Post-disaster wake-up call: Guy Rankin prompting nations to a recovery-ready mind-set

September 26, 2011

Can the world prepare to recover from disasters like Japan’s? Houston-based housing expert says yes, urges U.S. and world governments to forge recovery policy.  

Guy Rankin’s Blog – Full Story

We can’t prevent them. In many cases, we can’t even predict them. Natural disasters will happen; they inevitably kill, destroy and displace. Whether a struck nation faces staggering losses or mild, a disaster’s aftermath is something nations definitely can prepare for.

Japan’s plight following the March 2011 earthquake and resulting tsunami begs the question: What can be done to minimize residual damage after nature wreaks its havoc? As crews work to recover more than 25,000 missing or dead, Japan also must tend to more than 320,000 evacuees who have fled ruined towns and unsafe levels of radiation.

Watching the post-disaster challenges unfold, other nations began to explore their own ability to recover from disaster. How would we shelter hundreds of thousands of displaced people? Where would we find the food and water to sustain them if local supply is contaminated or wiped out altogether? How do we get that food and water to them when the usual delivery methods have been compromised? How do we supply required medicine and medical attention?

“We have the know-how to address ‘the disaster after the disaster,’” says recovery expert Guy Rankin, who led large-scale disaster recovery efforts along the Gulf Coast after an unprecedented series of hurricanes displaced more than a quarter-million people. He emphasizes that although we can’t control nature, we can adopt a controlled, systematic approach to tackling follow-on disasters of displaced people, destroyed communities, food and water shortages, access to medicine and health care, and more.

“First comes the understanding that one disaster often follows another,” he advises. “Expect it. That way, you understand the need for a recovery plan that can roll out even as you tackle the second or third crisis that comes.”

Rankin, executive director of Harris County Housing Authority in Houston, Texas, speaks from experience. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina brought 250,000 evacuees to emergency shelters across Houston. As Rankin and his small staff hustled to place evacuees in temporary housing throughout the region, Hurricane Rita was predicted to travel up the Houston Ship Channel with wind speeds that threatened to bring down the Astrodome. “This horrifying picture began taking shape: our biggest emergency shelter potentially collapsing on 25,000 people that we’re trying desperately to house!” Rankin recalls. “We were sending people all over the country to clear out the Astrodome, and then we had to evacuate Houston – a region of four million people – at the same time,” Rankin says.

In September 2008, Hurricane Ike made landfall near Houston, causing billions of dollars’ worth of damage and leaving the fourth-largest U.S. city without power for 14 days (or 21 days, in some spots). Rankin’s team mobilized a points-of-distribution system that dispatched 3,000 18-wheelers from the Astrodome to deliver water, ice, and food throughout the three most severely affected counties. “We fed several hundred thousand people in the area, all while electricity was out,” Rankin says.

Moving a quarter-million evacuees from emergency shelter to transitional housing to rebuilt communities, Rankin recognized shortcomings in the United States’ approach to disaster recovery. “The way the system is set up – and you’ll find systems like this worldwide – our disaster experts are not really recovery experts. They are emergency experts. They’re the ‘firefighters’ coming to bring you water and food during a disaster, making sure you have medicine and kits. Now, those are crucial things that need to take place, but there is no office in America called the Disaster Recovery Office,” he points out.

Every administration, every president, every country, whether a democracy or a communist country, approaches disaster this way, he continues. “Take Haiti, for instance. When disaster happens [referring to the January 2010 earthquake that claimed 230,000 lives], we run out, we send a bunch of bulldozers, we move the bricks and debris out of the way, and then we let time fade … and nobody really addresses the problem after the disaster,” he says.

Rankin doesn’t downplay the heroism and good will shown by the governments, nonprofit organizations and volunteers who rushed to help in Haiti. Yet, examining the quake from a recovery standpoint, he says these forces often “show up in helicopters, do their thing, pull out, and then there is no coordination of strategy for step-by-step rebuilding. This creates disaster after disaster because some 400,000 people – orphaned children or evacuees who’ve fled to the Haitian hillsides – are still looking for help from someone. But who is that someone?” he asks.

