Devising Post-Disaster Continuity Plans that Meet Actual Recovery Needs

This article is based on the author´s direct observation, participation, and field experience in more than fifteen hundred post disaster recoveries over the last fifteen years. A review of relevant literature is followed by a discussion of the social dynamics of organizations recovering from a disaster; including the inventory period that immediately follows a disaster, three group defensive systems that emerge to defend the group against the threat and why one of these performs significantly better than the others. This is followed by a brief post-disaster timeline indicating the timing of crisis where staff morale becomes a critical issue and when political realignments become necessary. Lastly, conditions for selection and membership on a business resilience/recovery team and advantages of building this process into normal business practices are discussed.