Becoming ‘Us’ – Response to Recovery
There are two arenas where we must work on becoming ‘Us’ – one arena for efficiency, the other arena for impact. First, for efficiency, becoming ‘Us’ inside Unified Command, with your response partners. Then, for impact, becoming ‘Us’ outside Unified Command, in the community as you communicate with affected stakeholders. Go home A key aspect […]
The Risk in Risk Assessment
A powerful tool Effective risk assessment is critical for effective crisis communication planning. You need to know what could happen in order to identify affected stakeholders, map their concerns, prepare messaging and plan an ongoing response communication plan. The good news is that one should be available to you; risk assessments are what planners do! […]
You Say Tomato, I Say Tomahto
In the response world, abbreviations, acronyms and initialisms (look it up!) are unavoidable. Complex titles are easier to recite and remember when reduced to a few letters, so Agencies become initialisms (DSHS, WaDOE), response systems become acronyms (NIMS), people become abbreviations (APIO). Even acronyms become acronyms (TMAtM = Too Many Acronyms to Mention). Two of […]
Becoming ‘Us’
You know the ‘Us’ around you – the people you work with every day. You know these people and you’ve learned to work with them and trust them. But an incident has occured, and here you are, showing up to join the response and walking into the Joint Information Center, a room filled with ‘Them’! […]
We Have Met the Enemy and They is Us
America mythologizes the rugged individual; the lone cowboy out on the range who can herd the cattle, find the gold, rassle up the rustlers, woo the heroine and speak sagely to the townsfolk before dispatching the villain. We all want to be like Shane, or John Wayne. We synthesize this rugged individualism into our communication […]