That someone doesn’t exist because there is no one person in charge to coordinate all the private relief donations, all the nonprofit funds and all the funds from federal and local agencies. Rankin points out a pressing need for a disaster recovery “czar,” a point person who coordinates the use of relief funds and oversees the disaster-torn area’s journey to put the community back together, step by step.

While arguing the need for a disaster recovery officer, Rankin also plans to advocate for laws to streamline recovery efforts, outlining the steps and timelines to be observed by those who receive money for recovery efforts. “We know what to do to put communities back together, and we know how long it should take,” he says. But often, delays come when those who carry out the recovery must wait on funds and approvals and bureaucracy.

The lessons Rankin has learned through Katrina and Ike recovery efforts extend beyond housing – even beyond U.S. borders. Any nation can plan for the known challenges to shelter, food, water, infrastructure and health care after a natural disaster. According to Rankin, the magnitude of recent disasters in Haiti and Japan must prompt them to do so, because “only then do nations become more agile in responding to the chaos and rebuilding from the rubble,” he says. “We have the engineers. We have the technology. We have the know-how. The question is do we have the will to set this kind of planning in motion?”

 

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Guy Rankin, IV is the Chief Executive Officer for the Harris County Housing Authority (HCHA), a governmental agency which serves more than two million people and a service area of approximately 1100 square miles. With over 20 years of housing and community development experience, Mr. Rankin has garnered an international reputation of excellence for planning, housing development and recovery through accomplished change and innovation. Under his visionary leadership, HCHA has grown from a troubled agency to one of the best housing authorities in the country as recognized by the U. S. Department of Housing & Urban Development. http://www.achatexas.org 

Linda Singerle is a journalist and writer for Wynn Solutions a company that offers customized services, including keynote speakers , corporate training programs, employee assessments and marketing services. Wynn Solutions provides its clients with the tools they need to create and sustain successful business relationships.

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Posted by Ginger Dailey Wynn

Tsunamis, Unrest in the Middle East and Economic Recovery: The Value of Worry

April 8, 2011

With a current world picture that includes tsunamis, unrest in the Middle East and a struggling economic recovery, it might be tempting to say that the Mayans were right and we’re approaching the end in 2012. Maybe the Mayans were just good at math, which we all know can be helpful but won’t necessarily get you a date. (We tend to remember Olympic champions but rarely sing the praises of a mathlete.) Just because an ancient civilization did not outlive its own calendar doesn’t mean it’s the end of the world for us.

Stress and WorryWe like to think that these unstable conditions around the world are new and shocking events never before seen. But the truth is that the Japanese invented the word tsunami, which means clearly this is not their first rodeo. (I’ve actually seen a Japanese rodeo, and it definitely appeared to be their first.)
Likewise, rebelling against governments is absolutely nothing new; it’s the foundation of the United States. Those of us who think our economy is really bad have never ridden the chicken bus in Mexico. (You know, that bus you’re on when you realize all the native riders are holding farm animals … and somehow you get the idea their economy is a little different from yours.)

The reason a series of unfavorable current events can intrigue us so much is simply this: We like bad news. As a culture, Americans tend to fan the flames of panic. From the post-earthquake and -tsunami videos, you might conclude that the Japanese don’t seem to be panicking. Don’t be fooled; they’re panicking – their panic just looks different from ours. Their panic does not give the appearance that Godzilla has come to town. That image of panic is one that the Japanese created for us, an American film audience that enjoys that stuff. We feed off it.

But sometimes we also let it bog us down. No matter how bad things get, circumstances do not create the quality of our life. We do. How we think and feel about what goes on and the belief systems that we hold create what we think of the future.

Worry is not the symptom of a problematic life. It is, in fact, the problem. Worry that does not create an action pretty quickly is useless. As you may have heard before, action creates opportunity. Fear creates action that we probably should have thought through a little better first.

