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Preparedness
Table of Contents
Run the fire drill bored rather than improvise when the alarm is real.
Key Concept
- Rehearse, document, and test before the emergency owns the clock.
- I would rather run the fire drill bored than improvise when the alarm is real.
- Practice the move slowly so you can run it when the clock is loud.
- The rehearsal does not need to be dramatic - walking the checklist once on a slow day counts.
Level 1 - Recognize
Preparedness means practicing the plan and writing it down while calm - rehearsal before the alarm, not improvisation under smoke.
Level 2 - Explain
Like a fire drill on a sunny Tuesday - walk the checklist bored so kids are not learning exits during smoke.
Level 3 - Use
Run the inbound play every Thursday whether you need it or not - document steps someone else could run when the clock gets loud.
Level 4 - Connect
Because emergencies compress decisions, prep moves choices upstream - tested runbooks fail less than heroics when margin disappears.
Level 5 - Create
Use Build a Reliable Default to write one runbook, rehearse it inside a Change Window, and revise the step that fails before the real alarm.
Examples
- We ran our inbound play every Thursday whether we needed it or not - glad Friday game was boring because everyone had already walked it in scrimmage.
- Our restaurant ran the closing checklist on a slow Tuesday; Saturday night's rush was boring because everyone had already walked it once.
Note Relationships
| Relationship | Wikilink | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| contradicts | Low Hanging Fruit | when prep past the dose delays action on a problem that needed a move today |
| extends | Build a Reliable Default | Prep builds the fallback |
| extends | Change Window | Window assumes rehearsed undo path and someone on call |
| extends | Eliminate Before Managing | Remove hazards where you can; prep for what must stay |
| extends | Rollback Principle | Rehearse the undo path before the alarm owns the clock |
| extends | Standard Operating Procedures | Written steps are prep you can share |
