Survival for Local Government Officials

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Survival for Local Government Officials
Scott Eisenhauer 2009 IML Conference
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Survival Skills

• When preparing for this presentation, I relied
  upon the teachings of Cody Lundin and Rich
  Johnson, nationally-known authors teaching
  survival in the wilderness
• In comparison, surviving in the wilderness and
  surviving in local government are very similar!!!

Surviving In The Wilderness
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What is Survival

• a state of surviving remaining alive
• a living or continuing longer than another person
  or thing
• the continuation of life or existence

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Enemies to Your Survival

• Anxiety and fear
• Fatigue and Sleep Deprivation
• Boredom
• Loneliness and Isolation
• Complacency and the desire for Comfort
• Stubbornness (refusal to recognize and stop
  actions jeopardizing survival)
• Promises (unrealistic guarantees made to self or
  others leading to stupid behavior)
• GET HOME ITIS (setting and trying to maintain
  unrealistic time lines)

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Survival Mistakes That Will Kill You

• Underestimating The Risk
• Poor Route Selection
• Inability To Build A Fire
• Being Unprepared To Spend The Night Alone
• Failure To File A Trip Plan

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Underestimating The Risk

• Part of the problem is we have never been tested
  to the extreme, so we dont really know what our
  abilities are. The rest of the problem is that
  we underestimate the risks posed by the
  unpredictable.

Outdoor Life Magazine Survival Mistakes That Will
Kill You by Rich Johnson
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Underestimating The Risk

• do we look at the risks when making a decision
• do you look at second, third, and fourth
  consequences

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Underestimating The Risk

• are you willing to face the extreme
• are you willing to take a contract to arbitration
  or strike rather than settle

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Underestimating The Risk

• expect the unexpected and have a plan to cover
  every contingency
• write an emergency plan for every decision
• plan today for tomorrow

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Poor Route Selection

• Poor judgment will sometimes opt for a shorter
  route between two points, even if it poses
  greater risk than would be faced if a longer
  route were chosen.

Outdoor Life Magazine Survival Mistakes That Will
Kill You by Rich Johnson
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Poor Route Selection

• do we rush decisions or look at all angles
• for zoning decisions do we look at the property,
  do we look at the equipment we want to replace

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Poor Route Selection

• are we willing to ask the questions before a
  decision is made
• talk to department heads, to personnel, to
  neighbors, etc

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Inability To Build A Fire

• It can easily be said that the inability to
  start and maintain a fire is one of the most
  severe mistakes that can be made in a survival
  incident.

Outdoor Life Magazine Survival Mistakes That Will
Kill You by Rich Johnson
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Inability To Build A Fire

• fire in your community
• fire in your team
• fire in your self

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Being Unprepared To Spend Nights Alone

• This is the knowledge of how to survive, and the
  mental preparation for spending isolated time
  alone facing danger.

Outdoor Life Magazine Survival Mistakes That Will
Kill You by Rich Johnson
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Being Unprepared To Spend Nights Alone

• immediately following the Presidential Election,
  Governor Edgar gave President
  Obama some wise advice

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Being Unprepared To Spend Nights Alone

• can you withstand the criticism, or will the
  criticism make your decision

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Being Unprepared To Spend Nights Alone

• each morning and each night, take the mirror test

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Failure To File A Trip Plan

• One of the most common mistakes made by novices
  is the failure to prepare a trip plan. After
  filing the trip plan, serious problems can
  develop if you deviate from the plan without
  notifying folks.

Outdoor Life Magazine Survival Mistakes That Will
Kill You by Rich Johnson
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Failure To File A Trip Plan

• failing to plan is planning to fail !!!!!
• you must plan for the short sprint as well as the
  long haul
• are you willing to
  follow the plan

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Failure To File A Trip Plan

• can you deviate and take everyone with you
• build the plan together

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• Acronyms
• To Know And Love

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STOP-A
S--Stop
T--Think
O--observe
P--plan
A--act
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SURVIVAL

• SSize up the situation
• UUse all of your senses
• RRemember where you have been
• VVanquish fear and panic
• iImprovise
• VValue life and its quality
• AAttitude, Adaption, Awareness
• LLive by your wits

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In The End

• You CAN successfully hike through the wilderness
  known as local government IF you are ever mindful
  of these survival techniques!!