We are concerned about a younger generation that doesn’t seem to have a sense of urgency; they don’t seem to be worried about the things we think should cause them worry. But maybe these young people are proof of the latest evolution of the human condition. Maybe we’re evolving to the point we’ve finally realized that chronic dread is just not helpful enough. It’s like a 50-year-old person dealing with a technology problem. He’ll see it as an all-day problem, whereas the 25-year-old is just looking for one of many solutions that he actually knows exist. It’s easy to say that this new generation may lack the efficiency of the previous generation; after all, we worked hard to make sure they didn’t have to work as hard as we did. But the truth is, as usual, we all have a lot to learn from each other.

Concern (which is nothing more than worry conveyed with a more effective expression on your face) is important because it drives us to make plans and prepare ourselves for the future. For example, seeing a glass as half empty can help a lot of us to consistently keep our glass full. But critical thinking is not the same as a fatalistic outlook.

My ultimate point is to stop worrying so much about things we can’t do anything about and to take specific action on the things we can actually influence. To that end, here are six things we can do to be more effective about how we think.

  1. Quit talking so much about how bad everything is, because ultimately you’re using your charismatic influence to lower the performance of the people around you.
  2. Watch television news a little less and the History Channel a little more. (Don’t take this to mean that you should stay up until 4 a.m. watching Hitler documentaries.)
  3. Focus on making the people around you feel valuable, because people who feel valued make fewer mistakes, are more loyal to you and have a better outlook on life. It’s why corporations and associations spend money on motivational speakers.
  4. Adopt modern business practices. Communication has changed, and social media is having a dramatic effect on everything from brand awareness to customer service to generating big revenue. Social media is simply word of mouth on steroids; it’s the natural progression of technology-aided communication. First came tribal drums, then smoke signals, then the telegraph (although I think there may have been a few things in between smoke signals and the telegraph), then the telephone, then the computer/Internet, and now social media.
  5. Remember that, when dealing with younger people, you need to let them know that “now” means now. With their
    With their lack of a sense of urgency, they sometimes don’t understand that “now” means “Stop what you’re doing and focus on this other thing pronto!”
  6. Use all the effort that you put into worrying about the future into creating your own future.

The value of worry is that, in small, well-applied doses, it motivates us. The problem is we are not a culture known for our love of moderation!
Whatever hitches and hiccups we might experience right now, we are probably not the first ones to face them, nor are we the first ones to solve them. Frankly, it doesn’t take genius to succeed. Throughout history, we humans have achieved through persistence and resilience. In fact, our research shows that when a high percentage of top performers were asked about how their brilliance created success, they simply said that (1) they were not as smart as they were relentless, and (2) a more intelligent person would have quit long before they did.

Motivational Speaker – Author – Consultant –  Garrison Wynn

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Why Would Anybody Want to Be in a Fair Fight? Create your own advantage

May 26, 2010

If you have trouble discovering an innate advantage—or if what you find doesn’t seem advantageous enough—you create an advantage. The top 1 percent we surveyed and studied did not always have size, beauty, or remarkable demeanors (some were downright obnoxious and a bit hard on the eye), but they all had advantages they used to help them be successful. These advantages were often not innate but things a lot of people might have. The top performers just identified the potential advantages and, if they did not have what they needed to create them, went out and got it.

Creating an advantage is not easy, especially if you have no talent, but it is always possible. Just think about people you’ve worked with over the years: unimpressive, untalented, and eventually in charge. As you read this, look around you. What does success look like? What do those successful people have that you don’t (other than success, obviously)? Chances are they have more than innate advantages. Try to discover some learnable behaviors or positioning strategies that you could duplicate. Is there an education level that can’t be maneuvered around? Is there training or certification needed?

As you look around, remember that it’s important to know the business culture you’re operating in. You must see business for what it really is: a place where fairness falters, where even the seemingly undeserving win. The terms “fair fight” and “level playing field” have little business in the business world. The bottom line in the real business world is that fairness rarely raises its ugly head. A fair fight means you are unprepared. Heck, I could lose a fair fight. I personally like my fights lopsided in my favor and my opponents minimally skilled and easily defeated.

