DUE IN 24 HOURS

CHAPTERS ARE ATTACHED

 Select any case study (or use multiple case studies if you desire) from the text and discuss concepts from chapter 9 and chapter 10.  Where do you see the concepts being applicable?  Where did organizations and communicators succeed or fail?  What opportunities exist moving forward from the crisis event for the organization or crisis communicator to use the concepts in chapters 9 and 10 as tools for renewal or help in planning for the next crisis event? 

Effective Crisis Communication

Chapter 9 Learning through failure

Ulmer, R., Sellnow, T., and Seeger, M. (2019). Effective crisis communication: Moving from crisis to opportunity. Sage Publications. Thousand Oaks, CA.

Some examples of failures

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Failing to learn from failure

Predictable surprises – leadership fails or ignores evidence that problem could occur

Unpredictable surprises – occur with no warning signs

4 ways orgs fail to learn

Scanning failures – failure to pay attention inside and out of org to potential problems.

Integration failures – failure to put the puzzle pieces together.

Incentive failures – failure to provide sufficient rewards to report or deal with potential problems.

Learning failures – failure to draw important lessons from crises.

Opportunity 1 – Learning from failure prevents future crisis
Failure is an essential part of the learning process
Do not overlook the minor failures
Too often we fail to admit to failure.
Learn best from “Intelligent failures”
Result from thoughtfully planned actions
Have uncertain outcomes
Are modest in scale
Executed and responded to with eagerness
Take place in domains that are familiar enough to permit effective learning

Opportunity 2 – Avoid crisis through vicarious learning
Observe and learn from the failure of similar organizations

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Opportunity 3 – Preservation of organizational memory through training can prevent crises

Learning has little use if we forget seminal moments

Requires the exchange of information – imperfect

3 steps to organizational memory

Acquiring knowledge

Distributing knowledge

Acting on knowledge

Opportunity 4 – Must be willing to “Unlearn”
Unlearning means more than just forgetting.
Changing ways can be difficult
Fallacy of “Tradition”
3 results of Unlearning
Expand options
Contracting options
Grafting

Summary
Opportunity 1 – Learn through our failures
Opportunity 2 – Learn vicariously through failures of others
Opportunity 3 – Organizational memory used can help prevent failures
Opportunity 4 – Unlearn those things that may constrain us

Effective Crisis Communication

Chapter 10: Risk Communication

Ulmer, R., Sellnow, T., Seeger, M. (2019). Effective Crisis Communication: Moving From Crisis to Opportunity. Sage Publications. Thousand Oaks, CA.

Opportunity #1: Effective Risk Communication (RC) can disrupt a crisis and prevent it from reaching its full magnitude
Important to distinguish between risks and crises
Risk Communication (RC) is future oriented
RC is designed to avert crisis
RC is designed to speculate about what could happen, not explain what did
RC is designed for long term planning vs the immediate problem
RC generally comes from experts foreseeing potential problems versus leaders dealing with a problem.
RC is more personal and internal whereas crisis messages are more public.
RC has the luxury of time with full PR campaigns versus crisis comm that is immediate.
RC can be crafted carefully whereas crisis comm is more spontaneous.

Opportunity #2: A mindful outlook is essential to recognizing new risks

Identifying Risk

Recognizing risk

Learning about it

Prioritizing it

Changing behavior to avoid or mitigate it

Mindfulness – means constantly adapting our perceptual skills to adapt to a changing world

Requires awareness of new information

Requires awareness of different perspectives

High reliability

Preoccupation with failure

Reluctance to simplify operations

Sensitivity to operations

Commitment to resilience

Deference to expertise

Opportunity #3:
Risk Communication must account for both hazard and outrage
Best form of risk communication is interactive
Dialogue should be between all stakeholders who might be affected
Dialogue-centered approach
Democratic and all invited to share opinions
Decisions made for greatest good and greatest number
Technology-centered approach
Experts debate and make recommendations on policy
More efficient – none of us have the time to learn and study all the issues (nor do we want to)
“Experts” – should know more than we do
Loses credibility when the public loses trust in the experts (dishonest, bias, etc.)

Opportunity #3:
Risk Communication must account for both hazard and outrage
Sandman’s Risk/Hazard Equation
Risk f {Hazard+Outrage}
Hazard is the scientifically determined risk level
Outrage is the public’s determination of high risk
If the public perceives high risk, scientists have a hard time convincing them otherwise
If the public doesn’t perceive high risk, scientists have a hard time convincing them otherwise

Opportunity #3:
Risk Communication must account for both hazard and outrage
Dialogue-centered approach takes into consideration public outrage, BUT…
Functions very slowly
Not always based upon fact
Could result in an uninformed public endorsing a risky behavior
Need an interactive compromise approach

Opportunity #4:
To ensure social responsibility, all risk communication should be held to the standard of significant choice
Convergence theory and risk communication
The audience’s understanding of a contested risk issue shifts as the argument proceeds
4 Principles
Audience seeks points of convergence within competing arguments
Convergence is most persuasive when the issue is important to them
Changes over time
Individuals seek to diminish convergence with flawed and new evidence

Opportunity #4:
To ensure social responsibility, all risk communication should be held to the standard of significant choice
RESPONSIBLE RISK COMMUNICATION
Significant Choice – Giving people the human dignity to make rational decisions
5 Standards allowing stakeholders to make decisions
Stakeholders should be free from physical and/or mental coercion
Choice is made based on all available information
Reasonable alternatives are included in the discussion
Short-term & long-term consequences are disclosed and discussed
Senders & receivers of messages are open about any personal motives

Opportunity #4:
To ensure social responsibility, all risk communication should be held to the standard of significant choice
RESPONSIBLE RISK COMMUNICATION
Forms of communication that reduce opportunity to make choices rationally:
Incomplete information
Biased information
Statistical units inadequately defined or incomplete
Vague or ambiguous terminology
Implied relationships between issues when relationships do not exist
False sense of urgency or importance
Highly emotionally charged language which distorts meaning
Fantasy messages

Summary
Opportunity 1 – Effective Risk Communication can disrupt a crisis and prevent it from reaching its full magnitude
Opportunity 2 – A mindful outlook is essential to recognizing new risks
Opportunity 3 – Risk Communication must account for both hazard and outrage
Opportunity 4 – To ensure social responsibility, all risk communication should be held to the standard of significant choice.