The Situation

Rather than waiting for a disaster to expose planning gaps, a City and County Office of Emergency Management sought to better understand how a prolonged regional power outage would affect government operations, critical infrastructure, businesses, and the broader community.

While many agencies maintained emergency plans, they recognized that a prolonged outage would create challenges extending well beyond emergency response. Questions surrounding continuity of government, fuel availability, communications, healthcare, public information, supply chains, and community recovery required organizations to think beyond their existing plans and develop a shared understanding of the decisions they would face.

The objective was to bring together leaders from across the community to explore those challenges before they occurred and identify practical actions that could improve preparedness today.

The Active Analysis Approach

Rather than beginning with a traditional tabletop exercise, Active Analysis Consulting designed a facilitated readiness workshop that combined research, structured discussion, and collaborative planning.

The workshop guided participants through a progressive examination of a prolonged power outage by:

• establishing a common operating picture and shared assumptions;

• examining cascading impacts across critical sectors;

• identifying organizational dependencies and decision points;

• evaluating existing capabilities and preparedness gaps; and

• developing practical actions that organizations could implement following the workshop.

Rather than seeking consensus around a single plan, the process focused on improving organizational readiness and strengthening participants’ ability to recognize emerging challenges before they became operational problems.

“The workshop gave our team permission to think beyond the first operational period. Rather than simply discussing what we would do during a prolonged outage, we identified the decisions we needed to make beforehand—and the relationships we needed to strengthen before the lights ever went out.”

— Director of Emergency Management

Project Outcomes

The workshop provided participating organizations with:

• A shared understanding of how a prolonged regional power outage could affect operations across multiple sectors.

• A structured process for identifying organizational dependencies, capability gaps, and decision points.

• Practical recommendations that could be incorporated into preparedness planning, continuity efforts, and future exercises.

• Improved coordination between government agencies, response partners, utilities, healthcare organizations, and private-sector stakeholders.

• A prioritized set of readiness actions to strengthen community resilience before a prolonged outage occurs.

Beyond the workshop itself, participating organizations left with a clearer understanding of where additional planning, coordination, and investment would have the greatest impact.

Extend the Workshop

To help organizations continue the work after the facilitated workshop, Active Analysis Consulting developed the Prolonged Power Outage Readiness Workspace through The CP Journal.

The Workspace provides agencies with a structured process, facilitation guides, participant materials, planning templates, implementation resources, and educational videos that allow organizations to conduct the workshop independently or build upon previous discussions.

“One of the challenges with workshops is that the conversation often ends when everyone leaves the room. We developed the Prolonged Power Outage Readiness Workspace to help organizations continue that work—turning the discussion into practical planning, implementation, and long-term capability development.”

— Patrick Van Horne, Co-Founder of The CP Journal

Explore the Prolonged Power Outage Readiness Workspace

Why It Matters

Power outages rarely become community-wide crises because electricity is lost. They become crises because organizations underestimate the cascading consequences that unfold over time.

This project demonstrates how preparedness is strengthened when organizations move beyond response planning and begin identifying the decisions, dependencies, and coordination requirements that exist before an incident occurs.

By creating a shared understanding across agencies and stakeholders, the workshop helped participants strengthen readiness before they would be forced to make those decisions under pressure.