Say Disaster Recovery Again
By Mike Maddaloni on Monday, May 11, 2020 at 05:55 PM with 0 comments
At some point we switched from saying "disaster recovery" to "business continuity," and I think it's time to switch it back.
Perhaps it started in the 1990's when a wave of buzzwords and political correctness came into vogue. The phrase “disaster recovery” has such a harsh tone to it, where “business continuity” is so much more positive, isn't it? Positive, sure, but did losing the edge of the phrase diminish the need for how we often apply it, in creating a disaster recovery plan?
Disaster recovery planning is creating an action plan and related activities in preparation for a disaster in one’s life. It is typically something a business does, but individuals and families can prepare one as well.
By calling it recovery rather than continuity, we have a sense of urgency and a goal of pushing forward, wherever it takes us. Continuity implies we will still be the same afterwards, where as we are living now that may not completely be the case. By using the term disaster rather than business, it means it impacts all of us, not just businesses. Individuals, families and related organizations all need a disaster recovery plan and to be included in a business’ plan too, including the resources to execute on that plan, and I’m referring to more than pallets of toilet paper. The contents of a plan would be different based on a focus of more creative options.
The onset of a pandemic on a free-market, capitalistic society has been devastating. Now in the third calendar month of it, we are seeing daily reports of businesses - not just small businesses but large ones too - filing bankruptcy or closing altogether. This is on top of record layoffs and furloughs leading to record unemployment claims. The "disaster" today is not just with companies but with people as well. Many of both were not prepared or prepared to the degree they needed to be.
So what do you think? I welcome your thoughts in the comments to this post.
Deconstructing Disaster Recovery
Words matter. By softening them it may pease some people, but it could also be detrimental to the goal of using those words. Disaster recovery says there was something bad, and we are going to come back from it. This phrase - and goal - is what we need right about now.
Image of cap generated from The Washington Post
This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.
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