Let’s be really honest: You want a fair fight only if you believe that equality is more important than personal success or if you are bored with how easily you’ve been winning your fights. When I first started to hear the advantages of the most successful, it did not seem right that they were successful regardless of talent, skill, or education. But I realized that the people who are willing to overcome everything in their path (like a giant lack of talent) because of their desire for their goal were as deserving as anyone else.

Viewing business this way requires a willingness to step away from traditional norms of fairness—to understand that “unfair” fighting does not mean unscrupulous or dishonorable. It means thinking critically about some business practice, personality trait, or personal strategy and then methodically employing it to your advantage so you stand out from others and win. Creating a phony Facebook account for a person who is competing with you for a promotion that clearly states his dedication to Hitler is definitely unscrupulous. However, making sure you discuss your love of the History Channel in the interview with your Nazi-crazed future boss is not. You knew what he valued and got excited about his favorite subject. And you used your thought-to-be-useless knowledge of World War II to get the promotion.

Lesson
A fair fight is for the unprepared.
Getting ready for an unfair fight does not mean that you’ll be doing something dishonest or unscrupulous. It means looking for the advantages you have and being willing to use them to win. Plain and simple, life is not fair. The same goes for the business world. We need every advantage we can get to guarantee success. Being prepared is the basic ingredient to improving your chance of success in any endeavor.

Keynotes for  Business Success

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Posted by Ginger Dailey Wynn

Satisfaction Might be The Enemy of Greatness

April 28, 2010

Can you be successful AND happy?
A new collection of Charles Schulz’s writings shows that the creator of “Peanuts” was always insecure, even as he drew and wrote the world’s most beloved comic strip. How much does success color one’s self-image? Does a job well done necessarily bring satisfaction?

What I’m getting ready to say might not be the feel-good realization of the summer!

Charlie BrownI spent 10 years researching successful people and found that when phenomenally talented people speak anonymously and honestly, the most common recurring theme is low self-esteem. The truth is that if you have massively high self-esteem, you have a tendency to lack ambition. That’s why all those people you know who don’t need your approval do in fact need to borrow your money!

Most people who believe they are OK regardless of their actions or circumstances don’t need to achieve much. It’s why the average person makes a modest income and lives a so-called normal life. But the people who have something to prove because they feel a bit less than OK usually need to overcompensate. And they usually don’t need to live in their parents’ houses at age 29.

During our interviews with more than 5,000 successful people, we heard many statements like “I have a hard time enjoying life if I don’t finish first, drive an expensive car or live in a house that cost ‘Oprah-money.’” People who have something to prove are the most competitive. Often drive is fueled by compulsive behavior; it’s why the most talented people on earth drink too much, have out-of-control sexual behavior and often end up “graveyard dead” before their time from all those excesses.

But most people don’t admit this because another symptom of compulsive behavior is lying! People like Thomas Edison, who admitted way back when that low self-esteem fueled his success (he failed an exam to be a railroad engineer and said he spent his life proving his worth), and now Schulz, should be commended for their honesty. Frankly, the more appropriate question might be “How much does self-image color one’s success?”

During our research we had to get very personal and build a lot of trust to get real answers. People like to say they believed in themselves because it’s embarrassing to make statements like “I see a glass as half empty, which consistently motivates me to fill up the glass.” You can’t really pump people up, get on CNN or sell breakfast cereal with that sound bite. Our research showed that the most successful people were negative thinkers who were not blindsided by obstacles they never saw coming. Their lack of faith that everything was going to be OK pushed them into action. Let’s be real: A lack of satisfaction creates the continual improvements that move our civilization forward. And that creates the freedom and great life that allows the average person to feel contented. So if it were not for the slightly miserable overachievers, there would be a lot less joy in the world! Satisfaction may be the goal of the common man, but it is the enemy of greatness.

