cutting through the clutter: successful messaging in an age of information overload
TRANSCRIPT
Cutting Through the Clutter: Successful Messaging in an Age of Information
Overload
Dr. 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
• What factors “drown out” critical messages
• How to create effective message structure and content
• How to overcome message fatigue
AgendaAgenda
• How to overcome message fatigue
Part 2: Q&A
3
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Bracing for the 2010
Hurricane SeasonCutting Through the Clutter
Successful Messaging in an
Age of Information Overload
Dr. Robert ChandlerUniversity of Central Florida
(2 March 2012) New York, NY [USA]
A well-intentioned Southwest Airlines pilot made an announcement wishing an air traffic controller's mom (who was a passenger aboard the flight) a happy birthday. Unfortunately, edgy passengers misheard "mom on board" as "bomb on board," causing panic. A Southwest
Miscommunication at workMiscommunication at work
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"mom on board" as "bomb on board," causing panic. A Southwest spokesperson told WCBS 880 that the pilot clarified his announcement, but the passengers were not placated, and two of them complained to security officials after landing.
• Term popularized by Alvin Toffler
• Refers to the difficulty a person can have
understanding an issue and making decisions that
can be caused by the presence of too much
information
"Information overload" "Information overload"
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information
• First mentioned in a
1964 book by Bertram
Gross, The Managing
of Organizations
• Toffler's explanation of it presents information
overload as the Information Age's version of sensory
overload, a term that had been introduced in the
1950s
• "Information overload" and concept precede the
"Information overload" "Information overload"
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• "Information overload" and concept precede the
Internet and can be viewed from an information
sciences perspective or viewed as a
psychology phenomenon
• Information Overload is when you are trying to deal
with more information than you are able to process to
make sensible decisions
• It is now commonplace to be getting too many e-mails,
reports and incoming messages to deal with them
Age of spamAge of spam
8
reports and incoming messages to deal with them
effectively.
• Vital information – during critical incidents may simply
become lost in the tsunami of information – filtered out,
ignored, or just adding to the sheer volume of
information noise that prevents effective decision
making at peak periods
Age of spamAge of spam
9
• The root of the problem is that, although information
input, various communication modalities,
interconnection to data sources, computer processing
and memory is increasing all the time, the humans
that must use all of this information are not getting any
Age of spamAge of spam
10
faster
• Human brains are still learning to deal with the juxtaposition of
millions of years of sensory input vs thousands of years of
reading/writing vs. recent high speed electronic information
flow
• How do we counteract this learning curve?
How to better process informationHow to better process information
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• Spending less time on gaining information that is nice to know and more
time on things that we need to know now.
• Focusing on quality of information, rather than quantity.
• Learning how to create better information.
• Single-tasking, and keeping the mind focused on one issue at a time.
• Spending time disconnected from interruptions (e.g. switch off e-mail,
telephones, Web, etc.) so you can fully concentrate for a significant
period of time on using the information you have to make a quality
decision.
Determine what you should
communicate by assessing how people
understand, interpret, and act on
messages.
How information is processed during a crisisHow information is processed during a crisis
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• Cognitive processing capabilities
• Perceived risk
• Information loading theory
• Attitude-behavioral consistency theory
• Balance theory
Factors affecting information Factors affecting information processingprocessing
13
• Balance theory
• Uncertainty reduction theory
• Situation awareness
• Selective attention
• Reaction time
• Semantic memory
Diminished Cognitive CapacitiesDiminished Cognitive Capacities
During emergencies and
disasters, decisions must
typically be made
unexpectedly with little
advance notice, high advance notice, high
stress/distress context,
little time for thorough
deliberation, and often
with high (life and death)
negative consequence
risks
• Cognitive processing involves thinking, reasoning,
remembering, imagining, or learning
• Cognitive abilities typically decrease as stress
increases
• People possess different cognitive abilities and
CognitiveCognitive--processing capabilitiesprocessing capabilities
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• People possess different cognitive abilities and
limitations, which in turn affects decision-making
capabilities in a crisis
• Limits what people notice and remember during
a crisis
• Conscious vs. unconscious
Selective attentionSelective attention
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Factors that affect reaction time include:
• Recognition, choice, number of stimuli, fatigue,
reasoning, remembering, imagining, or learning
Reaction timeReaction time
17
• Concept-based knowledge unrelated to specific
experiences, e.g. learning ABCs
• Semantic memory is memory of words, facts, and
ideas
• People’s semantic memories are usually assumed
Semantic Semantic memorymemory
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• People’s semantic memories are usually assumed
to be similar (in contrast to episodic memory)
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
• Rules and norms
• Interruptions
• 47% of communication
events classified as
interruptions
• Asynchronous and synchronous
• Information seeking
• Active to passive
• Message variables
Communication Communication patternspatterns
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interruptions
• Simultaneous
communication
interaction
• Message variables
• Grammar
• Syntax
• Honesty is the best policy.
• Honest and frank disclosure of risk allows constituents
to make informed decisions to protect themselves.
• Transparency can help eliminate panic.
• Messages must be consistent and coordinated.
Preventing miscommunicationPreventing miscommunication
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• Messages must be consistent and coordinated.
• Coordinating messages and the release of information
can help slow the emergence of contradictions,
inconsistencies, and confusion.
Communicating in highCommunicating in high--stress stress emergency situations emergency situations
Truth #1: Stress negatively affects cognitive process
• Information–loading reductions (lower cognitive limits on
how much or how many things we can think about)
• Attitude–behavioral consistency interaction and
uncertainty anxiety effectsuncertainty anxiety effects
� Use optimal Loading� Use optimal redundancy� More than information – your communication should address
uncertainty-anxiety
A poorly constructed message can contribute to misunderstanding,
unrealistic expectations, and/or confusion
Robert C. Chandler, Ph.D. © 2010
Truth #2: Stress negatively affects comprehension Simplify
the message (lower reading level)
� Reduce number of message points to
maximum of 3 points
Communicating in highCommunicating in high--stress stress emergency situations emergency situations
� Use short sentences
� Use numbers carefully
� Use pictures or graphics
Robert C. Chandler, Ph.D. © 2010
Truth #3: Selective attention (including attention
blindness/deafness); reaction time changes (in most cases
these changes result in slowed reaction times) will change
the way that your audience receives, perceives, and thinks
about the message.
Communicating in highCommunicating in high--stress stress emergency situations emergency situations
Robert C. Chandler, Ph.D. © 2010
Truth #4: You can’t forget varied demographics
� Customize the message – based on geographic location, languages
and economic resources
� Messages should be written in the recipient's first language (L1)
Communicating in highCommunicating in high--stress stress emergency situations emergency situations
� Messages must be coordinated and consistent across all levels
Robert C. Chandler, Ph.D. © 2010
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
Contact InformationContact Information
Thank you for joining us today!
Dr. Robert [email protected]
Marc Ladin
The third annual International Crisis and Risk Communication Conference is being hosted by the Nicholson School of Communication at UCF on March 4-6, 2013. Plan now to attend this exceptional event. For more information please visit: http://icrcommunication.com/
Marc [email protected] Everbridge Resources
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