What are your best advice for communication in a high risk context

Hi Lise,

Yes, some people do not respect confinement due mentioned points and there are also other points.

The percentage is varies against to those points in every developing country.

Also in my country I see most of people does not care about confinement due to other reasons as follows:-
1- Livelihood is becoming very hard and some people working
and getting wages on daily bases.
2- Merchants begin to raise up the price of commodities including
sterilizers and masks (even if there are Health organizations).
3- Careless from all public sectors ( even they watching /hearing News and following up the social media).

... e.t.c.

High context Communication ,top-down deciding is one of the most culture dimensions is good for developing countries.
Today the dead people in Spain reach to 5600 as I heard from Sky-news.

BR,

Thanks a lot, Sergio. Everything you write makes perfectly sense and it gives me a better idea of where to start (list of items, research for airplane crashes, etc.)

By "we are not ready," it means the entire health system in Iraq cannot take care of all the sick people. That means the equipment and medicine are insufficient; and infrastructures cannot welcome a thousands of potential victims of a virus.

Iraq is a very fascinating and unique country, and it has its fair load of challenges. I believe communication is crucial, not only to make people safer but also to prevent future issues. As the authorities are not transparent, people make up their own (irrational) explanations that may nurture present and future conflicts.

On which previous pandemics did you work?

Hi Lise,

I have no experience in such conditions, but I do see a recognizable pattern of behavior. Consider the following:

Deep-rooted cognitive biases are unlikely to be broken through traditional communications; in fact, communications that directly address the subject-matter by an authority are more likely to confirm the bias than address it. This occurs due to one not being able to distinguish between “that which they feel” and “that which they know.” In other words, there is no cognitive awareness that these two dimensions of knowledge exist; therefore, “what you feel is what you know.” If there is truth to the above, then culturally-specific analogies that address these two dimensions should be incorporated into the overall “communication strategy.”

In general, I’m speaking about a “mindfulness campaign,” not stated as such, but addressing elements of the practice. Without cognitive awareness of this dimension of life and knowledge, we are unlikely to break these cognitive biases that are affecting our health and well-being.

Hi George,

Thank you very much for explaining this pattern. I believe this is very important to consider it in a communication plan.

Have you seen this pattern in other conditions than this one? Then how did it impact your project and how did you deal with it?

Although mindfulness has a lot of value in projects, I was speaking to the “project of life,” meaning the human condition. Whether it be cognitive biases and/or the effects of sustained anxiety in one’s life, there are times when we have difficulty “being in the present moment.” That is to say, that we are aware of our feelings and emotions in the here and now, not looking to the past or to the future.

Empathetically speaking, I can’t imagine the degree of anxiety that one normally has in Iraq when it comes to stability and safety. When you add COVID-19 on top of that, it almost seems emotionally insurmountable. That said, connecting at an empathetic level is about the only way to reach someone who is in a “fight or flight” state of being, which is likely the reality for many in Iraq. When in this state, the chemical responses in the body push one towards “immediate survival responses,” and not towards reasoned thought about the “present moment.”

So, I’m suggesting that communications have a 3-prong approach:

- Empathetic alignment (i.e., align yourself to their condition)
- Mindfulness directives (i.e., give some tooling for “being in the present moment”)
- Then provide messaging regarding COVID-19

Regards,

George

Hi Lise,

If we explore the culture of Iraq through the lens of the Hofstede 6-D Model©, we can get a good overview of the deep drivers of its culture relative to other world cultures.

POWER DISTANCE
Iraq scores high on this dimension (score of 95) which means that people accept a hierarchical order in which everybody has a place and which needs no further justification.

Action: This is why your message has to come from a very senior person.

INDIVIDUALISM
Iraq, with a score of 30 is considered a collectivist society. This is manifest in a close long-term commitment to the member ‘group’, be that a family, extended family, or extended relationships. Loyalty in a collectivist culture is paramount, and over-rides most other societal rules and regulations.

Action: The society fosters strong relationships where everyone takes responsibility for fellow members of their group. Highlight that they have to take responsibility for their family, parents, brothers and sisters, children, spouse.

MASCULINITY
Iraq scores 70 on this dimension and is thus a Masculine society. In Masculine countries people “live in order to work”, managers are expected to be decisive and assertive, the emphasis is on equity, competition and performance and conflicts are resolved by fighting them out.

Action: The message has to come from a senior male leader.

UNCERTAINTY AVOIDANCE
Iraq scores 85 on this dimension and thus has a high preference for avoiding uncertainty.