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Posted by Ginger Dailey Wynn

Who are those old guys? The Who at the Super Bowl

February 11, 2010

 

From “On Success” Washington Post Column
The Who: aging or ageless?
The Who were on center stage — again — during the Super Bowl’s half-time show. Why are some performers able to sustain their success for decades while others lose their appeal? What are the qualities and skills needed to stay revved up and relevant?

The Who super bowlWhen you’re talking music, sustained success has a lot to do with how complex and difficult your music was to begin with. The Who’s music is not the easiest to replicate. And if we’re being honest here, when you go back and listen to The Who’s recordings, you’ll realize that Roger Daltry’s voice could barely hit the notes back in the day, much less 35 years later live at the Super Bowl.

Another example of this age-old-rockers-who-still-draw-crowds phenomenon can be seen in the Rolling Stones. The Stones didn’t play that well to begin with; so now, as they’re seemingly close to death (I think Keith Richards actually died in 1985 – it’s just that nobody has told him), it’s easier to perform to an appreciative crowd. Mick Jagger has a limited vocal range and it’s easy for him to sing most Stones songs, which never were very challenging vocally anyway. People will say, “Wow, he sounds pretty good for an old guy,” because range and the ability to hold a note fades with age. Even so, not long ago I did hear a live version of the falsetto ridden “Miss You” which caused my dog to bark uncontrollably! Additionally, Aerosmith was so messed up on drugs in the 1970s that they naturally sound fantastic now!

Examples like these emphasize an essential truth: If you keep things simple, you typically have longevity. As a professional speeaker, I know that the more moving parts something has, the more likely it is to break down. Drawn from mechanical engineering, this basic principle applies to life and business as well. Still, it’s a difficult thing to watch as our favorite talented people lose their edge. We’re left questioning what sense it makes when giant talents like Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin die in their prime, while the Who and other greats have unfortunately lived long enough to suck!

Article in Rolling Stone : Fans React to the Who’s Super Bowl Halftime Performance

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Oh, the drama! Failing to acheive your goal! – Washinton post “On Success” response.

December 22, 2009

Q: What’s the right response when you come tantalizingly close to success but fail to achieve your goal? How hard is it to recover from heartbreaking setbacks like the ones the Washington Redskins have endured in recent weeks? How often have you experienced reversals that tested your own spirit?

The lowdown on losin’ it

Well, let’s be honest: The most common response to failure when you’ve just missed your goal by an inch is to freak out, followed shortly by whining and complaining that life is not fair. (There may be profanity involved.) While this might not be the best response, it is the common one, based on the many anonymous answers I’ve heard to that question.

If you are a passionate, creative person, (like a motivational speaker) it could be difficult to recover because you have a high propensity for dramatic reactions — that is, a low lose-it threshold.

In the course of my company’s research, we’ve found that very successful, driven people or people who care deeply about something have a tendency to overreact. (Just read the comments on my post about Tiger Woods titled “Paying for fame.”) It seems to be a rare (and kind of dull) group of people who can consistently separate the data from the drama and react in what people keep telling us is an appropriate manner.

If you are a Redskins fan, the appropriate response is to put your foot through your television! I know how you feel: I’m a Houston Texans fan (as in we’ve never had a winning season and we’re the first team in history to do so with a No. 3-ranked offense two years in a row). It’s hard to recover from heartbreaking setbacks; but let me just say that if a football team tops your list of disappointments, then your life must be fantastic!

I have had my share of personal setbacks; in fact, back in high school, football was involved. I once threw eight interceptions in one game. My dad said it had to be a record. (Thanks, Dad!) If I had died sometime during my junior high football days, they would have built a statue of me in front of the school. Unfortunately, I lived just long enough to suck!

That high school football experience became a strong learning point, though. I was well liked by my teammates and learned that if your relationships are strong enough, you can survive the blame, even if your response to failure is, um… a failure.

Read more “On Success” answers

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Interview with Kurt Schemers on Traders Nation

October 13, 2009

I had a great time discussing my new book “The Real Truth about Success” with Kurt Schemers at Tradersnation.com. He is witty guy and I look forward to visiting with him again in November.

