The MET provides an executive-level, half-day seminar led by nationally recognized experts in fields related to homeland security. The program prepares a particular jurisdiction’s leadership to think through the many aspects of a major homeland security incident, and to evaluate their policies and procedures.
These seminars are done at the state, regional, urban area or city level, and can be conducted with pre-scripted scenarios that the team developed. Another option is that the MET can develop a seminar on a specific topic that the participating jurisdiction feels should be explored.
The MET is designed to include the jurisdiction’s chief executive officer, all of his or her Cabinet-level leadership, top leadership from other agencies that would normally play a role in the scenario, and any additional participants that the leadership felt was necessary for success. The seminar isn’t a lecture, but rather a scenario-based group discussion that relies on all the agency representatives’ participation to be successful.
Since the MET seminars (METS) began, the team has conducted 164 of them: 56 at the state government level, six at the regional level, 34 urban-area events, 12 city and 54 topical seminars that deal with specific objectives.
The seminars concentrate on problems that the leadership will face during a homeland security crisis — helping everyone prepare for strategic planning challenges and driving policy development and organizational design. The MET members facilitate discussion themselves to keep everyone engaged and thinking about the problems they would face and potential solutions that could be implemented.
Topical METS that the team has developed include pandemic influenza, port security, border security, intelligence and information sharing, and public-private collaboration for emergency management planning. Most METS center on local acts of terrorism, such as a bombing in an urban mass transportation system. But the most challenging MET developed by the team, according to Stan McKinney, the director of executive education at the CHDS, was a scenario that centered on an anthrax release at multiple airports, which affected the nation’s entire aviation transportation system.
Why Conduct a MET Seminar?
Unlike traditional tabletop exercises, the MET seminars encourage participants to think strategically about challenges, as well as the policies they can implement to better impact and mitigate future risks. “The benefit gained by conducting a seminar is to enhance executive-level understanding of homeland security responsibilities and to improve overall homeland security preparedness,” McKinney said. Many of the jurisdictions that have conducted METS have been “repeat customers,” which is proof of the seminar’s benefit: 31 jurisdictions have hosted multiple METS, including jurisdictional and topical seminars.
Boston is one repeat customer. The city has conducted two METS in the past two years — a terrorism-based scenario in June 2008 and another topical seminar in June 2009 that included some of Boston’s largest employers, in a scenario to develop public private-partnerships and illustrate the importance of continuity-of-business and continuity-of-operations planning.
Among the employers that participated in the June 2009 MET were Target; State Street; Boston Properties; and Fidelity National. Other organizations included, Partners Health Care; Northeastern University and the Red Cross of Massachusetts Bay.
“With the inclusion of our private-sector partners, we had representation from the city's largest employers and owners of our most critical infrastructure. They are vital in our efforts to make Boston a more resilient community," said Don McGough, director of the Boston Mayor's Office of Emergency Preparedness. "They are vital to our efforts to make Boston a more resilient community."
What Happens in a MET?
During a typical MET, the attendees work through a terrorism scenario in a roundtable format. The seminar takes the shape of a graduate level discussion whose primary focus is on the challenges government faces in a catastrophe. The MET may begin with a discussion about managing risk and understanding the threat; and then the team challenges participants to form a picture of the threats the jurisdiction may face and the vulnerabilities to those threats. Identifying critical infrastructure and articulating current policies and procedures is examined, as well as intelligence gathering and prevention. The seminar ends with a response-and-recovery discussion and ideas for continuity of service and community resilience.
The MET members say that three key items make a MET successful:
- First is commitment from the chief executive officer of the jurisdiction that’s hosting the seminar. Leadership starts at the top, and if the boss thinks it’s important enough to show up and participate, then participation from everyone else will follow. Additionally the boss’s engagement during the MET can break the ice and get discussion and ideas flowing, making the facilitator’s job easier.
- Second, the willingness of the agencies represented to collaborate to enhance homeland security and freely express their ideas can greatly enhance the experience of all participants. Many times, in day-to-day operations, government agencies operate in a stovepipe within their own organizations and don’t spend much time thinking about how to improve interoperability or operating procedures until an event happens that requires cooperation. Breaking out of the stovepipe and cooperating with counterparts in other agencies during exercises such as a MET seminar makes responders better prepared to work together in an emergency.
- Last, the ability to learn from the MET seminar is really where the rubber meets the road. Participants take the lessons and new information that was presented back to colleagues, and make changes that will improve the process in the future. Learning from the experience and cultivating and improving the relationships that we all need to be successful are important takeaways.
As of press time, four METS are scheduled for the first two months of 2010, and the education and training provided by the team continues to be in high demand.
[Photo courtesy of the U.S. Navy Postgraduate School.]
