Exit Strategy: The Importance of Being Prepared

While not an article on business exit strategies, it does draw a sound analogy for business owners.  Being prepared for life's little surprises may be critical to the survival of your business:

A Canadian couple recently faced an intense situation: while vacationing in Barbados, they were confronted by intruders who were looking for cash. The intruders got what they wanted, and in the process they shot Jonathan Hubble in the chest.

In the CBC article about the attack, Mrs. Hubble recalled how important it is to know first aid and how it helped to keep her calm and in control until an ambulance arrived.

Their story reminded me of the time I spent in training as a flight attendant for Air Canada. (Yes, I was a flight attendant. Keep your lame jokes to yourself.)

With Air Canada, flight attendants need to take seven and half weeks of training, five days a week, eight hours a day. It was intense. Only a few days were spent focusing on service. The majority of our time was spent learning emergency and safety procedures. 

It was repetitive, but never tedious. This is because our adrenaline was always pumping: we were constantly running drills that involved a lot of shouting and evacuating. We repeated the emergency procedures over and over again until they were burned into our brains. It has been about 15 years since I completed that training and I can still remember all the things we were supposed to do in case of an evacuation, in the proper order. 

The point of the repetition was to ensure that if something did go horribly wrong during a flight, like Mrs. Hubble, we'd stay calm and in control. 

I am thankful that I never faced an emergency in the air. But in that kind of situation, I can’t overstate how important it is to be prepared. 

Last week, my daughter pulled on her dresser, bring it crashing down with a sound that no parent ever wants to hear. We rushed into her room to find that the dresser knocked her down but did not land on top of her. We were lucky that she was not hurt. What really scares me now is that if it had fallen on her, other than getting it off of her and calling 911, I wouldn't really know what else to do.

My Air Canada training was about getting people out of a plane quickly and safely; not how to tend to people who are hurt. As a father, I really ought to start paying attention to the latter.

The City of Ottawa has a list of First aid and CPR courses, as does St. John's Ambulance.

I am going to take a course. I think you should join me.

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Exit Strategy: The Importance of Being Prepared:

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