Cable TV’s top rated American zombie apocalyptic horror-drama series on the AMC network “Walking Dead” (TWD) is on its 7th season and as of this past weekend I have watched all 95 episodes.
Over the course of those seven seasons we witnessed the world change to an infested zombie-land where only the strong survive and the weak become hearty meals for the walkers.
Over that time many of us have endured thousands of zombie killings for the sake of survival, watched evil villains rise and fall and we have lasted through some pretty emotional and nerve wrecking cliff hangers.
The show doesn’t appeal to everybody but it appears to draw viewers from a variety cross-sectional groups and generations, as I often times find myself discussing the previous episodes the following Monday morning over coffee at the office with a variety of different people.
Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes, Danai Gurira as Michonne – The Walking Dead _ Season 7, Episode 12 – Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC
Over the course of the last seven years we have watched total strangers form into a tight family where they are relying on one another to outlast and endure some pretty terrifying dangerous situations.
We have witnessed Rick’s son Carl Grimmes grow from an innocent adolescent to a ruthless one-eyed fighter. We have also watched female characters survivalists who rival most men who cross their paths. We have seen best friends turn on one another, civilizations become cannibals all in the effort to survive; and just recently we have learned to fear the name Lucille.
The show Walking Dead is a gift that just keeps on giving and when you look past the body count there are several life lessons that this safety a risk management professional can appreciate. Just like how Tony Soprano in the hit show “The Sopranos” taught us that who you hang around andgrowing up is who you become later in life. Or how Walter White taught us on in the show “Breaking Bad” to stick to what you know best and develop a skill in the field you are passionate about. Every story has a lesson.
In my profession I have seen my fair share of businesses, school districts, non-for-profit organizations and even people withstand some pretty severe and ominous calamities; and those that have survived did so because they were prepared and had a survivalist mindset.
Here are some life lessons that TWD can teach us:
There Is Safety In Numbers. As Rick wonders through each season he quickly learned that there is safety in numbers. By being part of a large physical group or mass, an individual is less likely to be the victim of a mishap, accident, attack, or other bad event. Whether it’s meeting up with Glenn in Atlanta or uniting all the different surrounding civilizations to defeat the Negan and the Saviors, the odds of survival will increase if you have the numbers.
Build a Network of Like-Minded People. Each season people die off due to unfortunate events and poor decisions. Most of the main characters in TWD were brought together by fate, but with each new season people are brought into the group based on their skills, ability to contribute and add value.
The Walking Dead: Breaking through fence
Only Trust Your Inner Circle. Time and time again when things take a turn for the worst in TWD, bad things seemed to happen when people trust somebody that they really didn’t know. In order to survive they have learned to trust their inner circle and learning who their neighbors are, or otherwise those neighbors may actually want to have you for dinner, instead of having you over for dinner.
Build Your Team With Purpose. Everybody has a skill-set and in the show many of those individual skill-sets has saved the group. Rick quickly learns that the most crucial skill set is in the new world order is survival, and when interviewing someone if they can join their group he asks the following three questions: “How many walkers have you killed? How many people have you killed? Why is that?” Rick has learned that the formation of a team is central to the success of a team — Just because someone has the right skills doesn’t mean they’re the right person for the job. In the TV series people could usually answer or provide false answers to the first two questions, but the “why” question puts the first two questions into context and really paints the picture of who these people are and what they’ll bring to the team.
You Don’t Have To Be The Fastest To Survive: We learned that you didn’t have to actually be the fastest to survive a zombie attack you just don’t have to be the slowest when being chased by zombies. We also discovered that you don’t have to necessarily be the strongest or the ones with the most weapons to survive, but instead sometimes being the cleverest person will often times allow you to survive a zombie apocalyptic. Glenn may have been a professional pizza delivery driver before the zombie apocalyptic, but his cleverness got him and his group out of a lot of hairy situations.
Follow your intuition when it comes to trust. Throughout the series, Rick follows his instincts when it comes to people and situations, and his gut usually plays a huge part in the group’s survival. In the show Rick rarely will trust newcomers, because people’s lives are on the line and when he does give his trust, it’s usually on a hunch and it has proven to be right on most occasions.
Somebody Needs To Be The Sheriff. Early in the show the characters followed Rick because of his leadership skills and his law enforcement background. At times he has reluctantly accepted it and sometimes question it, but as the TV series has played out it has proven that there can only be one true leader and when you do have more than one, there is trouble on the horizon.
A Failure To Plan Is A Plan For Failure. Whether you are living in a post-apocalyptic zombie world or if you are a business owner, corporate risk manager, or head of your household always have a Plan B, C & sometimes even a D. In the TV series it seems like the characters are always escaping from a tight spot either from an RV bathroom, a seemingly abandoned pharmacy full of walkers or defending a well-fortified prison. Rick and his group has always found a way to survive because they had a contingency plan in place. A zombie apocalypse is an extremely unlikely disaster that we may have to face, but preparing for a worst-case scenario can be a good strategy to help protect your family or business from various real-world emergencies you may one day face.
The Waling Dead: Lessons Learned
Don’t Plan on the Government Saving You. Early on in the show TWD many of the characters expected that the Government to come and save them, but over time they realized that there wasn’t a government anymore and it had become a zombie eat zombie world. Unfortunately, today too many people put too much faith in the government to protect and save them. While TWD may be a bit unrealistic, it does highlight the need for all of us to develop and plan for your own survival skills. Hurricane Katrina showed us that if things become really bad, the government may not be there for your most basic needs – food, water, shelter, and medicines. So stock your own supplies and prepared for the worse.
Be Prepared To Defend Yourself. In the TV series we learn that a knifeless man is a lifeless man. We also learned that if you simply allow others to defend you without learning how to defend yourself, you eventually became a zombie meal. In the real world there may not be zombies but there is an entire underworld looking to prey upon your weaknesses and make you a victim, and those that take measures to be able to defend themselves stand a better chance of survival.
Safety and Security Matters. In the show TWD we learned that you cannot have too much safety and security, and you should layer the safety and security countermeasures as a fail-safe in the event of failure of any one of those systems.
Stress Changes People. The end of the world as we know it can be stressful but so can everyday life. Major trauma will affect people differently. Some people don’t show the worst effects for longer than others, but it hits everyone eventually. Even the strongest will reach their breaking point and in the TV series we learn that it’s important to look after people’s mental health because if you don’t the effects are deadly because grief is weakness, and can have negative consequences.
Be Safe My Friends
Keven Moore works in risk management services. He has a bachelor’s degree from University of Kentucky, a master’s from Eastern Kentucky University and 25-plus years of experience in the safety and insurance profession. He lives in Lexington with his family and works out of both the Lexington and Northern Kentucky offices. Keven can be reached at kmoore@roeding.com.
