Posts Tagged ‘ zombie ’

The Great Plague of London and root causes of risk

March 27, 2012

One of the hardest parts in documenting your risks is figuring out the root cause of the risk being analyzed. If this is done poorly, we will spend time and money treating the wrong root causes and the risk may only get worse. Take the Great Plague of 1665 that killed 1/6 of London’s population. It was believed that dogs and cats harboured the plague so the Mayor had hundreds of thousands of dogs and cats exterminated. As it turned out, rats and mice carried the fleas that carried the disease (that bit the humans). With their natural predators extinct,…

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The Walking Dead and risk management

March 20, 2012

If there are two things you have noticed about this blog, I often write about zombies and the Moment of Risk Enlightenment. Today’s post combines both. (Note: This post contains spoilers about season two of the Walking Dead.) I was catching up on season two of the “post-apocalyptic” television show The Walking Dead this week. In episode seven the survivors learn that the Greene family barn is full of walkers (zombies). Up to this point the farm represented a safe haven; they had not seen any walkers on the farm since they arrived. Impact and likelihood were low. But was…

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Tips on writing a zombie evacuation memo

October 31, 2011

  One of the biggest risks about evacuating your office in the event of an emergency is getting people to actually evacuate safely. You can send all the emails you want about procedures but like the boy who cried were(wolf) sometimes we hear the warning alarms so frequently that when we really have to evacuate we don’t bother. As a result many BCM people struggle with how to get people to read and learn. Then last summer I read a preparedness post by the Centre for Disease Control who spun the best practices for traditional disasters like hurricanes and earthquakes…

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Evacuating the Building Because of a Zombie Infection

October 31, 2011

To be read in association with the post: ”Tips on writing a zombie evacuation memo“. There are many reasons – including fire or bomb threats – that require us to evacuate the building but it is equally important that we prepare for other threats such as an evacuation because of a zombie infection. You may laugh now, but if you keep reading you may learn a few things that prepare you for the more traditional evacuation emergencies as well. Imagine for a moment that while at lunch, a colleague is accidentally infected with zombie viruses like Solanum or Ataxic Neurodegenerative Satiety…

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G20 update – Day 2

June 22, 2010

Day 2 starts with rain in Toronto. There was a minor protest yesterday afternoon for people protesting that they had nothing important to protest. Or maybe they were protesting poverty. One guy was busted by a cop on a bike for having some pot. I counted at least 100 cops on my walk down to Union Station last night and almost as many on my 3 block walk up to King today. I love seeing that show of force: cops from Toronto, Peel Region and York Region every 15-20 feet, two-by-two. For all the uneasiness that I felt seeing those…

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Riskczar’s thoughts on next week’s G20

June 16, 2010

In case you haven’t heard, the G20 Summit is coming to Toronto next week. In my current role, I’ve been involved in some of the business continuity planning but mostly from a communication perspective.  All of the heavy lifting had already been done.  The event is taking place in the heart of Toronto’s financial district. This is a part of town which is mostly made up of office buildings and is a bee hive of activity during business hours. However, on weekends it is largely a ghost town, which is why it was selected to host this event. Most financial…

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Traffic lights make people drive like zombies

November 13, 2009

Want to reduce the risk of traffic accidents and pedestrians getting struck by vehicles? Then remove the traffic lights and let people cross anywhere they want. Professor John Adams of University College London explains in a February 2008 article that “traffic lights force drivers to watch and obey robots rather than other road users – an obedience not enforced to the same degree on pedestrians, skateboarders or cyclists. One result is that zebra crossings are dangerous because drivers are no longer used to eye contact with other road users. Technology makes them drive like zombies.” Read the complete article here…

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Vampire and Werewolf risk management

November 1, 2009

In an earlier post, I wrote about some unusual risks not likely included on your risk registers: elephant risk, monkey risk and zombie risk. For those of you who may have been trying to treat your high residual risks of Vampire Bites or Werewolf Attacks on your risk registers, good news, you can treat these risks. It seems that Lloyds sells policies against these threats. I am curious if Lloyds sells most of these in Forks, Washington or Volterra, Italy?

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Elephant Risk

September 4, 2009

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the threat of zombies and whether it was too soon to ad zombie risk to your risk register or heat map. Well what about Elephant Risk? The Scientific Leader Blog writes about the increasing danger of elephants in India and Sri Lanka entering cities and causing trouble. For those of us sitting in Toronto, New York or Chicago, elephants are not risk we need to add to our heat maps but it does make you think about unknown unknows. What’s out there that we have not thought about before?

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Risk Management is not Internal Audit

August 25, 2009

  Risk management is looking forward Risk management is when you are driving your car on a foggy night and you cannot see more than 10 feet in front of you – there may be something out there: perhaps a deer, another vehicle or a zombie hitchhiking. But you don’t know when or if you will collide with any or all of them. By simply identifying that an animal, truck or undead creature may be there, you alter your behavior and proactively treat the risk (e.g., slow down, turn off the radio or ask kids to be quiet). You are…

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