Meta Leadership

What the heck is meta leadership?  During Admiral Thad Allen's presentation he spoke of Meta leadership.  It is providing a structured approach to leadership, usually in a crisis situation.  The key is providing effective leadership first in your own silo and then across all silos. 

The whole approach to incident command during a crisis or disaster now requires reaching across organizations, institutions and entities that are all involved in the coordinated response to the crisis or disaster.  It is very difficult to achieve success when one is focused on the performance of their particular group and not on the response from the many entities that are involved.  Or when one tries to take charge and is not in a position to do so. 

We recently saw this up close and personal when we participated in a disaster response drill across the State of Maryland.  The meta leader, if you will, is the Public Health Officer  who has to get Public Safety, numerous fire companies, many police departments, State Police, many EMS providers, the Hospital, 911 Communications, city and county governments, the many local jurisdictions in the county, funeral directors and the list goes on all heading in the same direction.  Thank goodness that critiques are a key part of any actual disaster or even a drill.  Meta leadership will be the order of the day as a result.