by 3AD Scout, Survival Blog:

Many Preppers plan on being what is referred to as “lone wolves”. That is, they plan on tackling the apocalypse all by themselves without the help of others. Other Preppers have formed some type of group. These groups can be made up of extended family, friends, neighbors or any combination thereof. History has shown us that humans are social beings in that we bond together to work together and form communities. Based on that history, one can surmise that when society ends as we know it, new organizations will be formed. What once was a group made up of your immediate family, your brothers’ family and a few cousins and their families will morph into a larger group as people with knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) that are needed or wanted by your group are added.

Prepper fiction is full of characters that manage/leader every aspect of their community’s post-SHTF life. If this was possible and feasible, we would not have the rank structure we do in the military, we would just have a general who would lead everyone. Span of Control should be considered in our planning. Sure, you can still be “in charge” but research shows that the average person can only manage 5-7 people in stressful environments. My community was having a large chemical spill drill and the local fire department asked me to provide some advice to the deputy chief who was going to be in charge of the incident since I was an Incident Command System (ICS) instructor. I stressed the need to quickly delegate tasks to others. Something that is hard to do if you are not used to doing it. During the drill a photograph was taken of him surrounded by at least 30 people, all with questions or wanting information, and he has the “deer in the head lights” look because he was overwhelmed since he did not delegate functions/operations/tasks to other people. We need to ensure we have a good expandable organizational structure and management system in place before SHTF.

Many of us may believe that after the collapse we would not take on any “new” people, except that Emergency Room Physician, or maybe a chemists, or veterinarian, or herbalist, or . . . and the list will go on and on, especially after the fall when holes in our preps start to become extremely evident and as we start to rebuild society. Logical thinking would not only consider the ramifications of taking on new people but also consider the ramifications of not taking on new people.

Think about the 1930s and the migration of scientists from Germany, many of whom took part in the development of the atomic bomb. Back up history for a minute and consider the ramifications of the Untied State not taking in those scientists, and instead they migrate to China and the Soviet Union. What do you think about that comrade? If we are to believe that post-TEOTWAWKI will be akin to Mad Max then we need to think about what happens if groups that are aggressive take in people whose knowledge and skills can latter impact you in negative ways. This is not to say only take in those with military skills but rather we should be looking at those who can help with restoring the means of production. History shows that those with the means of production enjoy more safety and security.

It is probably a safe bet to assume that the people showing up with the skills and knowledge you want will also come with their family as well. Let’s just make the assumption that you take on two people that have the KSAs you need. Let’s further assume that each one of those people have a spouse and two kids. That would be a total of an additional 8 people into your group. What are you going to do with the additional people? Most of us would ask ourselves if we could house and feed these extra bodies but more importantly, we should be asking ourselves how we can incorporate their KSAs and labor into our group to help improve our overall situation. As your ad hoc group grows, and it will based on history, how is the group going to organize and manage itself? Like everything we do as preppers to get ready for TEOTWAWKI, having a flexible organizational structure and plan to manage that organization should be thought out and developed before we are surrounded by a bunch of strangers looking for direction.

In this article we will explore incorporating the principles of Management by Objective (MBO) to help manage our post-TEOTWAWKI community. Since both the Army and first responder organizations use parts of the MBO theory within their organizational and management structures, it is a system that will be familiar by many in a post-SHTF world and also has a proven track record.

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE BASICS

First let’s look at a very basic organizational structure that the military and first responders use in their operations. In the Army they use four basic “sections”. They are the S1 which is the personnel and finance section, the S2 or the intelligence/planning apparatus, the S3 or the Operations section and the S4 or logistics section. Besides these sections you have the commander and one person assigned to be in charge of each section. This is a very simplistic outline but one that preppers may want to duplicate in both their pre and post SHTF activities. More about these sections will be mentioned later. Just like the military, first responders, through the use of ICS, have a commander, an operations section, planning section, logistics section and a finance/administration section.

Before we contemplate objectives, we should consider our goals. Goals can be very broad. Pre-SHTF goals might include “establish a food supply”, “develop a communications capability” or “develop a security system”. Goals for post-SHTF could be “establish 24-hour security”, “monitor communications”, or “establish and maintain situational awareness”. Once we have our goals, we can then move onto establishing our objectives.

DRUCKER’S SMART LEGACY

In the 1950s Peter Drucker developed a management theory known as “Management by Objective”. The main points of management by objectives are that objectives are developed and shared with workers. Both workers and management then work cooperatively to develop ways to meet the company’s objectives. Drucker’s theory states that objectives need to be specific, measurable, action oriented, realistic and time sensitive or “SMART”. The SMART acronym is used by both the military and the Incident Command System that is used by first responders. How can preppers use SMART both pre and post TEOTWAWKI?

Let’s use the “SMART” acronym for helping us develop a robust food storage stockpile. First, we have to be specific in what we are wanting to accomplish with our food storage. Instead of saying “We want to store food” we could say “We want to store three years worth of food”. But even more specific than that might be “We want three years worth of food for four people to include enough normal groceries (can goods, freezer foods, et cetera) to last ine year, enough dry staples like rice, beans and pasta to span three years, and freeze-dried foods to span two years.” (The dry staples would be used in conjunction with the “normal” groceries and the freeze-dried foods).

Second, our objective has to be something that can be measurable. We can ascertain by serving sizes, calories and by the number of people we are planning for, if we have enough food for three years. Obscure statements like “we want enough food to survive SHTF” are not specific enough to determine whether we have accomplished our objective.

The “A” in SMART is action oriented or actionable. Words that end in “ing” are often used to show action. For our objective those words might include storing, buying, freeze drying, canning, planting, et cetera.

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