Planning for Adaptive Expeditions

Andy Singh

AS / NZS ISO 31000:2018 provides the contemporary standard for risk management. For expeditionary kayaking it provide a four step approach to consider, plan and apply risk management for safer kayaking.

The approach provides for four phases including organisation, preparation, application and learning. Unlike guide orientated commercial and entry level kayaking operations, this approach differentiates between organising and leadership roles. Organisation involves the collection and collation of a broad range of information including participant data, environmental information, water levels, mapping, technology applications and rescue capabilities. As we know, a good plan is only relevant till the first point of application, after which leadership activates in adapting information, skills and culture to the lived environment, to achieve our goals in a safe manner.

Our expeditionary river kayaking approach is an ongoing calculation of individual capabilities and resources, with collective group dynamics and the environmental complexities of moving water - multiplied with extended time and distance. The planning map above identifies the main information sources which form the base level risk management calculations.

The formulation of the plan is a reductionist process of collating a great deal of information into useful building blocks. Each building block of information is able to be challenged and refined. How much water should each person take and consume? What is the appropriate level of calorie intake to sustain long distance paddling? How much alcohol is too much? These are important issues to establish before we reach the river bank. It is an ongoing process of review, learning and recording, so lessons learnt on one expedition find themselves embodied in the planning for the next. The process assumes there will be no internet connection, so all information is available in hard copy.

In today's dense information environment, it is important to limit the risk management to those risks which have the reasonable impact and likelihood of serious injury or death. For example, you can consider a thousand scenarios where you could be injured while kayaking, but how do focus on the small number which can really kills us - snakebite, entrapment, cardiac arrest. Far better to build a culture of risk mitigation around these risks, than fill up a proforma tables on how to correctly bend your knees when picking up kayaks. Likewise the likelihood - impact of road accidents to and from the expedition, arguably exceeds the dangers faced on the river. For the Darling River, we drove thousands of kilometres across four days, verses paddling 300 kms over five days on the river. In planning this expedition we paid more attention to safe travel and rest, than the on-water splash and dash.

Planning is prepared in detail well in advance of the expedition. The plan is circulated among all participants, including land support and home base. When the final version is completed, a hard copy is printed off, digital versions are stored on mobile devices and emailed to all.

Ultimately, the float plan and risk management plan just establishes base levels of known information, from which we can make adaptive decisions based upon the environment we see and experience. It establishes we are unable to mitigate all known and unknown risks, and in so doing reinforces a stronger focus on good values, good practices and good leadership.

Ultimately the culture of an expedition provides greater capability than all the planning which proceeds it. ISO 31000: 2018 see the risk management framework as including the process, the practices and the framework. Many contemporary risk management requirements end up dealing with the process as a compliance activity.

By spending more time planning and learning how to improve culture (practices) and the framework (leadership) of our expeditions, we build greater capacity to be adaptive when required, when unknown and unknowable things occur, not addressed in the process (risk assessment