Op-Ed: Building trust during major emergencies begins with direct communication

NOTE: This op-ed appeared in the June 13 edition of the CALGARY HERALD. The title they gave was "Building Trust During Major Emergencies Begins With Direct Communication" - adjusted here due to space limitations. To see the story as it appears in the CALGARY HERALD - https://calgaryherald.com/opinion/columnists/opinion-building-trust-during-major-emergencies-begins-with-direct-communication

A critical part of emergency response is learning and adapting as you go. I’ve learned some crisis communications lessons in politics and the energy industry that could apply to the City of Calgary’s recent water line break.

First, governments have different audiences than companies. The public blames politicians they don’t like and praise ones they support. The hard work is done by teams of front-line people from across organizations, and the most practised communicators are usually first responders who deal with incidents daily. But those skills are different than the ones needed to manage a disaster or long-term response.

Energy companies, on the other hand, seem to be more established to deal with longer-term events. Whether it’s through practice or experience gained from real-world situations, they understand the urgency to manage longer-term events. They train with government agencies, industry partners and mutual aid organizations so their first meeting isn’t an emergency. That regular testing brings an organization together and builds “muscle memory” that helps a response flow as smoothly as possible.

Second, effective communication starts before an emergency happens. It involves having realistic scenarios to practice with materials to support. This allows communications to quickly build trust with the public. If that was in place here, we need to understand if they were used. If they weren’t, that’s a huge miss. Mayor Jyoti Gondek has acknowledged and apologized that communications didn’t go as well as they should have. She acknowledged that something needs to be better and didn’t deflect. The time for accountability will come but, in the meantime, it’s important to encourage openness from people in positions of authority to change how the response is going. That’s important so that goodwill doesn’t evaporate.

Third, communications during an emergency must be direct and straightforward. In emergencies, there’s common themes: personal and family safety, financial effects and how it affects people’s assets. The human effects matter most. They need to know where the nearest water supply is, the safety protocols to follow, how long this will continue and will the repair plans work? Whenever change is forced on us, people focus on protecting their family, themselves and property. If  communications don’t address common needs, the organization won’t gain trust and people question its authenticity.

Fourth, don’t pick fights during a crisis — especially if it doesn’t solve the problem. The city is responsible for dealing with this — they operate the pipes. Other levels of government may have equipment or people they can lend to the response, so when one group points fingers it’s harder for a unified response scenario to work.

Fifth, it’s critical to shift quickly in a crisis from what happened to what you’re doing. People want to hear about progress and action so they have a line of sight to the emergency being over. And in an area where there’s favourable access and conditions with crews working 24/7, they want to know why it’ll take so long to restore service.

In my experience, the public extends a lot of grace when they get relevant information and see a solution getting closer. They want to see, hear and feel that the response team is laser-focused on getting things restored. Be specific and frequent, so the public can build new routines to help them feel some control.

We won’t know the cause of this leak for some time. There’s many potential causes and plenty of time to get a full, independent and public reporting on what happened to minimize the potential that this happens again.

Especially in a region where the water licence is held by Calgary and its neighbours contract water delivery to supply the region’s rapid growth.

Shawn Howard is a former alderman for the City of Airdrie and president of CORE Strategic Management (www.core-strategic.com), an external relations and engagement firm.