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Can Gen Y – the “entitled” workers – survive the future?

January 30, 2009

Today’s office is fertile ground for generational clashes and misunderstood mindsets. With people under 30 (known as Generation Y) working alongside middle-aged managers and coworkers, the established older set often finds it difficult to motivate or understand their Gen Y colleagues. Those who’ve had success report that tactics such as short project phases with tight deadlines and frequent praise along the way to a goal work well to fuel Gen Y. Also, it helps to make sure their work computers are no slower than the ones they have at home.

See, Gen Y children have this expectation of immediacy; this overall air of entitlement even pervades their career paths. It’s not their fault; they’re simply products of an affluent society, modern parenting and the “kinder, gentler” elementary school system they experienced. (Yes, that means we did this to them!)

Some middle-aged managers can’t comprehend Gen Y’s deserve-it-now mindset that’s so different from the prove-yourself work ethic that baby boomers and all earlier generations used to rise through the ranks. Other managers who grasp Gen Y’s conditioning adapt their work culture to more fully engage these younger workers. Yet, even among these managers, I’ve heard lots of concern about the future in the hands of those being coddled.
They wonder what will happen to the world in the hands of a spoiled generation. How will Gen Y survive if the economy tanks and life is not so rosy?

History tells us they’ll adjust – some much better than others. It has happened before. In the roaring economy of the late 1920s, parents struggled to understand why their sons were leaving the farm, why their daughters were riding in cars, drinking and smoking in public, and wearing short skirts. (Oh, the shame of exposed calves!) They wondered: What will become of these spoiled, overconfident, overspending kids under 30 who lack the work ethic they need to survive in the future?

Then the stock market crashed and the depression set in (financially and emotionally). Some found it impossible to cope, and suicide rates soared. Others found it impossible to cope without some sort of outlet: drug and alcohol abuse spiked, and crime rose to an all-time high. In fact, 1931 claims the worst crime wave in recorded history, with John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, Baby Face Nelson and Machine Gun Kelly all going nuts at the same time – and those are just the newsmakers in an era before television or the Internet.

Even so, not everyone went haywire; many survived. They buckled down and changed their entitled ways, but not before the experience carved an indelible mark in their collective psyche.

That’s why your grandparents give you that weird look when you announce you’ve bought a new house or car whenever your income increases. That image of fortune pulling the rug from under the nation’s feet is hard for them to shake. It’s why they save the rapping paper when you give them a present.   

Of course, there’s a significant difference between the Great Depression and a recession or slowdown (which, by the way, most economic experts say we are not in right now). People who tried to withdraw money during the Depression didn’t get an ATM message telling them “there are insufficient funds in your account.” No, in many cases, they heard something more startling, straight from the bank manager: “Sorry, there are insufficient funds in the bank … er … in every bank.” The unemployment rate was 30 percent in 1930 and people were giving away their children because they could not feed them. Nowadays there are measures in place to prevent such drastic conditions. (If you hear some “ thrilled by the sound of his own voice” radio host use the word “depression,” he clearly does not watch The History Channel.)

So, while it’s not likely we’ll experience the depths of the Great Depression again, it’s good to know that even the entitled youths of that era pulled it together. Most of them changed their ways and made it through. Humans have a good track record for surviving their own self-induced catastrophes, and seemingly they come out better for it in the long run.

As history changes, so do its people. The result is that each generation seems uniquely suited to the world it will inherit. We can spout off all day about how modern young people don’t have the mindset or toughness to survive – and clearly some do not. But many do. Our job as their employers or managers is not to make them think like us so they can brave the future. We’re really just supposed to make sure we can get them to do what they need to do right now to get quotas met and money made.

Sure, these concerns about mankind’s future are important and justified, but they can’t help improve the capable but disengaged 25-year-old’s productivity by month’s end. For that, we should try dividing giant projects into digestible bites, with a healthy slathering of praise as each phase gets done.

Oh, and gadgets motivate too – as long as they’re really fast and free!

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