# Literature on how to be a responder? **URL:** \ **Category:** Uncategorized\ **Tags:** researcher\ **Created:** [12 July 2023 09:49 UTC](https://community.epinowcast.org/t/literature-on-how-to-be-a-responder/177 "2023-07-12T09:49:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![samabbott](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/community.epinowcast.org/samabbott/32/5_2.png) [@samabbott](https://community.epinowcast.org/u/samabbott)\ **Post date:** [12 July 2023 09:49 UTC](https://community.epinowcast.org/t/literature-on-how-to-be-a-responder/177/1 "2023-07-12T09:49:23Z")
Is there general literature on how to be a “responder”? There seems to be a real tension between doing things to practice now and getting sucked into those things to a degree that degrades your ability to respond. I feel like we saw this quite often during the pandemic and I can see it happening as people pivot now. Other fields must have solved this - any suggested reading? ---
**Author:** ![pearsonca](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/community.epinowcast.org/pearsonca/32/59_2.png) [@pearsonca](https://community.epinowcast.org/u/pearsonca)\ **Post date:** [13 July 2023 05:36 UTC](https://community.epinowcast.org/t/literature-on-how-to-be-a-responder/177/2 "2023-07-13T05:36:01Z")
“Thought about”, likely - not sure “solved”. Sport, perhaps? Seems likely to be some operations research-like work considering it, or B-school case studies. Various war college departments might have occasionally thought on this - can ask after it when I’m next visiting. ---
**Author:** ![medewitt](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/community.epinowcast.org/medewitt/32/29_2.png) [@medewitt](https://community.epinowcast.org/u/medewitt)\ **Post date:** [13 July 2023 13:51 UTC](https://community.epinowcast.org/t/literature-on-how-to-be-a-responder/177/3 "2023-07-13T13:51:47Z")
Like @pearsonca says, I’ve seen it more from business perspective. Thinking of [The Fifth Discpline](https://www.amazon.com/Fifth-Discipline-Practice-Learning-Organization/dp/0385517254) for a constantly learning organization. I think they mention Admiral Rickover’s nuclear safety program… That and all of Jeff Liker’s books on the Toyota Way. While they have a focus on business and manufacturing the principles are translatable (I think). How do we institutionalise problem-recognition and solving. Substitute any “manufacturing issue” with “disease outbreak” and you’re off to the races. ---
**Author:** ![pearsonca](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/community.epinowcast.org/pearsonca/32/59_2.png) [@pearsonca](https://community.epinowcast.org/u/pearsonca)\ **Post date:** [14 July 2023 13:33 UTC](https://community.epinowcast.org/t/literature-on-how-to-be-a-responder/177/4 "2023-07-14T13:33:37Z")
@medewitt I think @samabbott 's question is perhaps more subtle than constant-learning, continuous-improvement, etc programs. As I read it, Q is how to balance prepare-do-recover activities in organizations that are regularly cycling between on-off modes (crudely stratified), and particularly how to avoid prepare/recover activies from distracting from doing. I suspect that comes up a _bit_ in your suggestions, but is mostly implicit rather than directly addressed. In a lot of businesses the goal is to minimize prepare/recover time and those books address how to effectively fit learnings into that short period between long do cycles (or to make room at all for prepare/recover phase). Ideally, for crisis response organizations, the goal is to minimize the do phase, so perspectively likely out of sync. I mentioned sport and military explicitly, as they have defined cycles of prepare-do-recover, and issues like over-training absolutely come into play. Seems likely to be of a different sort, and maybe @samabbott is also worrying about external forces (e.g. they like the “prepare” phase products too much & leadership gets distracted chasing short run approval instead of critical mission). ---
