More Inclusive of Stakeholders

Planning should be a community-based effort, representing the whole population and its needs. Planning in a team environment allows participation from stakeholders and ensures that the needs of each stakeholder group are addressed.

More Varied Insight

Each person on the planning team brings different experiences, opinions, and expertise to the planning effort. Planning in a team encourages creativity and innovation in the plan.

Consensus Building

Planning in teams allows for members of the team to understand and accept their roles. In addition, it helps members of the team understand and accept the roles of other planning team members.

Greater Access to Resources

Planning in teams helps to leverage the knowledge and expertise of a diverse group of planning team members. It means that available resources can be pooled. For example, your agency may not have a records management expert, but another agency or department may have this resource available to participate on the planning team.

Forming Cooperative Relationships

Experience has shown that one of the greatest benefits of planning teams is that they build and expand relationships that are vital when the plan is put into action (response to an incident occurrence, implementation of a protection or prevention plan, conducting recovery activities). Incidents often require cross-functional and multijurisdictional response, and professional relationships that are developed during the planning process should translate into better cooperation and coordination.

Sense of Ownership

The plan is more likely to be followed if the agencies, departments, and/or organizations feel as if they have contributed to it.