Coordinating the Coordination Room
Incident rooms, situation rooms, war rooms, emergency operation centres, command centres: There are plenty of terms describing a locality from where coordination is undertaken in emergency response endeavours.
In my experience, there are two types of these places. There are the “money is no issue high-tech Dr. Strangelove war rooms” and the “we’re lucky there’s electricity no-budget broom closets”.
When I talk to colleagues, they argue a lot about the perfect set-up for coordination rooms (abbrev.: CR; I will choose this term for the rest of this text). I heard a lot of opinions about how they should look like, but often without seriously considering practicality. People tend to concentrate on shiny toys or seating arrangements, rather than less sexy details, such as ventilation or where to put people’s coats.
A few months ago, I was assigned to come up with a plan for the coordination room of our Strategic Command Group. The task was to design a place that facilitates high level decision making by a group of 12-20 people. However, there was one downside: somebody already picked the rooms for us.
The idea was relatable. Office space is precious in our headquarters and coordination rooms aren’t needed 24/7. Therefore, I was given two neighbouring conference rooms, which are divided by a removable wall. HQ staff could use the rooms every day for meetings and when disasters strike the rooms are given to the Strategic Command Group for their work.
There was no chance for us to decide on the room layouts or how big they would need to be. What can I say? Capable emergency managers work with what they get. Isn’t that so?
Inspired by this assignment, I wrote this article for everybody who is sitting in places that were designed for decision making. Especially if they have a say in their design. I’ve seen useless high-tech situation rooms and very well thought trough broom closets. As always, the devil is in the details and here I am, trying to list those little devils for you.
Accessibility
The information that’s processed in an incident room is usually mostly confidential. Not only to protect your resources in the field, but also to not tempt anybody to interpret information the wrong way. Looking at the situation map without the right context allows for lots of interpretive wiggle room. Actions, based on the wrong information picture, can easily lead to dangerous situations.
For these reasons, we use key cards to only give access to authorised personnel. To maintain flexibility there are a spare handful of key cards to give away to experts we integrate into the incident team occasionally.
Our coordination rooms are situated on the ground floor, which is certainly not ideal when it comes to keeping the details of our operations from curious eyes. To prevent anybody from peeking through the windows, we installed blinds.
Other aspects you might want to consider:
Take the parking situation into account. We have up to 20 people in the team, therefore we need to make sure 20 cars can park outside.
If you bring in special equipment (we use this mobile whiteboard container) or large additional tables, make sure the doors are wide enough. That‘s a lesson we had to learn the hard way. Thank me later.
Utilities
This is easy to be overlooked, but absolutely crucial! Austria can get pretty cold and the building’s heating is programmed to give less warmth during the night (when usually nobody works in the offices) to save energy. Incident teams can work during the night as well as during the day and we don’t want them to freeze. Therefore, we had to make sure the heating can be controlled during nights, when we need it.
Having no electrical power in an incident room in 2021 means you either live in the Middle Ages or you try to prove something. After a quick calculation we found out we need 53 plug sockets overall. We decided to go for a mix between plug sockets in the floor (beneath the tables, to reduce the risk of tripping) and above-wall installation to allow for easy adjustments in the future.
To always maintain functionality, the CR is linked to a power generator in the building. Additionally, we can connect mobile generators as well.
In summertime keeping a cool head is easier with air condition available, so we had that installed. In general, having a group of people working in a stressful environment makes for a high consumption of oxygen. Bringing fresh air in regularly is important to help the team think (and thinking is a big part of the job!). Also, it smells nicer when high officials are visiting for an update.
In terms of lighting, usual office standards suffice. Ideally try to choose a room with real windows, to bring in daylight. Think to deactivate scheduled automatic switch-off or dimming programmes.
Two conference rooms, turned into coordination rooms.
Rest and Recreation
Nobody can work endlessly without taking a break. Luckily, we managed to tick all the boxes, when it comes to resting facilities.
