Does your business have an emergency response plan? What about your family crisis response plan? Who needs to know your whereabouts in an emergency? Spouse? Children? Parents? Boss? Coworker? What if the phone lines are down? What if the Internet is not available? The chilling scenes of the terrorist attack at the Russian school are enough to compel us to think about our own situations.

In business, we have contingency management, "con-man." For the Army I helped write and exercise contingency plans. In our personal lives, we should also consider in advance those times when life throws us a curve, when things don't go the way we planned.

One very useful technique is to do mental "what if" drills in order to anticipate situations before they occur. Use your "over the horizon" radar to look into the future. Then run different scenarios through your mind. What if there was a bomb threat while you were visiting another office and everyone had to evacuate the building? You have to take your mother to the hospital in a few minutes and your car keys are in the building with your cell phone and all your money. Your coworkers are in the same situation. Whom could you contact? What are your options?

Large companies hire people to gather information, look into the future, and think up plausible scenarios of challenges and opportunities the company may face in the future. The company is then able to do contingency planning. You can benefit from those techniques, too.

Why not apply a "what if" drill to a few scenarios for yourself and your family just in case you are ever caught up in an ordinary emergency situation or terrorist activity. In the Army Operations Center, we did recall drills. We had a recall plan where within a very short time everyone could be called back to work. It works like a chain reaction. The person at the top of the list calls two or three people and each of those call two or three people, and quickly any number of people can be contacted. Prayer groups and others have also used this technique to contact many people in a very short time.

Think of your personal and professional responsibilities. How many telephone numbers do you know off the top of your head? Do you have them written down or stored in your cell phone or PDA so others can make the contact if you are unable to? Should you establish a notification chain so that with one completed phone call, everyone who needs to know can be notified? What if the phone lines are down? Is email available? If you can only reach a coworker, will that person know whom else to contact? This is a very practical "what if" drill you can conduct immediately. What if you were caught up in an emergency situation tomorrow? Would you be better prepared than you were yesterday?

"What if" drills can boost your confidence. Even if the challenging events you encounter in "real life" are not the precise scenario you thought up, you will have practice in creative problem solving. Stuff happens. Looking "over the horizon," anticipating, and doing "what if" drills will ensure that you are prepared.