**Author:** ![samabbott](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/community.epinowcast.org/samabbott/32/5_2.png) [@samabbott](https://community.epinowcast.org/u/samabbott)\ **Post date:** [17 July 2023 12:49 UTC](https://community.epinowcast.org/t/literature-on-how-to-be-a-responder/177/5 "2023-07-17T12:49:26Z")
> [@medewitt](#): > > constantly learning organization. This is a good recommendation - added it to my reading pile. Soon I will be the world’s best manager! As @pearsonca says though what I was trying to get at here is the tension between preparing, doing and recovering. I actually think the issue is reversed vs @pearsonca though as doing is so incentivised vs other actions typically (as people want short-term output). > Ideally, for crisis response organizations, the goal is to minimize the do phase, so perspectively likely out of sync. i.e. this (good to see @pearsonca disagreeing with themselves 😆) > also worrying about external forces (e.g. they like the “prepare” phase products too much & leadership gets distracted chasing short run approval instead of critical mission Yes exactly. ---
**Author:** ![samabbott](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/community.epinowcast.org/samabbott/32/5_2.png) [@samabbott](https://community.epinowcast.org/u/samabbott)\ **Post date:** [17 July 2023 12:57 UTC](https://community.epinowcast.org/t/literature-on-how-to-be-a-responder/177/6 "2023-07-17T12:57:05Z")
From: Christian Testa over on Mastodon > **[Christian Testa (@ctesta@fediscience.org)](https://fediscience.org/@ctesta/110701200871215854)** > > @seabbs@fosstodon.org > > One way to think about this might be to look into the literature on “organizing \[social movements\].”... > One way to think about this might be to look into the literature on “organizing [social movements].” > **[How to organize people and achieve your purpose](https://citizensclimatelobby.org/blog/advocacy/organizing-people-hahrie-han/)** > > To engage people in a social movement, follow this organizing advice from Environmental Politics professor Hahrie Han, shared at CCL’s June conference. > **[Organizing a Successful Social Movement - Erica Chenoweth](https://www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/mrcbg/programs/growthpolicy/organizing-successful-social-movement-erica-chenoweth)** > > November 23, 2020, Video: "Harvard Kennedy School's Professor Erica Chenoweth discusses the four components that are need to build successful social movements, like the Movement for Black Lives, using examples from apartheid-era South Africa and... > **[Social movement organization](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_movement_organization)** > > A social movement organization (SMO) is an organized component of a social movement. > SMOs are generally seen as the components of a social movement. The movement's goals can be much more narrow, or much broader, than the SMOs' goals. > The term SMO entered literature through the work of Mayer N. Zald and Roberta Ash (Zald, Mayer N. and Roberta Ash, Social Movement Organizations: Growth, Decay and Change. Social Forces 44:327-341, 1966). > In social movement theory, a social movement organization is... > What you may be describing is organizing people and scientists around pandemic preparedness. > My thinking is that organizers in general face this dilemma: we can sit around and about argue strategy, and that’s important, but what are we actually doing to be ready when the time calls for action? I really like the thinking in terms of social movements (and that of course is kind of the idea behind what we are doing here). I agree there is an issue of talking about doing something and doing it but I also think that “doing it” can be preparing to do vs trying overly hard to link today’s activities into a preparedness roadmap for the future. ---
**Author:** ![samabbott](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/community.epinowcast.org/samabbott/32/5_2.png) [@samabbott](https://community.epinowcast.org/u/samabbott)\ **Post date:** [17 July 2023 13:01 UTC](https://community.epinowcast.org/t/literature-on-how-to-be-a-responder/177/7 "2023-07-17T13:01:52Z")
I really like the Citizen’s climate lobby post. > But we don’t become transformed in isolation. We become transformed when we’re in relationship with others.” Working together rather than in isolation is a key feature of organizing that keeps people more involved over the long term. ---
**Author:** ![pearsonca](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/community.epinowcast.org/pearsonca/32/59_2.png) [@pearsonca](https://community.epinowcast.org/u/pearsonca)\ **Post date:** [17 July 2023 13:42 UTC](https://community.epinowcast.org/t/literature-on-how-to-be-a-responder/177/8 "2023-07-17T13:42:42Z")
Just be careful re this sort of outcome [The Newsroom - Occupy Wallstreet Interview - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwk_Ot8orPY)