, and they constantly pitch to anyone willing to hear it. Emergency managers must now develop their elevator speeches, speaking confidently on the expediency of needs, fast decision-making, and creative solutions.

Being Creative

The traditional model of receiving trickling-down resources seems to be on its way out, unless something drastic changes. In response, it is necessary to generate outside-the-box ideas to replace, or at best supplement, traditional models. Creativity and unconventional thinking are encouraged and embraced in startups. In local government and other bureaucracies, it is less appreciated. This must change. A good first step toward change is to begin with simple but creative problem-solving.

Adopting Creative Problem-Solving From Startups

If only one trait is to be adopted from the startup world, it should be creative problem-solving. The following are examples of how emergency managers could implement creative problem-solving in low-resource environments.

• Motivate residents to volunteer time: This includes not just residents in programs like Community Emergency Response Teams, but also those with trucks and shovels, those willing to train and use tools like axes or chainsaws. They may be helpful with smaller infrastructure mitigation projects. Because they want their communities to succeed, members of the community are likely willing to come together to lend a hand, as is often the case in the aftermath of a tornado or flood. Steps should be taken to organize more community members, train them, and put them to work before a storm. More formalized relationships with organized volunteer organizations are also going to be essential. Startups often partner with other startups to exchange complementary services at more competitive rates, such as a startup tech firm engaging with a startup accounting firm.
• Convince residents to donate money: Although this is not the norm for emergency management, it is typical of other emergency services organizations, such as volunteer fire departments. Communities may be willing to fund projects if they feel involved. The important thing is to communicate the necessity and ask. Internally, legal entities will likely need to be involved to setup the process for compliance.
• Convince residents to donate equipment: Every jurisdiction has a list of the most needed equipment for preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery projects. Businesses and residents may be willing to part with laptops, projectors, tools, or even lend their hauling equipment. Again, the important thing is to communicate the necessity and ask.
• Sell bonds to raise money for larger projects: Unlike the federal government, local and state agencies cannot print money. However, local jurisdictions working through their legislators often issue bonds to pay for large, expensive, and long-term capital projects. These include roads, bridges, schools, hospitals, water treatment facilities, power plants, courthouses, and other public buildings. This is akin to startups of various sizes issuing stocks to employees or investors. Within existing procedures, it is important to communicate the necessity for bonds to fund mitigation infrastructure projects. Procedures for selling bonds vary by jurisdiction, so it will be important to engage elected officials early to learn about the process and get buy-in.

Nearly all of the above suggestions rely on good communication, including persuasive speaking as well as accepting and acting on feedback. These are also recognized as commonly shared skills of successful startup entrepreneurs.

The typical first reaction to the above ideas, from a bureaucratic organization, is resistance to innovation for a variety of reasons. These often include responses such as “We’ve never done that before”; “We can’t do it because we’re not set up for it”; “It simply won’t work”; “We can’t afford volunteers”; and many other reasons. Local and state legislative bodies move slowly, and to a degree, rightfully so, as slow methodical approaches to fund allocation are part of the democratic process. Local governments that want to innovate may get caught in traditional and bureaucratic practices. Be prepared with an elevator pitch and more details. Speak confidently and adjust to the feedback.

Successful startup entrepreneurs understand and accept that the process is going to be difficult, and they have a high tolerance for failure and risk-taking. Of course, this realization does not automatically make what is about to come less scary. The industry is navigating difficult times ahead. Adopting some of the practices and characteristics of startups may give emergency managers more tools to confront these new challenges.

Finally, it is critical to stay curious and passionate about the mission. Startups are often created in industries to tackle problems about which the founders are passionate. If an emergency manager is not passionate about the industry, helping the community, or other aspects of the job—such as communicating and team-building—they cannot do the best job for their community.