Day Five after Hurricane Wilma.

Infrastructure. Things are moving forward because of infrastructure. Look at the systems created by each organization in this cleanup and watch them work. A dispatcher sits at a counter with a permanent line to emergency officials. He rolls out trucks and reassigns crews as work is completed.

There is calm in this control center. It is calm because its systems are working. The planning may be hour by hour, sometimes minute by minute, but it is supported by an infrastructure created a long time ago.

I was talking with Bernard Paul-Hus, president of Hypower Inc. His role at this point is to stand back and let his systems and people work. His type-A personality pushes him to find something active and essential to do in the moment, but his real work in response to Hurricane Wilma was done months ago.

Think about your organization. What kind of infrastructure do you have? Have you built it to be responsive to changing conditions? It doesn’t have to be a natural disaster. You are faced with changing market conditions, new competitors and shifting technologies.

Management lessons become visible from time to time. What can you learn from Wilma that will help your company face its trials in the future? -TF