10/26/2009
A couple weeks ago, Gravity Switch left the office and ventured out to Mt Greylock to hike up to the summit. It was a very relaxed jaunt up what the Mass DCR considered an 'aggressive' trail. We learned a lot about each other. We shared stories about our families, checked out the wildlife, and took silly pictures of each other.
But we were hiking a mountain; so many things could go wrong! Jason could have broken his ankle. We could have gotten lost. Or worse yet - Kelli might have been eaten by a bear. As with anything worth doing - there were risks.
When I was a Boy Scout, I was forced to repeat the motto 'Be Prepared' about twenty thousand times. I used to believe that 'being prepared' meant carrying around every tool that I might possibly need in case of emergency. But that's just not realistic.
More than having the right tools - I learned that being prepared is about being mentally prepared. In any emergency, you need to:
- stay calm
- assess the situation
- figure out what steps to take
- survey your resources
- find a creative way to minimize damage
- then figure out how to turn the situation around
If Jason had broken his ankle, I'm confident that things would have been ok (with or without an EMT bag).We could have found a stick and torn a t-shirt to make a splint. We could have built crutches using sticks and shoe strings. Heck, if it was bad enough we could have even built a stretcher. And despite the broken ankle - it would have been a strong team building experience.
We generally approach website development with the same level of mental preparedness. Websites go down. Expectations get miscommunicated. Things take longer to build than we thought. No matter how much planning you do - these things happen. The key to minimizing damage and keeping our clients happy lies in our ability to maintain control and react creatively and compassionately in any emergency. This is why our clients come back.
Thankfully no websites crashed while we were on Mt Greylock, and nobody broke any bones. Turns out the only emergency we faced was how to eat a squash with no fork!
Check out the photos!
~ Erich Bennar
Technical Strategist, QA Engineer