Making Risk Communication A Priority

At BMF, we spend a great deal of time helping our clients in the energy, manufacturing and shipping sectors prepare for, train for and respond to crisis: spills, pipeline leaks, ugly mergers and acquisitions, labor actions, industrial accidents and shipping incidents that can have multiple negative internal and external impacts and levels of liability.

But as important as effective and open communication in crisis may be, it is only one side of the communications coin. The other side-- equally as important but too often ignored—involves communicating effectively about risk—long before something bad actually happens.

In this document we’ll explore effective risk communication: engaging people openly and honestly about the risks of what your company does or makes, in ways that sincerely address their concerns or fears by giving them the information they need to draw educated conclusions that could ultimately make for a better relationship between you and your neighbors.

Simply defined, effective risk communication seeks to provide a proper context for the dangers posed to the public, calm fears and explain risks in honest, clear and reassuring terms that go far beyond made-for-media sound bites.

To be clear, risk communication is not the same thing as community relations and philanthropic giving. While these things may put a “human face” on your company and help make some people feel better about your company, they do little to mitigate lingering concerns about the health and safety risks of living and working next door to you.

At BMF we believe that effective risk communication is as much about listening as it is about talking. Experience has taught us at least one thing: concerned or angry neighbors and stakeholders are more than smart enough to know the difference between talking and listening.

Only by listening and really hearing what your neighbors and critics say about their fears regarding what you and how you do it can you truly find common ground beyond the fence line.

This process begins by accepting that people are very unlikely to: -
- accept things they don’t understand
- accept things or situations that are beyond their control
- accept things they believe are unfair
- accept things they derive no perceived benefit from
- accept situations they believe are forced upon them
- accept without anger or hostility things that are man-made instead of acts of God or nature

Effective risk communication is not achieved in one step or through limited on-again, off-again engagement. It is a process that takes real commitment and on-going outreach and accessibility. It takes thick skin and a willingness to hear things said in the kind of way you’re not accustomed to hearing from people who start from a fundamentally different perspective from you. And it takes the willingness to accept incremental change in your relationships with your stakeholders and neighbors over an extended period of time rather than the kind of sea change in attitudes all of us would like to see happen.

Good risk communication involves inviting those stakeholders who matter most to you inside your organization to meet your people and learn about your processes and your value to the community from the ground up. This learning process doesn’t just happen overnight but over a great deal of time.

Effective risk communication also entails being open minded to at least some of the changes your most important stakeholders want you to make. After all, it is totally unreasonable for you to expect to change their minds if you’re not open to changing yours.

We’ll flesh this concept out in more detail over the next few weeks. In the meantime, if you’re interested in exploring this subject in more detail, be sure to contact me at gbeuerman@e-bmf.com