Title
Coordination Under Pressure. ICS, Informal Networks, and Who Gets Served
Record Type
Video
URL
https://youtu.be/aq228KjSdlQ
Contact
Jono Anazalone
Year
2,022
Publisher
Imara IHG

Summary
Jono Anzalone frames coordination as a life-or-death leadership duty. Using Hurricane Harvey as a case study, he warns that "skipping meetings to act" leads to duplicated aid and dangerous gaps. Effective coordination relies on trust and humility, ensuring the focus remains on survivor needs over institutional egos.
Description
Jono Anzalone reflects on coordination as a life-or-death function in disaster management—whether in a domestic Emergency Operations Center (EOC) using Incident Command System (ICS) or in international humanitarian coordination. Drawing on his experience supporting the American Red Cross in Houston during Hurricane Harvey, he highlights how coordination failures show up repeatedly: organizations skipping meetings, duplicated distributions in some areas, and serious gaps elsewhere.

He shares a concrete example where a community received water tablets from multiple sources, while urgent needs like tarps, food, and latrines were missing—underscoring that coordination is not a “nice-to-have,” but a leadership responsibility. Jonno challenges the common pressure-time mindset (“we don’t have time for meetings; we need to act”) and explains why that approach can be dangerous for system performance.

The talk pushes beyond org charts to emphasize that coordination depends on trust, relationships, shared understanding, humility, and communication. Jonno invites learners to reflect on where their organization fits within a coordination structure, how legitimacy is built when resources and attendance are limited, who gets to lead, and—most importantly—how coordination can stay focused on serving those most impacted rather than institutional priorities.