At FEMA’s International Assistance System Concept of Operations Tabletop Exercise (IAS CONOPS TTX), multiple government organizations solved a national disaster emergency scenario. This exercise is a prime example of a tool called joint training.
Most leaders, and humans, can likely agree that change is hard. Nevertheless, adapting to changing circumstances is the new normal.
Citizens and customers of the government are demanding increased access to more efficient services. Covid-19 has also raised the bar on the need to provide accurate and informative data – in visualizations – to citizens who are becoming savvier about data accuracy and usefulness. Strategic communications are an essential part of raising the bar on customer experience (CX).
While organizations have spent years cataloging how we behave, Behavioral Science helps us understand why we behave and offers a guide for what might inspire change. As a result, this field is rapidly growing as a way that the Government can improve mission outcomes. Techniques like Defaults or Norms in government communications can improve desired outcomes by informing decision-making.
As communicators, we develop comprehensive strategies that outline how to use a variety of communication channels that promote our messages or campaign platforms with the hopes of informing, inspiring and motivating our audiences to action. But, what about your stakeholders – those individuals from whom you seek buy-in? Have you systematically thought about who they are and what they can offer?
Asking people to interpret statistics and numbers is not the most efficient way to communicate information – after all, scientific studies show that humans are notoriously bad at interpreting them
Since the GPRA Modernization Act in 2010, agencies across the Federal Government have raced to establish new Strategic Plans in response to incoming Presidential Administrations and agency leaders. Developing a new Strategic Plan is incredibly exciting for an agency. Leaders can redefine priorities, frontline managers can improve mission performance, and employees can better engage with the mission. Strategy, however, is so much more than just a Strategic Plan.
When a hurricane hits, people think about disaster planning. But most of the time, hurricanes or natural disasters feel like they apply to other people.
I spent the early years of my career in the United States Navy as a Naval Flight Officer on the E-2C Hawkeye, the Navy’s aircraft carrier-based Airborne Early Warning and Command and Control platform. The various missions of the aircraft demand that aircrew monitor up to ten radio frequencies, and actively speak on three or four of those, at any given moment in flight.
Legendary actor and director Robert Redford often calls for fellow actors to “learn their craft”—to be so great at the fundamentals that you have the confidence, security, and flexibility to pursue your passion.
Effective communication can save lives and reduce economic damage during the response and recovery phases of a disaster. Despite widely available information on creating effective risk communication and warning messages to elicit desired public outcomes during and following disasters, communication attempts fail too often.
The essence of an effective strategy is focusing attention, resources, and energy on the precise areas needed to achieve an organization’s goals. Unfortunately, and in stark contrast, many efforts to communicate strategies are diffused and often uncoordinated, trying to blanket all media channels with content in hopes that audiences will absorb something from somewhere. It is better to focus communications as the strategy is focused, using the most effective, selected channels and methods to achieve distinct desired results.
Technology has revolutionized the way people seek, organize, and store information. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) uses critical information to achieve its mission, whether that is securing the border, processing travelers, or mitigating flood risk. Collecting and researching huge amounts of information is now faster and easier than ever. Despite these technological advances, analysts can still miss the underlying issues hidden behind reams of data.
