Incident Notification Message Anatomy 101

Robert Chandler, Ph.D.

Director of the Nicholson School, University of Central Florida

Marc Ladin

Chief Marketing Officer, Everbridge

• Everbridge empowers better decisions with interactive communications throughout the incident lifecycle to protect your most important assets

• Recognized in the 2012 Gartner Magic Quadrant on Emergency / Mass Notification as a Leader in the industry

About EverbridgeAbout Everbridge

• Everbridge helps more than 30 million people communicate in a crisis and connect on a daily basis.

• The company’s notification platform is backed by an elastic infrastructure model that delivers near infinite scale, advanced mobile connectivity, and real-time reporting and analytics.

• More than 1,000 organizations in over 100 countries rely on Everbridge for their emergency needs

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Agenda

Part 1: Presentation

• How to address today's notification challenges

• Fundamental rules you need to know to create effective

messages

AgendaAgenda

• Best practices for incident messaging

Part 2: Q&A

3

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Use the Q&A function to submit your questions.

4

Bracing for the 2010

Hurricane SeasonIncident Notification Message

Anatomy 101

Dr. Robert ChandlerUniversity of Central Florida

Communication since the dawn of timeCommunication since the dawn of time

Early humans probably adapted warning calls and cries to alert one another of potential dangers (e.g., predators or natural disasters) once they banded together in social groups, much like other species of mammals still do to

“

“much like other species of mammals still do to this day

Dr. Robert C. Chandler

Emergency Notification

(2010) p.20

Challenges for effective notificationChallenges for effective notification

• Information

• Financial impact

• Safety

• Organizational responsibility

Expectations of the communicationExpectations of the communication

audienceaudience

• Organizational responsibility

• Causation

• Consequences and effects

• Projections for recovery

• Return to normal operations

Four challenges unique to emergency Four challenges unique to emergency

communicationcommunication

1. Impact of technology breakdown

2. Extraordinarily high levels of stress

3. Events occur rapidly

4. Aggressive demands for information and analysis from 4. Aggressive demands for information and analysis from

the media and the public

Participation Barriers

The main categories of incident The main categories of incident

communication issuescommunication issues

C-3 Inefficiencies

•Command

•Control

•Coordination

Information Quality and

Communication

Collaboration Issues

The crux of the notification challengeThe crux of the notification challenge

Contacting the right people at the right time with the right message is the basic challenge for effective emergency notification.

Dr. Robert C. Chandler

“

“Dr. Robert C. Chandler

Emergency Notification

(2010) p.153

• Recognizing management and communication challenges

• Analyzing your audience

• Looking at ways to improve your crisis communication plan

What helps counter these challenges?What helps counter these challenges?

Communication Processing ImpairmentCommunication Processing Impairment

Info processed at -4 grade

(average) levels from low stress

(about 6th grade in general population)

Info processed at average grade

level (about 10th

Grade in general population)

Recipients process average of 7 messages

per communication

episode

Recipients process average of 3 messages

per communication

episode

Low Stress High Stress

population)episode episode

Robert C. Chandler, Ph.D. © 2010

Cognitive AbilitiesNormal<--------------------����Diminished

Increased ConfusedInability to focusEasily distracted

Increased Misinterpretation Increased Misunderstandings

Unable to complete complex critical thinking

Routine misinterpretationRoutine misunderstandingsAssumptionsSequential Errors

The The good and the bad of good and the bad of incident notificationincident notification

• Be first, be right, be credible

• Acknowledge with empathy

• Explain and inform about risk

• Describe what you know, don’t know, and what you’re

Effective communication strategiesEffective communication strategies

• Describe what you know, don’t know, and what you’re

doing about it

• Commit to continued

communication

• Keep communication

channels open

How information is processedHow information is processed

• Cognitive processing capabilities and

stress, distress, and duress

• Perceived risk changes

• Information loading (cognitive limits)

• Attitude-behavioral consistency theory

• Uncertainty reduction theory

• Situation awareness

• Selective attention

• Reaction time changes

How information is processedHow information is processed

Determine what and how you should communicate by

assessing how people understand, interpret, and act on

messages during critical events.

Reaction timeReaction time

Factors that affect reaction time include:

• Recognition

• Choice

• Number of stimuli• Number of stimuli

• Fatigue

• Reasoning

• Remembering

• Imagining

• Learning

Four basic functions an incident Four basic functions an incident

notification message must meetnotification message must meet

1. Information

2. Meta-message

3. Behavioral request and instructions

4. Feedback request4. Feedback request

Four components of effective emergency Four components of effective emergency notification messagesnotification messages

Information Urgency

Instructions Confirmation

Message

Anatomy of an emergencyAnatomy of an emergency

notification message notification message

DA 4 DA 4 -- 3 & 30 3 & 30 -- 60 & 660 & 6

� Danger - Action Structure

� 4 Key Components� 4 Key Components

� 3 sentences & 30 words

� 60 readability score & 6th

grade reading level

(Chandler Method)

More effective emergency notification More effective emergency notification

messages messages

• Front-load key information into the first 30 words/30

seconds

• Be sensitive to the needs of different demographic

groups including languages, co-cultural groups, needs

agenda, etc.agenda, etc.

