Communicating Risk

Risk Communications is one of the most difficult aspects of communications particularly because the extend of the risk to be communicated is never clear. This is because Risk Communications is not about announcing what happened, it is about communicating what might happen if certain precautions are not taken. However, once harm starts to happen, it is important to act decisively.

For the first few weeks after the first person was confirmed to have Swine Flu, the statement from the health authorities was "don't panic". Weeks later, after a number of people had lost their lives, an announcement was made that a "call centre" had been established to respond to public enquiries on the epidemic. Blame will be apportioned on what could have been done by whom and when it could have been done. That however is not as important as learning from this situation and being better prepared for any other risk in future.

Importantly, with past experience and modern day travelling, it should have been clear that it was only a matter of time before the epidemic hit South Africa. A Risk Analysis should have indicated the need for a communication campaign as the first step towards developing a Risk Communications Strategy. To do this, you need people who understand Risk Communications.

Hopefully, lessons have been learned from this experience.

Why did I start this blog?

I got involved with behavioural communications very early in 2008 in one of the most ambitious programmes undertaken by the Chamber of Mines of South Africa. The programme, Mining Industry Occupational Safety and Health Leading Practice Adoption System (MOSH) had as its objective, the improvement of health and safety performance in the mining industry. Behavioural communications was the vehicle used to encourage people to adopt healthier and safer working practices for the improvement of theirs and their co-workers' lives.

It was the idea of being part of an initiative that would actually contribute to saving people's lives in the mining industry that got be involved in this initiative. To me this became much more than just a part of my job. As I got involved, I discovered that Behavioural Communications was an involved process with a great potential for actually contributing to changing people's lives for the better if implemented properly. I have been very fortunate because I have had Decision Partners coaching me all along and sharing their years of experience with me. It may sound sappy, but I actually found myself in a project that made me feel that I was doing something positive and not just making a living.

I found myself compelled to start writing this when I was alerted to a website in which an organization was claiming to specialise in "behaviour communications". The problem was that the "specialist" mentioned was someone I know and the information on the website was misleading. I am a bit calm as write this because I have had two days to think about it and consult before I started writing. In my initial state of extreme rage when I first came across the website, words like plagiarism, fraud, theft and betrayal of trust came to mind in reference to this individual and his organisation.

My extreme rage was because he started using our terminology and the concepts that we introduced to him as his own "specialisation". I was enraged because, as a consultant, some may believe him and he may start implementing what he knows and this could endanger people's lives and eventually lead to loss of confidence in something that can really make a difference if properly implemented.

I think what pushed me into outing this pretender, whose name and organisation's name I have not mentioned as yet, is because the need to safeguard standards to ensure that implementation of this process, in improving health and safety, is done well so as to succeed. This can only happen with the continued support of industry leadership. They can only support if convinced that this process will achieve intended results. People who start making claims of being specialists, without the necessary depth of knowledge can actually lead to doubts of its effectiveness and that would not be good. That is the reason why I believe it is important that "specialists" are actually what they claim to be and not pretenders out to make a quick buck while putting people's lives at risk in the process.

Start of Behavioural Communications

An Introduction is in order Here

This is my very first blog. I guess now I can be called an orricial blogger. Why now? The answer to that is very simple. I have been working on a project for over a year with some very dedicated people at the Chamber of Mines in a noble attempt to establish a sustainable communications process that would achieve a change in the working behaviour of people working undersground towards a safer way of working in order to improve health and safety in the South African Mines.

Don't mind the typos, this is my first blog so I am a bit overwhelmed.

The process we implemented was Behavioural Communications which was introduced to the South African mining community through the Chamber of Mines (this term has come to be associated with this organisation) by Decision Partners, a company of experts in this disciple.

Let me say more next time.

Jabu Maphalala