The unexamined life is not worth living

Per Wikipedia, “The unexamined life is not worth living” is a famous phrase supposedly uttered by Socrates at his trial for impiety and corrupting youth, for which he was subsequently sentenced to death. Regardless of Socrates’ fate related to these words, it’s a great dictum to follow. And it’s particularly important for communicators to note […]

MQI for you or I?

How can you know you’re the best person for your position? Are we fully invested in Incident Command’s core tenet that every response position should be filled with the individual best suited to it? If so, we have to be certain we are actually filling the box on the organization chart that we should. It’s […]

Drinking from the firehose

Managing information flow in Incident Command At the beginning of a response, hard facts can be scarce or hard to find. As communicators, our approach to this ‘information desert’ often entails gathering every bit of information we can, regardless of its importance or relevance, to have something, anything to share. Drinking from the firehose As […]

Put the pieces of your exercise program together

Have you been able to put the pieces of your exercise program together? Is your organization’s exercise program preparing you for stakeholder communication in a crisis? Do you feel that your communication structure is adequately tested? Exercise planners often don’t recognize the importance of effective stakeholder communication. This bias is evidenced in how often the […]

Stopping the Tide

Sometimes communication isn’t about what has happened: Instead, it’s about what didn’t happen. We all have emergency response plans in place, and we’re all good at activating them (right?). Most organizations conduct near-perfect responses, thanks to excellent planning, training and practicing. But the best of responses are often insufficient to assuage stakeholder concerns. Consider the […]