You’ve likely never heard of American hero Rick Rescorla or his incredible story.
Jim CastigliaBritish-born Rescorla enlisted in the American Army in 1963. He became a decorated Vietnam veteran (Silver Star, Bronze Star for Valor, Purple Heart) who fought in the 1965 Battle of Ia Drang Valley, the first major battle between the North Vietnamese army and American soldiers. (Catch the 2002 movie, “We Were Soldiers Once … and Young” starring Mel Gibson, based on the 1992 New York Times best-selling book of the same name. Rescorla is the soldier on the cover.) After the war, he eventually found midlife success as the security chief for Morgan Stanley’s World Trade Center offices in New York City, with an office on the 44th floor of Tower 2.
Rick was an expert disaster planner and felt the WTC was vulnerable to a major terrorist attack. So, he put Morgan Stanley employees through regular but random evacuation drills. When Rescorla sprung these drills on the employees, they were annoyed. They wanted to skip the drills and keep working. But employees had to participate. Even visitors received safety briefings.
When the first plane hit Tower 1 at 8:46 am on September 11, 2001, the Port Authority ordered everyone in both towers to stay put. But Rescorla followed his practiced evacuation plan and saved 2,687 Morgan Stanley employees. They survived because Rescorla prepared them with the knowledge of what to do in an emergency. He went back into Tower 2 to get the few Morgan Stanley stragglers, but it collapsed at 9:59 a.m. Only 13 Morgan Stanley employees died that day, and that included Rescorla and four members of his security team.
Would you and your team know what to do in an emergency? Are you prepared for any eventuality?
This article will present three steps you can follow to power up your preparation.
- Step 1: Risk Assessment
- Step 2: Practice/Drill
- Step 3: Execute
Preparation Part 1: Risk Assessment — What Could Go Wrong?
What are the risks to your business? Your job as an organizational leader is to identify, assess, and prepare your firm to handle them.
Since last month’s article discussed planning for 2026, preparation should be an important part of your planning process.
Keep in mind that one factor that prevents preparation is called “normalcy bias.” Normalcy bias is our tendency to think tomorrow will resemble today. This viewpoint prevents us from thinking about what could go wrong, much less doing anything about it. Just knowing that we have this bias can help us overcome it.
Action: Perform a comprehensive risk assessment: what could go wrong? Who could be hurt? What can be done to manage the identified problems?
- Assign a level of risk to each separate element of an assessment procedure
- Decide who may be harmed and how
- Evaluate risks and whether existing procedures are adequate
- Record your findings
- Consult your risk assessments regularly and revise as necessary
- First aid - is anyone certified in CPR, choking, shock, burns, treating gunshot wounds (California has the highest number of mass shootings (26) between 1982 and August 2025; Texas is second with 14; Florida is third with 13).
- How to handle active shooter situations (escape—deny—attack back: A. Burrese)
- Insurance - is my organization comprehensively covered
- Where are the nearby medical facilities
- Chemical emergencies
- Government collapse
- Economic collapse
- Nuclear war (Don’t laugh. I’m old enough to vividly remember the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, the closest we’ve ever come to all-out nuclear war. Today, there are over 12 thousand nuclear warheads with about three thousand actively deployed by nine countries. https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/nuclear-weapons-who-has-what-glance)
Assess the major environmental and weather risks to your business. Depending on where you live in the country, consider the following threats:
- Earthquake
- Flooding
- Tornado
- Hurricane
- Volcano
- Power grid failure
- Pandemics (e.g., Covid-19)
- Fires and wildfires
In case of emergency, do you have/know the following:
- If people have to leave, are roads available
- Emergency generator: power outages; people can stay in the building; propane, gas, heat the building; can employees shelter in place
- Smoke alarm systems are working and in tip-top shape; are they maintained
- Refrigeration and backup for medications
- Is your team prepared? Emergency response knowledge and practice
- Do you have a way to provide clean water so everyone can stay hydrated
- Do you have a backpack or duffel bag with survival supplies in your car
- Is there community resilience, built upon nurtured relationships
- Is there a rendezvous point if employees have to evacuate a building, so you can do a head count
- Do you know how to turn off the gas and the sewer so they don’t contaminate water supplies?
