By Mary Elizabeth Lonergan
In March, the National Emergency Management Association (NEMA), a CSG affiliated organization, is hosting an Emergency Management Virtual Learning Lab series exploring topics selected by NEMA members to address timely issues in emergency management and to address lessons learned over the past year. To view the recordings of these sessions, visit the NEMA YouTube Channel.
The National Emergency Management Association (NEMA) continued its Virtual Learning Lab with a deep dive into psychological factors that occur during an emergency situation.
The session was hosted by Guidehouse, a worldwide consulting firm and thought leader in resilience and emergency management. The lab discussed behavioral science as it related to communications during times of resilience.
Alyx Colgan, senior consultant with Guidehouse spoke about the number of decisions individuals make every day.
“In an average day, each of us makes 35 thousand decisions,” she said. “The vast majority of those decisions happen at the subconscious level.”
The message of the day was learning to bring awareness to subconscious thoughts.
“How do we learn to speak to the subconscious to ensure our critical messages about resilience and preparedness make it to the conscious level,” said Colgan.
Will Leach, CEO of The Mindstate Group, a behavioral research, and communications consultancy, specializes in understanding nonconscious factors in human behavior using those insights to help clients create compelling marketing.
He broke down the decision-making process by explaining goal theory, or a person’s target for behaviors.
“There are functional goals as well as higher order goals,” he said. “The more important goals that people have are aspirational goals.”
Leach said after understanding a person’s goals, understanding their motivations using nine core motivators.
Leach highlighted empowerment, security, and autonomy as a few of the core motivators that create engagement.
“You need to communicate to these needs and desires,” he said. “When I message to a mindstate, you are going to have much more effective communication and experiences,” he said.
COVID-19 caused these motivations to spiral.
“Collectively, because of COVID-19, regardless of what industry you are in, their were three spikes in overall peoples goals,” he said. “Right now we know, collectively, people desire greater safety, greater control and greater release across all industries.”
Leach was not only able to explain the behavioral and psychological impacts of COVID-10, but also provided insight on how to message and communicate to potential clients and communities during the pandemic.
“You need to start messaging to peoples aspirations,” he said. “The way to keep people focused is to remind them that you can help them reach their aspirations.”
Leach said collaboration was a way to communicate with clients or constituents that they will be safe.
“If someone desires security, they are hoping that you are working with others and collectively, you are using the best minds in the industry to come up with a solution that is going to protect them,” he said.
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The NEMA Virtual Learning Labs will continue every Tuesday and Thursday until March 25.
To register for upcoming sessions, visit: nemaweb.org/index.php/forums-meetings/nema-webinar-series-march-2021
To view recordings of past events, visit the NEMA YouTube channel: youtube.com/user/NEMAforyou.