"Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success." - Henry Ford
Good morning and Happy 4th of July, Happy Birthday America! I am up early this morning enjoying the sunshine streaming through the window of my home office, reflecting on the freedoms we have and spending a few hours finishing up this blog post. What a great day to write about the Human Net.
The Human Net. At a technology conference, this is a concept that will cause some to frown while others will stop what they are doing, look up from their mobile devices and pay attention. It is a concept that shifts collaboration and information sharing from the world of technology to the human dimension. Over the past 20 years, while supporting the Intelligence Community (IC) and Department of Defense (DOD), I had the opportunity to put this concept in to action - many times in chat spaces with hundreds if not thousands of people. I can confidently tell you, the Human Net works in ways you would never imagine, until you experience it. I will be bold and share with you that I have seen it save lives, keep people and equipment out of harms way and get an entire community "left of bang."
I am a believer and as a result, I look for opportunities to point out the limits of technology (though I am a huge fan of enabling tech), especially when it comes to the mistaken belief that shared situational awareness (SA) and situational understanding (SU) can be provided by a machine. SA and SU were constant references at last weeks Wildfire Tech Week in Boise which I recapped here. That's what this post is all about.
What is it?
The Human Net is focused on connecting people. People with diverse talents and backgrounds who share common objectives/interests when working an unfolding crisis (incident) that involves fast moving, rapidly changing, high-flow information where lives/equipment/structures could be in harms way. These people use a team of teams approach to quickly swarm on information, make sense of it, recommend/apply the appropriate triage/solution and move quicker than the unfolding crisis/incident. It is supported with crowd-sourcing techniques/tactics along with collaboration tradecraft and best practices - which are trained.
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| The Human Net In Action John G., Sandia National Laboratories |
The Human Net functions in an online collaborative space that at a minimum:
- Is guided by a trained facilitator who is experienced in the collaboration tradecraft, best practices and behavior
- Uses a secure, reliable, state-of-the-art collaboration technology
- Runs on a variety of operating systems (OS), browsers and apps
- Runs on hardware that includes desktop platforms, tablets and smart phones
- Is easy to use, easy to navigate, easy to configure
- Includes public and private persistent chat rooms that can be organized by topic
- Includes direct messaging (aka private or whisper messages)
- Includes integrated file sharing
So what? As an Incident Commander (IC) what would the Human Net get me?
- Serves as a force multiplier - especially when resources may be limited
- Enhances, accelerates decision-making - the speed of need
- Provides rapid sharing of emerging information to an entire team not just a few - information that can be discussed, aligned, corrected (if required) and updated quickly, efficiently
- Minimizes or eliminates the "too late" model for information
- Reduces the misinformation that naturally occurs when relaying information verbally whether on a radio, over the phone or in person
- Focuses attention on what we know, don't know and think - especially when the flow of information is overwhelming
- Brings diversity and different perspectives to the sense-making
- Increases discovery of new or updated information
- Matches expertise to information, faster
- Moves a team from "noticing to knowing" - something machines cannot do today
What if....
The Human Net concept was trained, equipped, exercised and when ready, integrated into an Incident Command System (ICS) and Incident Command Post (ICP) during a type-1, 2 or 3 incident?
What if...
The Human Net was facilitated online by a trained Collaboration Facilitator identified in the ICS structure, embedded in the ICP and included a diverse set of people representing:
- Command and General Staff
- Statewide Emergency Operations Center
- Regional Emergency Operations Centers
- National Guard Units
- Federal units
- And others as required
You and your team are the first alarm and have been dispatched to a brush fire reported to Cal Fire by an individual (first observer) with a field crew working in the area. You are the first unit on scene. It is 7am, October, wind is at 45 mph, relative humidity is 10 and temperature is 87 degrees. You see approximately six acres burning, moving rapidly into medium brush, up a hill towards structures. You immediately radio in a request for resources and evacuations followed by an initial statement that "the fire has the potential to be a major, complex incident, still working on gaining access to the fire."
Given that scenario, why wouldn't the IC and everyone else want the Human Net surging and in the fight?
What am I missing? What are the risks? I would love to see your thoughts. Please, speak truth...
Preview of Coming Attractions: Up Next - a discussion on this assertion: The challenge of vast and fast information is that more data does not reduce situation complexity and ambiguity - and a story on how the Human Net made a difference in an evacuation.
Appreciate your time, enjoy your holiday.
Humbly,
Collabman
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