Preparation Part 2: Practice, Practice, Practice and Drill, Drill, Drill.
Once you’ve assessed the risk, now is the time to practice your planning procedures. (Again, don’t fall victim to normalcy bias.) Always try to be one step ahead of any emergency. Be prepared; not scared. Be proactive; have the right mindset.
Debra Searle (rowed across the Atlantic) talked about this power, the resilience of the human spirit, unshakable optimism, and mental readiness to handle the unexpected.
Some skills can be learned to build the mental strength needed to adapt. But, you must work at it. Training the mind allows us to cope in ways that take us way beyond any mental or physical pain threshold.
Searle feels the two most important factors are: 1) visualization; 2) attitude.
Visualization (imagining what could go wrong and how you’d react) speeds up your reactions and eliminates fear (like watching a scary movie twice). You can also focus on one thing you have to live for (family, faith, purpose, etc.).
Action: for any of the above risks to you and your company, establish your top five priorities, create a table, and review them with your employees and colleagues on a frequent and regular basis. Forewarned is forearmed.
Here’s an example from my own experience below.
I was in the 6.9 Mw magnitude 1989 Loma Prieta (San Francisco-San Jose Bay Area) earthquake, which occurred during the third game of the World Series, as well as the 6.7 magnitude Northridge (LA area) quake in 1994, and experienced countless temblors while living in California.
The Loma Prieta quake happened at 5:04 pm PST. I was resting on the couch in the trainers’ office in our Foster City Learning Center, slated to lead a workshop that evening at 7 pm, and boom, the building shook, and all the lights went out. Talk about a shot of adrenaline. Seven people (out of 60) actually showed up for the workshop, which we ended up doing in the trainers’ office by candlelight. “The show must go on.” And, focusing on those seven people helped me and the center staff to focus on something other than chaos during a very frightening experience.
The top priorities for an earthquake event are:
- Get to a safe spot when you feel the first signs of an earthquake
- Stay in that spot until it’s safe to leave
- Turn off your utilities (gas, water, electricity) after the quake
- Seek refuge until your home and office are declared safe to return to
- Be mentally and physically prepared for an aftershock.
Key: These steps can serve you as a model for any emergencies that could occur.
And, understand that your plans may not work “as planned,” but just thinking in this way can prevent major problems with personnel and operations.
Helmuth von Moltke, chief of staff for the Prussian Army for 30 years and one of the finest military minds of his generation, said, “No plan of operations extends with certainty beyond the first encounter with the enemy’s main strength,” or more colloquially, “no plan survives first contact with the enemy.”
Von Moltke declared that military leaders’ main task was extensive preparation for all possible outcomes.
Consider that “what can go wrong, will go wrong.” Even though this is true, you’ll still be way ahead of the game by preparing in advance.
Preparation Part 3: Execute
Plan your moves and move according to plan. Make sure everyone knows what to do. Help people understand that your plans can and will save lives. This is why Step 2 above is so critical.
Don’t underestimate the natural human responses to threats and disasters. Most people freeze. Researchers call this “negative panic.” Negative panic costs lives. This is how we tend to respond in a crisis. The brain shuts down. Even the simple task of dialing 911 can’t be done. In a real-world crisis, the brain “downshifts” into fight-or-flight mode, and in situations where people feel trapped and in extreme fear, they freeze.
Preparing ahead of time can prevent these reactions. You owe it to yourself, your employees, your business, and your family to be prepared.
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Here’s an excellent U.S. government site with a broad range of very helpful information: https://www.ready.gov/
Jim Castiglia is the founder of Business Street Fighter Consulting, supporting entrepreneurial business owners in their desire to grow and maximize the value of their businesses. You can reach him by email at jvcastiglia@icloud.com or text him at 949.338.7141.
