Graham Strickert, Research Associate at the University of Saskatchewan, discusses exercise design improvements for catastrophic events such as floods or solar storms. He is a social scientist interested in improving the ways we organize our responses to disaster events, and argues we need to move beyond a command and control organizational structure.
He discusses the four main ways that people expect communication to flow, and how people organize – whether it is through a lens of individualism, egalitarianism, hierarchical, or fatalist. This correlates to how people respond to emergencies, how they expect to receive information about the emergency, and how they share information with others.
We need a better way of communicating in times of crises that allows for accessibility, so that everyone can get informed, can contribute information , and there is a process that ensures everyone can respond to one another, so one voice does not drown out the rest. This method of communication takes longer and costs more money, but it is more comprehensive, and allows information to flow from different perspectives. He explains we need communication with different groups within the public, early engagement with the private sector, an integrated command system, and co-development with community-based response plans. One important component of making this happen is empathy.
Research is currently being done at the University of Saskatchewan to facilitate the development of empathy is stakeholders of water resources. Such research is also applicable to communication and the use of resources in times of crises. This presentation was a part of the CWRA Alberta Branch Annual Conference, in March of 2014.
