Disruption Series (2 of 8) - Understanding Types of Disruption
In the previous article, I suggested that disruption is much broader than emergencies. It includes any event, trend, or change that interrupts how people, organisations, communities, or systems normally function. Thinking this way raises another question.
What kinds of disruption do organisations actually face?
The answer is more varied than many people expect.
Looking beyond natural hazards
When discussions turn to disruption, natural hazards often dominate the conversation.
Bushfires.
Floods.
Storms.
Heatwaves.
These are important, particularly as climate change increases the frequency and intensity of many environmental events. However, organisations today operate within highly interconnected systems where disruption can emerge from many different directions.
A cyber attack can interrupt essential services.
A workforce shortage can reduce organisational capability.
Global supply chain disruption can delay critical goods.
Economic pressures can affect funding, staffing, and community demand.
Each represents a different form of disruption, yet all influence how organisations operate.
One way to categorise disruption
Although every disruption is unique, it can be helpful to group them into broad categories. These categories help organisations consider whether their preparedness efforts are focused too narrowly. Some common categories include:
Climate & Environmental: Heatwaves, bushfires, floods, storms, drought
Public Health: Pandemics, disease outbreaks, heat-related illness
Infrastructure & Utilities: Power outages, telecommunications failures, transport disruption
Cyber & Digital: Cyber attacks, ransomware, software failures, data breaches
Supply Chain & Logistics: Shipping disruption, fuel shortages, shortages of critical goods
Economic & Financial: Inflation, recession, funding reductions, rising costs
Workforce: Staff shortages, volunteer shortages, industrial action
Social & Community: Population ageing, housing pressures, changing community needs
Governance & Policy: Legislative reform, policy changes, regulatory change
Security: Civil unrest, terrorism, geopolitical conflict
These categories are not intended to create separate plans for every disruption. Rather, they encourage organisations to recognise the breadth of uncertainty they operate within.
Some disruptions happen suddenly
Certain disruptions occur with little warning.
A cyber attack.
A major storm.
A power outage.
A significant flood.
These events often require immediate decisions and rapid coordination. Because they are highly visible, they frequently receive significant attention in preparedness planning.
Others develop slowly
Not all disruption arrives overnight. Some changes unfold gradually.
Climate change.
Population ageing.
Technological change.
Housing affordability.
Workforce shortages.
Changing community expectations.
These slower disruptions may not trigger emergency responses, yet they steadily reshape the environment in which organisations operate. In many cases, they require adaptation rather than immediate response.
Disruption also originates from different sources
Another useful way to think about disruption is to consider where it originates. For example:
Environmental: weather, climate, ecosystems
Health: disease outbreaks and public health emergencies
Technological: cyber attacks, digital failures, artificial intelligence
Economic: inflation, global markets, supply chains
Social: demographic change, housing, inequality
Political and Governance: legislation, policy, funding, regulation
Looking at disruption this way encourages organisations to broaden their understanding of risk beyond the traditional emergency management lens.
Disruptions rarely occur in isolation
One challenge with categorising disruption is that real-world events rarely fit neatly into a single category. Consider a prolonged heatwave.
It begins as an environmental event. But it may also create:
increased demand on health services
pressure on electricity infrastructure
workplace health and safety issues
transport disruption
supply chain delays
economic impacts
increased demand for community services
What begins as one disruption quickly affects many interconnected systems. This is one reason why preparedness increasingly depends on understanding relationships and interdependencies rather than viewing disruptions in isolation.
Categories help us think - not predict
Categorising disruption is useful because it broadens our thinking. It helps organisations identify areas they may not have previously considered.
However, categories have limitations.
The next disruption may not fit neatly into any single category. It may emerge from the interaction between several different systems.
Or it may be something entirely new.
Preparedness therefore requires more than understanding different kinds of disruption. It also requires developing the capability to adapt when the unexpected occurs.
Looking ahead
Understanding different types of disruption is an important first step. The next question is often:
How do we decide which disruptions deserve the most attention?
Many organisations answer this by considering two factors:
How likely is it?
What would the impact be?
These questions form the basis of most risk assessments. They are useful. But they are not the whole story.
In the next article, we'll explore how likelihood, impact, and uncertainty influence preparedness - and why adaptive capacity remains important even when the future cannot be predicted with certainty.