Proceso: Planificación de la Gestión de Configuración

communicating with the

operations, and early reports indicate massive damage to infra-structure throughout the state, especially in the major metropoli-tan areas. Bridges and roads have been destroyed, power lines are down, and communication networks are paralyzed up and down the West Coast. People are trapped in collapsed buildings and houses, and thousands are feared dead.

Experts say that the quake and its aftershocks have left 6,000 dead and 20,000 seriously injured; millions, with their apartments or single-family homes destroyed, have become refugees, with no money and no place to go. It is simply a massive humanitarian dis-aster, worse than 9/11 and Katrina combined.

For the bank, it’s a catastrophe. Several office buildings are dev-astated, data centers suffer severe damage with flooding and loss of power, and internal communications networks are slow or crip-pled. ATMs in the state are not working, a major call center is inop-erable, other centers are overwhelmed, and wire transfer operations are in chaos. Customers outside California are beginning to com-plain about botched handling of their accounts. In human terms, many bank employees cannot return home; fires in their neighbor-hoods make matters even worse.

The team performance was much improved in move 2. The en-terprise leadership team, for instance, was communicating with the lines-of-business teams and coordinating both internal and ex-ternal messaging with the crisis communications team. The lead-ership team secured hundreds of housing units for displaced employees and committed tens of millions of dollars in immediate aid to help employees and customers. Even though the earthquake was the top priority, the team continued to monitor the terrorist threat situation, especially around critical operational sites.

Other teams were improving as well. The crisis communica-tions team made sure the word was out that the bank was focused on its employees and their families, had launched a customer-support program, was working with the governor of California and the national leadership, was coordinating with the Red Cross and the National Guard to dispense aid, and was working with other

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financial institutions to ensure financial continuity in the United States and worldwide. The lines-of-business teams were looking after their employees and focusing on communicating with their customers and clients. Still, the bottom line after move 2 was con-tinuing confusion about roles and responsibilities.

Move 3 may have seemed like piling on, but unprecedented things happen in the real world as well as the one conjured by cre-ative wargamers. A month after the California earthquake, a large bomb explodes in the lobby of the bank’s main office building in New York. Damage is extensive. The building is evacuated as quickly as possible, but early estimates of casualties have reached 700 or more. The blast also has crippled data and trading opera-tions in an adjacent building. Bank communicaopera-tions and Web sup-port slow down, and even the best of the bank’s institutional clients prove difficult to reach.

Minutes after the explosion in New York, a smaller bomb goes off at HerculesBanc’s London office. As the building is being slowly evacuated, first responders at the scene detect radioactivity in the immediate blast zone. British authorities confirm the initial read-ings and establish a quarantine area around the building.

The two bombs have created a ripple effect, and bank employ-ees are evacuating bank offices at locations across the United States and in selected offices abroad. HerculesBanc is global news once again as financial analysts and banking experts wonder aloud about the potential impact on the global financial system. Then, late the same day, the final insult: Al Jazeera airs an Al-Qaida video featur-ing Osama bin Laden, who claims the attacks are the work of Is-lamic warriors, a warning against anyone who “might financially help subjugate Islam.”

The teams responded to another set of questions after move 3, suggesting that they finally understood the holes in their crisis planning and what was needed to repair them. In fact, the final takeaways demonstrated that HerculesBanc’s participants had used the process of experiential learning to reveal their problems and provide solutions to them.

A L L H A Z A R D S , A L L T H E T I M E



Consider the 80-20 rule. One learn-ing from the game was that preplannlearn-ing is an essential part of an effective all-hazards plan. In the game’s third move, we introduced participants to an exam-ple of crisis planning employed by a U.S. Army Ranger unit. The unit’s mis-sion in this drill is to assemble 120 sol-diers and their materiel and equipment and be “wheels up” within 18 hours so that they can construct a staging area within 24 hours of landing. The staging area, or “city,” must be capable of pro-viding shelter, medical triage facilities, weapons ranges, an ammunition depot, mock buildings for final as-sault practice, and general supplies. Here’s the catch: They must be prepared to deploy to four different environments: arctic, desert, jungle, and mountains. How? To be successful, they determine that 80 percent of what they need is core to the mission wherever it is, which means that only 20 percent needs to be done at the last minute. Example: You need tents in all four environments but leave the potbelly stove at home unless you’re heading for the North Pole.

“A L L H A Z A R D S ” C R I S I S P L A N N I N G Mission: assemble120 soldiers, materiel, and equipment, be

“wheels up” in 18 hours, and build a staging area within 24 hours of landing to provide shelter, medical, and dental triage facilities, weapon calibration ranges, ammunition depot, mock buildings, and general supplies.

Challenge: Must be prepared to deploy in four very different regions: Arctic, desert, jungle, and mountains.

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Move 3 may have seemed like piling on, but unprece-dented things happen in the real world as well as the one conjured by creative

wargamers. A month after