Check out this great article from John Rainford, the Director of The Warning Project.  The Warning Project is launching a new series of articles aiming to try and capture, analyze and debate the best the evolving field of emergency risk communication has to offer.

This flies in the face of much of our individual and organizational instincts. The more grave the threat, the more crucial the lines of authority, the more essential decisive action. But truth be told, the very nature of complex events means they are cross-jurisdictional. Leadership is demonstrated through horizontal negotiation, not top down command and control – and no other aspect of emergency response more clearly underlines this reality than comms.

Click HERE to read the entire article.

John Rainford

John Rainford

John Rainford is the Director of The Warning Project. He is the former Director, Emergency and Risk Communications for Health Canada and Global Project Lead, Risk Communication Capacity Building for the World Health Organization. Additionally, he worked at the Privy Council Office in Ottawa as the lead analyst responsible for national security communications. He has a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Queen’s University, teaches emergency risk communication at Carleton University, and has led emergency risk communication workshops around the world involving participants from over 150 different countries.