•Research indicates that the typical person’s reading

comprehensive levels drop about 4 grade levels during

emergencies and crisis situations

Chandler 60 & 6 RuleChandler 60 & 6 Rule

•For the general population – the closer you can write to

the 6th grade reading level the more comprehension and

understanding can be forecast during emergency

situations

•The reading ease scores provide a baseline from which

we can judge the relative ease that an individual will be

able to easily read our messages (during an emergency)

•The higher the score the easier the message is to read

Chandler 60 & 6 RuleChandler 60 & 6 Rule

•The higher the score the easier the message is to read

(for the general population, the optimal zone would be

a score of at least 60 – to the highest, which is 120)

•One dimension of effective emergency communication

is to write (and revise) in ways that provide the right

mix of readability ease and reading grade level

Crisis Lifecycle Analysis: What do we communicate, when, and how do we say it?

Six Stages of a Communication Crisis

Example warning: KatrinaExample warning: Katrina

...DEVASTATING DAMAGE

EXPECTED...

WATER SHORTAGES WILL MAKE HUMAN

SUFFERING

INCREDIBLE BY MODERN STANDARDS.

MOST OF THE AREA

WILL BE UNINHABITABLE FOR

WEEKS...PERHAPS LONGER.

ONCE TROPICAL STORM AND HURRICANE

FORCE WINDS ONSET...DO NOT VENTURE

OUTSIDE!

EXPECTED...

Excerpts from Hurricane Katrina warning from National Weather Service, New Orleans, LA

NASA's Hurricane Web PageSO. INDIAN OCEAN - We're watching System 97S today. This TRMM satellite image

from yesterday (4/4) shows some heavy rainfall (red) southwest of the center. Today, the

center has moved east over Madagascar. Max. sustained winds near 20 knots, 1007

millibars. Center near 171 South, 43.5 East. Currently 97S has a low chance of

development, because of its interaction with land (its over Madagascar)- which you can

see in this METSAT image from today:

Example Example communication: communication:

NASA NASA FacebookFacebook PagePage

see in this METSAT image from today:

NASA's Hurricane Web PageNovember 11, 2011

ATLANTIC*Update*- Tropical Storm Sean at 8 am AST was about 80 miles NNW of

Bermuda with max. winds near 60 mph **Sean has sped up and is moving to the NE at

22 mph. Pressure: 989 mb. This GOES-13 image from 9am EST shows the swirl of

clouds that is Sean.

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Incident Notification

Marc LadinMarc LadinChief Marketing Officer, Everbridge

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Incident Notification Solutions Address Incident Notification Solutions Address Common Communication ChallengesCommon Communication Challenges

• Reduce miscommunications and control rumors with

accurate, consistent messages

• Satisfy regulatory requirements with extensive and

complete reporting of

• Communicate quickly, easily, and efficiently with large

numbers of people in minutes,

not hours, making sure that the

lines of communication are open

• Receive feedback from your complete reporting of

communication attempts and

two-way acknowledgements from

recipients

• Deliver refined, prepared , timed messages to each pre-

designated audience group, by

scenario

• Receive feedback from your messages by using polling

capabilities

• Ensure two-way communications to get

feedback from message

receivers

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Everbridge AdvantagesEverbridge Advantages

Existing Notification Vendor’s Infrastructure:

• Static algorithms based on capacity limitations, not actual call volumes during a disaster

- Failure-prone from unexpected

volumes of message outputvolumes of message output

- No ability to burst to meet wide-scale

system usage

The Everbridge Advantage:

• Near-infinite scale achieved

- Multiple redundant VoiP & PSTN

providers

- Elastic capacity accommodates

highest volume of outbound calls in

the industry

Everbridge’s Elastic Infrastructure ModelEverbridge’s Elastic Infrastructure Model

• What is it?

• Elastic infrastructure integrates with multiple, redundant on-demand communications providers

• Provides near infinite scale, capacity, performance and capacity, performance and processing resources

• Dynamically looking into performance and proactively enhance the performance of notifications delivered

• Provable, measurable performance through Everbridge’s mass recipient emulator

Advanced Connectivity for a Mobile WorldAdvanced Connectivity for a Mobile World

• Communicate from anywhere,

under any circumstances or

conditions

• Low-bandwidth optimized to

ensure delivery in adverse

• Support for popular mobile

platforms (Apple iOS, Android, &

BlackBerry)

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ensure delivery in adverse

conditions

Q&AQ&ANote: Presentation slides are available on our blog at blog.everbridge.com

Use the Q&A function to submit your questions.

33

Contact InformationContact Information

Thank you for joining us today!

Dr. Robert Chandler

Robert.chandler@ucf.edu

Marc Ladin

Marc.ladin@everbridge.com

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