Right next to the situation room there is a small tea kitchen. It’s not newly refurbished, as the incident room itself, but it does the job. A fridge, microwave, and the probably two most crucial pieces of gear, a kettle and a coffee machine, are available and pretty much the minimum level of kitchen equipment to keep the team functioning. We even have a hob in our kitchen, and since it’s a separate room we can close the door and have quick meetings between two or three people.
Although I’m not a smoker, other team members are. Smokers shouldn’t be overlooked in the planning. They will want to leave for a cigarette break at some point and you don’t want them to have to walk through the whole building, just to get outside. You want them as close as possible, in case the situation changes, and you need them back at their desks. There’s an exit very close to the coordination rooms (it’s a trade-off with the accessibility), therefore our smoking colleagues are just a shout away.
Since our HQ is used for trainings and lectures, we have bedrooms for widely travelled attendants to stay overnight. This comes in handy, as we can use some of the bedrooms for our Strategic Command Group during longer incidents. I admit, this is the more luxurious version. I know plenty of coordination teams who sleep on camping beds in an empty office.
I don’t think I have to tell you about the cruciality of closely situated restrooms. Do I? Luckily ours are just around the corner from our CR.
Furniture
Magnetic Whiteboards are a simple way to show your information and externalize your ideas.
Furniture is such a generic heading for such a diverse topic. To have tables and chairs is pretty obvious. If you don’t use a fixed set-up and must establish your CR for every incident, try to seize identical models. It makes planning easier, when you know what measurements to expect.
Due to limited space and because the rooms always are furnished as conference rooms, we decided on the set-up shown in the drawing.
Especially in winter, people will bring coats. Having to hang them over your office chair is incredibly annoying. In fact, it‘s another stress factor. Make sure you have coat hangers somewhere, to get clothing out of the way. The same goes for bags and other personal items. If you have money to spend and enough room (both is not true for our project), buy lockers and give people their own space to keep their stuff.
Managing incidents means coming up quickly with good solutions. Personally, I like having flipcharts and magnetic whiteboards in the CR, to allow for brainstorming, mindmapping or being creative in any way desired. Holding a pen is so much more beneficial for the thinking process, than typing on a keyboard. Flipcharts and whiteboards are also great to present data, important contact details or today’s lunch menu. In fact, try to seize as much presentation/visualization surface as possible.
Finally, furniture helps to reduce reverberation. We additionally have carpets and curtains to try to keep noise at a minimum. We wanted to reduce stress factors as effective as possible.
IT and Communication Equipment
Other than projectors, screens present content without being influenced by surrounding light. (the thing on the ceiling is the camera of our videoconference-system)
It’s crucial to use state-of-the-art telecommunication technology. Incidents can be dynamic and require intense contact with other teams. However, there are many great products out there and even more opinions. It all comes down to the systems your organisation uses.
You might like to see what we use to exchange information:
Internet (therefore e-Mails, instant messaging services, etc.)
Phones
Radio communication (digital as well as analogue)
Screens with TV license and fitted with a video conference system
Printer/scanner/copier
Maybe one more thing about projectors. We have a big 85” interactive screen (all bells and whistles) fitted in the bigger conference room. It provides a clear picture, no matter where you stand in the room and despite heavy daylight from many windows. That’s a big benefit compared to most common projectors, which require dark rooms and are useless when used during daytime.
Conclusion
It doesn’t matter what you call your coordination facilities. They are a place to develop ideas, to test them and to facilitate their implementation. Try not to restrict your productivity by gadgets and always focus on practicality.
Please don’t get me wrong, I like well-designed digital tools and sophisticated equipment! They just shouldn’t be chosen for being sexy or shiny. You might end up being distracted or slowed down. Think and choose your tools to fit your workflow.
Establish an environment that allows for calm, concentrated work. Identify stress factors and get them out of the way as soon as possible. Allow your team to recover from intense work and keep their human needs in mind. You will be rewarded with brighter ideas and extended operational capacity.
I hope you enjoyed this blog post and might even found it useful. As always, please feel free to contact me. I’d like to hear about your coordination rooms and maybe even why you chose to plan them completely different!
Regards
Bernhard