Slingin’ to Success

Life moves pretty fast. One moment you’re taking your new roller skates out for a spin, and the next you’re laying flat on the ground. Ferris Bueller urged a generation to stop and look around. He warned we could miss it or, in my case, find yourself with a broken shoulder two months into your new job.

New to the business continuity industry, I did what any budding novice would do: I assessed my risks before lacing up my brand-new skates. Despite being overconfident in my ability to quickly adapt, I knew the likelihood of eating pavement was high. Thanks to a generous birthday gift from my team, I bought a set of wrist, elbow, and knee pads. With no time to watch tutorial videos, I was prepared for the worst and ready to hit the road.

Thinking ahead, predicting what may go wrong, and doing your best to prevent injurious events from happening gives you the best chance of continuing to deliver your key services during a crisis. Although I thought ahead by gathering the necessary safety equipment, I did not foresee losing the function of my arm for 10 weeks. (I went 25 years without ever breaking a bone!)

Incidents can happen at any time, anywhere, and it’s important to have continuity strategies in place. When building out your own “Loss of Arm” recovery strategies and looking at your continuity responses, consider these three stages of an incident.

Emergency response and incident management stage: The strategies that form your immediate actions in an emergency.
- For me, this was deciding which healthcare strategy to use. Factors involved when making this decision included my location, which facility was closest, time of day, and if I needed assistance getting there. In the end, I chose Transfer Body to Urgent Care because it met my timeframe the quickest.
Continuity stage: The strategies to ensure you can continue to deliver your critical activities during a disruption.
- The course of treatment for breaking one’s shoulder included the strategy Transfer Arm to Sling for six weeks. This caused disruption in several other daily activities, including driving, so I also implemented Work from Home. Losing the function of my arm also affected my ability to type with two hands. My team here at Infinite Blue could not have been more supportive. They helped me find Enable Talk-to-Text Tools so I could continue to serve our customers!
Recovery and resumption stage: The strategies to recover critical activities leading to resumption of normal operations.
- After my six weeks in the sling, it was time to transition Start Physical Therapy. Transitioning out of the sling was arguably the longest stage, but after 10 weeks of working hard, I was able to regain the full use of my arm. Thanks to this strategy, I was back at work and typing faster than ever in no time!

Life does move pretty fast, but we move faster when we’re prepared with continuity strategies. If you’re thinking about channeling your inner Bueller, it’s okay to take a moment to prepare yourself for success. The only thing you’ll miss is breaking one of your bones!