You learn a lot about people when they have to perform under pressure. I see this periodically in IT. We recently had a power outage in our main data center and workspace. When power is lost, we have only so much time to make a determination as to whether or not to bring our systems down slowly. Backup power comes on immediately, but it is only good for an hour.

Our people know the drill. They work under pressure often, mostly helping with small disasters, like lost files, a bad disk drive or corrupted data. This is good training for when the big events occur. Those who shine keep their wits about them, gathering information, contributing information and knowing what to do without asking.

Our people did very well in this recent event. Three electricians were flash burned in the basement as they were attempting to assess the problem. Our guys were first on the scene and were very helpful. Everyone seemed to know what to do.

And then the Plymouth Fire & Rescue arrived. We watched them take over the scene and followed their lead.

No one likes to have to work under duress, but knowing that we, and our precious information systems, are surrounded by capable experts should be a comfort to us all.