DRI International

One of the challenges in effective disaster recovery is being sufficiently well prepared. The temptation as surveys of organizations have shown is to assume that if a disaster does happen, then human resourcefulness and an effort of 110% will put things back to "right". The problem with this attitude is that not everybody in an organisation will necessarily have this “gung-ho” attitude. While heroes are fighting the fires, other people stand idle and unproductive. Worse still, a syndrome starts with assumptions that disasters happen regularly, overall performance will always be degraded, and whether individual performance is good, bad or indifferent will not affect the general outcome. DR training can help improve the situation. But can you really train for things that haven’t yet happened? Some lateral thinking suggests that instead of training in how to tackle future problems, you could also try to avoid them in the first place. Indeed, Read more

If you’re attending a CBCP (Certified Business Continuity Professional) course and taking the qualifying exam afterwards, then a little targeted preparation can go a long way to exam success. The BCLE2000 courses (Professional Business Continuity Management Certification) coming up in Sydney (4-7 June) and Melbourne (11-14 June) are good examples. What’s the best way then to tackle the questions? First of all, you have to know your stuff. It sounds obvious, but other tips and tricks cannot help if you don’t know the material on which you are being examined. And knowing your stuff means not only memorising what is necessary, but also understanding how to apply it. The solution? Good note-taking goes a long way. When you re-express information, ideas or concepts in your own words, you make your brain work with that information, which is then imprinted that much better in your mind. The simple act of taking Read more

With refresher courses scheduled for the near future, such as BCP-501 (Business Continuity Planning Review, May 9-10 Melbourne, May 16-17 Sydney), the relative merits of classroom training and online training are likely to be under discussion once again. While it’s also a matter of personal preference, classroom learning is often appreciated for its possibilities of flexibility and immediate feedback. In some cases however, it’s more a matter of  comfort: throughout earlier educational experiences, we may have become so used to sitting at desks with other students, that any other learning method may seem unnatural. If so, how can you go beyond the comfort factor and get the most out of a collective training experience like this?   Without a doubt, the answer is participation. This is also where classroom learning has the potential to score higher than other types of learning. “Living” the training experience means you use a lot Read more