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Communication

Risk communication or crisis communication is critical to business operations before, during, and after any type of emergency or disaster such as an influenza pandemic. It involves:

Alerting employees to the risk beforehand
Informing workers during preparedness efforts
Keeping leadership engaged
Communicating with clients, vendors, customers, and other companies
Maintaining effective, honest public relations

Collected in our Resource List are original articles from international risk communication expert Peter Sandman, PhD, on all these aspects of business communication—and more—as well as information from other carefully vetted sources.

Articles from Weekly Briefing/Osterholm Briefing

Types of Risk Communication

What kind of risk communication does pandemic preparedness require?
When the virus hits the fan, it'll be crisis communication. But what it is now depends on your opinions and your audience.

Start thinking in phases - risk communication phases
You have a few crucial moments for talking about pandemic preparedness. Use them well in each of eight communication phases.

Riding the many pandemic seesaws
Because most people feel ambivalent about possible future pandemics, communicating effectively with them requires skillful balance on a wide range of communication "seesaws" to get them engaged.

CDC offers pandemic communication guidance
The three most important components to include in messages to the public or employees in the event of a pandemic are empathy, some type of action to take, and respect. There are also important things to avoid, such as late or mixed messages.

Scaring people is scary
People tend to avoid alarming people, but it's a key component of pandemic preparations and communication.

Teachable Moments

A preparedness trifecta: Why are we missing such teachable moments?
Three important public health events highlight the challenge we have in keeping pandemic preparedness on the front burner.

How not to conduct crisis communication
Bernard Matthews did everything right when H5N1 struck its turkey flocks-if its goal was to shake public confidence.

Get your slice of the 'fearfulness' pie
Fear is like a pie: There's usually not enough to go around. If you want people to take precautions, you have to compete for your share.

Engaging Your CEO or Board

A shot in the arm for preparedness: Former CEO offers what's needed to engage your CEO
You have a new and invaluable ally when you're working with your executive team. Buy the book The Sentinel CEO: Perspectives on Security, Risk, and Leadership in a Post-9/11 World.

The birds and the beds: A week in the journey of pandemic preparedness
The voices of skeptics who doubt the eventuality of a pandemic are growing louder. Meanwhile, important studies are getting buried. Pandemic planners need to be able to tell the difference.

Is the pandemic threat receding, or does it just look that way?
The apparent lull in avian flu cases may spell apathy for senior executives—even if it means nothing in terms of the danger posed by the H5N1 virus. Use this period to mobilize resources and educate management about why this is not the time to let down your guard.

Talking about a flu pandemic worst-case scenario
Many people have trouble thinking simultaneously that a risk is horrific and that it's unlikely, but there's nothing intellectually incompatible about these two risk characteristics.

Engaging your CEO in pandemic preparedness: How to build a strategy to overcome indifference
15 ways to get and keep your leader’s attention.

Assessing corporate executives on pandemic preparedness engagement
Sidebar to above article, on how human resource, risk management, and financial executives are engaged on the issue.

Pitney Bowes: Using fresh memories, history to get the preparedness message across
Sidebar to the "engaging your CEO" article on how one company has succeeded.

Evidence plentiful of a pending pandemic
Leading influenza researchers present the scientific case.

Overcoming Apathy & Inertia (Pandemic Fatigue)

Read 'FAFfing About' if you need some motivation
Whenever your commitment to pandemic preparedness starts to flag, read something wrongheaded by an opponent of preparedness, such as this example from a major medical journal.

Is H5N1 still a threat? What to do when your pandemic preparedness work is challenged
H5N1 might or might not cause the next pandemic. But some strain of influenza will cause a pandemic. If you expect the unexpected, your company will be far better off.

Whose pandemic fatigue?
Far from being fatigued by pandemic warnings, the public is just beginning to hear the message. As planners, we're the ones at risk of pandemic fatigue, as we slog our way forward.

Re-engage colleagues on preparedness
Human cases of avian flu are down a bit this year over last, but the threat of a pandemic has not receded. The real threat to business lies not in numbers but in failing to use this time to fortify businesses.

Keeping tabs on H5N1 media coverage
Sidebar to above article that tracks media coverage by month.

'Might help a lot, might help a little, might not help at all--and worth trying!'
There are no perfect pandemic precautions. We need to say so—and push hard for imperfect precautions.

The fog of pandemic planning
Planners need to push past uncertainty regarding their own capability and regarding how a future pandemic may unfold.

Combating pandemic planning fatigue
Convincing reluctant managers, organizing continuity planning, and educating employees can be challenging. Ways to counter opposition include staging a war game and exploring options to keep plans fresh.

How Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu prevents pandemic planning fatigue
Sidebar to above article on how one global corporation combats fatigue, including avoiding information overload and emphasizing variety.

Employee Communications

Why talk now? The case for communicating with employees before the pandemic arrives
Your company is preparing for a pandemic, but your employees aren't. Can that possibly make sense?

Corporate pandemic precaution advocacy: The time is now
Business continuity planners say they're talking to their employees and other stakeholders about pandemic preparedness. Is it really happening?

Start thinking in phases - risk communication phases
You have a few crucial moments for talking about pandemic preparedness. Use them well in each of eight communication phases.

Seesaw your way through ambivalence
Whenever people are ambivalent about something, communication happens as if on a seesaw. Two strategies to try for garnering some buy-in.

A severe pandemic is not overdue - it's not when but if
We have no grounds for confidence that a severe pandemic is imminent. Our communications shouldn't imply otherwise.

When the pandemic is on our doorstep, is it too late to prepare?
It's impossible to pinpoint the precise moment when businesses should enact their pandemic preparedness plans. What businesses can do is stock up now on supplies and prepare the messages they will need to deliver.

Communicating to Americans living abroad
A significant number of the Americans living overseas are employees or family members of employees of international companies. They need to have clear and predetermined plans and communication strategies for responding to changes in the pandemic threat.

Communicating Pandemic Flu Basics

The 4 faces of bird flu
Bird flu is 4 problems, not 1. Keeping them straight is a prerequisite to sensible risk communication--and sensible preparedness.

Communicating with Other Companies

Sharing corporate pandemic preparedness plans: End the secrecy--or risk the consequences
Companies have more to lose by not sharing preparedness plans. Making plans public benefits both your company and the common good. Here's how to get approval from legal counsel and public relations.

Customer/Client/Vendor Communications

Pay attention to bellwether sectors: What transportation and financial markets can tell us now
Editor-in-Chief Michael Osterholm says the early bellwethers of how we respond to an unfolding pandemic will be the international transportation industry and the financial markets.

How's your business discontinuity program?
The smartest companies are planning how best to disrupt their own operations.