They Didn’t Train Us Part 2

By Mr. Vikas Chauhan

They never trained us…….“When a suicidal gunman entered a New Jersey mall on Monday night and opened fire, store manager Daisy Rodriguez locked the doors and hid in the back of her shop, nothing guiding her but instinct.”I was panicked. I was scared. I was just shaking,” said Rodriguez, 21, a manager at Soma Intimates in the Westfield Garden State Plaza Mall in Paramus. “They never trained us.” She adds…” November 8th. Reutersimages

Last week’s thought provoking blog by Dotan (They didn’t train us!!) about the critical need to train employees on security got me into thinking feet to highlight quick examples of how training (or lack thereof) can create substantial impact.

 

If they were trained!!

During Mumbai 26/11 attacks many people were trapped inside the Taj Hotel during the hotel siege by armed terrorist. The well trained hotel employees came to the rescue of many trapped guests and were able to save many lives. The HBR media report http://hbr.org/2011/12/the-ordinary-heroes-of-the-taj/ provides further details.

During the March 2010 German bakery blasts at Pune, as per media reports, the customers at the bakery reported the presence of an unclaimed bag to the bakery staff.  Eye witness claimed that the bag was lying there for over 40 min and nothing was done as a preventive measure. On being asked by the law enforcement agencies, the waiter claimed that he told the cashier, who in turn claimed that he didn’t know what to do & simply forgot about it while dealing with customers in the busy bakery. Had the bakery staff been trained on the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to handle an unclaimed (or suspicious) baggage, maybe the terror incident could have been averted which led to the loss of 17 lives and over 60 seriously injured.

 In fact, in many security conscious communities, right at the primary grades, the young students are trained & made aware of the safety & security drills, including Dos & Don’ts. This helps in creating a safety & security mindset which then becomes their second nature.

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