Communication, source tracking and course corrections—the three-step protocol to effectively handle a crisis
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It was three in the afternoon—the summer of 2019, and the eighth floor of Geisel library in UC San Diego was jam packed with students and book lovers lazing around the newly-renovated floor that commanded spectacular views of the Pacific Ocean. This floor is a silent zone, and everyone had either plugged their ears with earpods or was mentally prepared to revel in this silence for the next few hours.
Suddenly there were angry voices and the doors to the elevator open and close. Someone started running, and in a matter of seconds, every person on that floor was either crouching under a table, hiding behind a pillar, or had opened the fire exit to stand on the staircase.
_RSSCommunication is a wonderful mechanism—it is evolutionary, sends signals to our brain to act upon a matter. Everyone followed the same non-verbal signals and waited with bated breath for that “shooter on campus” to appear around the corner. Fortunately, it was a false alarm.
Given the number of shootings at schools and universities in the US—it is now a mandatory drill to pre-empt such situations. Since most of the students in the library that day were under-grads in their late teens, they must have been through numerous rigorous drills in their schools as young children. This is Risk Communication at its most effective.
[This article has been published with permission from IIM Bangalore. www.iimb.ac.in Views expressed are personal.]