Action: That is the reason the attend funerals and maintain rigid codes of belief and behavior and are intolerant of unorthodox behavior and ideas. You have to show them real examples that COVID-19 infected 607,965 people all around the word and killed 28,125 people already. In Iraq Confirmed: 458 Deaths: 40 Recovered: 122 Active: 296

Source: https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/op...423467b48e9ecf6

LONG TERM ORIENTATION
Iraq’s low score of 25 reveals that it has a normative culture. People in such societies have a strong concern with establishing the absolute Truth; they are normative in their thinking.

Action: They exhibit great respect for traditions, a relatively small propensity to save for the future, and a focus on achieving quick results. That is why it is so difficult to convince them. A senior male leader has to convince people that it is part of the tradition that people care each other.

INDULGENCE
The very low score of 17 in this dimensions means that Iraqi society is one of Restraint. Societies with a low score in this dimension have a tendency to cynicism and pessimism. Also, in contrast to Indulgent societies, Restrained societies do not put much emphasis on leisure time and control the gratification of their desires.

Action: People with this orientation have the perception that their actions are Restrained by social norms and feel that indulging themselves is somewhat wrong.

COUNTRY COMPARISON: https://www.hofstede-insights.com/country-...turkey,the-usa/

Yes, you are making a wrong reading..jejeje (sorry, I can not say that, just a bad joke). Fist thing to understand on yout comment: how business layer is defined? Take a look to the definition and you will find the answer because the business layer is critical. In that layer you will find shared values, style, strategy, structure, systems (not software only), staff policies, for example All the other layers must be aligened and created based on business layer because business layer interacts with the environment. So, the environment has changed then the whole enterprise architecture must be ready for that. Organization started projects to create solutions for business problems that happend when need of change happend due to a change into the environment. @Lise has to take into accout this. What she is asking for is about to create a solucion. Perhaps this helps to @Lise: https://www.projectmanagement.com/blog-pos...-right-solution
That´s what helped my current organization when we need to create the same than @Lise is asking for. And do not forget Shannon´s theory or communication.

Hi Lise,

If we explore the culture of Iraq through the lens of the Hofstede 6-D Model©, we can get a good overview of the deep drivers of its culture relative to other world cultures.

POWER DISTANCE
Iraq scores high on this dimension (score of 95) which means that people accept a hierarchical order in which everybody has a place and which needs no further justification.

Action: This is why your message has to come from a very senior person.

INDIVIDUALISM
Iraq, with a score of 30 is considered a collectivist society. This is manifest in a close long-term commitment to the member ‘group’, be that a family, extended family, or extended relationships. Loyalty in a collectivist culture is paramount, and over-rides most other societal rules and regulations.

Action: The society fosters strong relationships where everyone takes responsibility for fellow members of their group. Highlight that they have to take responsibility for their family, parents, brothers and sisters, children, spouse.

MASCULINITY
Iraq scores 70 on this dimension and is thus a Masculine society. In Masculine countries people “live in order to work”, managers are expected to be decisive and assertive, the emphasis is on equity, competition and performance and conflicts are resolved by fighting them out.

Action: The message has to come from a senior male leader.

UNCERTAINTY AVOIDANCE
Iraq scores 85 on this dimension and thus has a high preference for avoiding uncertainty.

Action: That is the reason the attend funerals and maintain rigid codes of belief and behavior and are intolerant of unorthodox behavior and ideas. You have to show them real examples that COVID-19 infected 607,965 people all around the word and killed 28,125 people already. In Iraq Confirmed: 458 Deaths: 40 Recovered: 122 Active: 296

Source: https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/op...423467b48e9ecf6

LONG TERM ORIENTATION
Iraq’s low score of 25 reveals that it has a normative culture. People in such societies have a strong concern with establishing the absolute Truth; they are normative in their thinking.

Action: They exhibit great respect for traditions, a relatively small propensity to save for the future, and a focus on achieving quick results. That is why it is so difficult to convince them. A senior male leader has to convince people that it is part of the tradition that people care each other.

INDULGENCE
The very low score of 17 in this dimensions means that Iraqi society is one of Restraint. Societies with a low score in this dimension have a tendency to cynicism and pessimism. Also, in contrast to Indulgent societies, Restrained societies do not put much emphasis on leisure time and control the gratification of their desires.

Action: People with this orientation have the perception that their actions are Restrained by social norms and feel that indulging themselves is somewhat wrong.

COUNTRY COMPARISON: https://www.hofstede-insights.com/country-...turkey,the-usa/