Resilience amid global risk — Anticipate London Webinar (Highlights & Transcript)
📍Online
📆 21 August 2024
Alisa Sultmane
Head of Security and Emergency Planning
Keolis Amey Docklands 🇬🇧 London, United Kingdom
Overview
As geopolitical tension rises and post-COVID behaviour shifts continue to ripple through public spaces, resilience has moved from strategy deck to daily practice. This Anticipate London webinar explored what that means on the ground — for rail, venues and frontline teams — and how leaders can balance preparedness with reassurance.
Executive summary
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Uncertainty is the baseline. Organisations face overlapping pressures: civil unrest, misinformation, changing passenger patterns and resource constraints.
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Operational + human resilience. Plans, partners and playbooks matter — and so do staff wellbeing, confidence and leadership presence.
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Communicate clearly, verify fast. Trusted intelligence channels beat rumour; calm, factual updates beat fear.
6 key takeaways for security & risk leaders
- Plan for volatility, not perfection. Scenario exercises and pre-agreed contingencies shorten reaction time when events spike.
- Prioritise verified sources. Build direct lines with British Transport Police / emergency services and maintain internal dashboards; treat social media rumours with caution.
- Expect behaviour change to persist. Post-COVID travel patterns, fare evasion motives and public anxiety have shifted — and won’t snap back overnight.
- Train for reassurance, not just rules. Blend technical refreshers with skills for mental-health awareness, suicide recognition and de-escalation.
- Lead from the front. Visible, supportive leadership in public-facing environments builds team confidence under stress.
- Communicate to reduce fear. Silence breeds speculation; timely, empathetic updates steady staff and passengers.
What we’re seeing on the ground (DLR)
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Misinformation outpaces events. Of ~160 rumoured protests on one weekend, ~30 materialised — yet rumours drove school closures and unnecessary disruption.
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Fare evasion has changed. Less confusion, more deliberate non-payment or “auditor”-style boundary testing.
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Passenger patterns reshaped. Peak times shifted; weekends can outpace weekdays; flows are less predictable.
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Staff exposure is real. Early pandemic hostility and ongoing anxiety underline the need for wellbeing support and practical reassurance.
Building resilience: two lenses
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Organisational: risk assessment, scenario planning, trusted intelligence, and clear decision gates. DLR maintained service through COVID by planning for a pandemic before it arrived.
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Human: duty of care, rest, trauma support and environments to decompress (e.g., Serenity Rooms). Confidence grows when teams feel seen and backed.
Preparedness + reassurance: the operating model
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Preparedness gives you the options.
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Reassurance keeps people aligned while you execute them.
“Silence creates fear. Communication, thoughtful, clear and empathetic, is how we counter it.”
Great resources:
- London Resilience Partnership
- ProtectUK
- Partnerships with British Transport Police and local emergency services
Transcript
Transcript: Resilience amid Global Risk — Anticipate London Webinar
Moderator: Andrew Tollinton, CEO of SIRV and Chair of the ISRM AI in Risk Management SIG
Speakers:
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Alisa Sultmane — Head of Security & Emergency Planning, KeolisAmey Docklands (DLR)
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Stuart Purcell — Safety & Security Manager, The Odyssey Trust (Belfast) (unable to join due to a live incident)
Opening Remarks
Andrew Tollinton:
Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to today’s Anticipate London webinar, Resilience Amid Global Risks.
We’re living through what some are calling a “geopolitical recession”: ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Israel, rising tensions in Taiwan, and a more unstable global threat landscape.
Our discussion today is about how this instability is impacting operations on the ground, and how resilience is being built into daily practice.
I’m joined by Alisa Sultmane from KeolisAmey Docklands, who oversees security and emergency planning across 45 stations on the Docklands Light Railway. Stuart Purcell from the Odyssey Trust in Belfast was due to join us but has been called away to manage a live incident.
Impact of Geopolitical Uncertainty
Andrew:
Alisa, how is this climate of uncertainty affecting your day-to-day operations?
Alisa Sultmane:
We see the ripple effects across the network. Public behaviour has shifted:
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More antisocial incidents, including assaults.
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A rise in fare evasion — not just confusion but deliberate refusal to pay.
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Anxiety and shorter tempers from passengers.
We’re also seeing people influenced by social media “auditors,” who film confrontations with staff to provoke or test the system. It creates operational pressure and impacts staff morale.
Civil Unrest and Misinformation
Alisa:
During recent civil unrest in London, misinformation was the real challenge. Of 160 predicted protests, only around 30 took place. But rumours on social media led to panic: schools closed unnecessarily, nurseries called our staff, and stakeholders urged us to shut stations when there was no actual threat.
The key lesson: trusted intelligence channels are essential. We work closely with British Transport Police and use verified dashboards rather than reacting to mass media or Twitter.
Post-COVID Behavioural Shifts
Andrew:
How has COVID changed behaviour in your network?
Alisa:
Completely. Travel patterns are less predictable. Peak times have shifted earlier; weekends are sometimes busier than weekdays.
Passengers are less tolerant, more anxious, and quicker to react. Staff, too, faced hostility when enforcing safety measures. We’ve had to relearn passenger flow and adapt our training accordingly.
Organisational and Human Resilience
Alisa:
Resilience has two sides:
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Organisational resilience — Preparedness and planning. For example, we had pandemic plans before COVID, which allowed us to keep running services for key workers without shutting down.
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Human resilience — Supporting staff wellbeing. We offer mental health support, trauma lines, and “Serenity Rooms” to decompress. Leadership presence is crucial: if staff are on the front line, leadership should be visible alongside them.
Training for the New Normal
Alisa:
We’ve shifted training from “tick-box” technical refreshers to reassurance-based learning. Examples include:
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Mental health awareness.
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Suicide prevention (recognition, not intervention).
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Scenario planning to prepare for unexpected events.
Sometimes staff just need reassurance — knowing it’s okay to feel unsure, and that small conversations with passengers can make a difference.
Communication and Reassurance
Alisa:
Communication is everything. Silence creates fear. If staff or passengers don’t hear anything, they assume the worst.
We focus on clear, empathetic updates — both to staff and the public. Even if the message is simply, “Here’s what to do if you feel worried,” it builds reassurance and trust.
Closing Thoughts
Andrew Tollinton:
Thank you, Alisa, for your insights. The key messages I take away are:
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Preparedness: plans and scenarios give you options.
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Reassurance: communication and leadership presence steady both staff and passengers.
Apologies again that Stuart couldn’t join us today due to a live incident. Thank you to Alisa for such a powerful and practical discussion, and thank you all for attending.
The recording will be made available via the registration link. I’ll also be at Anticipate London in December — please do come by the ISRM stand and say hello.
"SIRV helped us move beyond basic reporting into a system that actively supports decision-making". Les O'Gorman, Director of Facilities, UCB - Pharma and Life Sciences
