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Resilience Redefined: Essential Strategies for Emergency Communicators
From Bounce Back to Bounce Forward: How Adaptation, Innovation, and Equity Can Transform Emergency Communication
Dear reader,
In the first issue of the Wag The Dog Newsletter of 2025 (Happy New Year!), I look at the evolving concept of “resilience” and what it means for crisis, emergency, and risk communicators.
Using research, I explore how resilience has evolved from a "bounce back" mentality to a more dynamic framework that includes adaptation, innovation, and equity.
Learn why effective messaging must go beyond disaster relief to promote proactive, community-centred strategies that build long-term resilience.
This article highlights how communicators can bridge the gap between theory and practise to ensure that no one is left behind in disaster risk reduction and sustainable development.
Let me know what you think!
Table of Contents
Resilience Reimagined: A Playbook for Crisis Communicators
Resilience has become a buzzword in disaster risk management, and a study by Marie-Hélène Graveline and Daniel Germain1 offers important insights for communicators tasked with communicating crisis, emergency, and risk messages.
The concept of resilience has evolved far beyond the simple metaphor of "bouncing back" and represents a multidimensional framework that encompasses adaptation, transformation, and innovation.
For communicators, this study offers valuable lessons for managing crises, engaging communities, and fostering long-term preparedness.
The Evolution of Resilience: Beyond Elastic Recovery
In the past, resilience has been understood as the ability of systems to withstand and quickly recover from shocks, much like a rubber band that snaps back into shape.
This reactive model has given way to a more comprehensive view: resilience now includes the ability to "rebuild" after disasters through adaptation and change. For communicators, this shift emphasises the need to see crises as opportunities for growth and learning rather than mere recovery.
The study identifies three conceptual dimensions of resilience: "Bounce Back",” “Build Back Better” and “Bounce Forward”.
While “Bounce Back” focuses on the speed of recovery, “Bounce Forward” emphasises innovation and the anticipation of future uncertainties.
Lessons for crisis communicators
1. Understanding community-specific needs
Effective risk communication requires a nuanced understanding of the community context. Local actors are the first to respond in any disaster, and their adaptability, shaped by economic, social, and environmental factors, is critical.
Communicators need to tailor their messages to the particular vulnerabilities and strengths of the community and utilise local knowledge to increase engagement.
The study emphasises social capital as the cornerstone of community resilience. Networks, trust, and shared values enable communities to organise, support each other, and act effectively in crisis situations.
Communicators can reinforce this dynamic by fostering collaboration and maintaining transparency, strengthening the community’s sense of ownership of disaster preparedness.
3. Implement a proactive and iterative communication strategy
Risk communication must evolve with the concept of resilience itself. Messages should not only focus on immediate threats but also promote anticipation and innovation. Example:
Use storytelling to highlight past crises as learning moments.
Integrate calls to action that encourage future-proofing through innovative solutions such as community-based disaster risk reduction (CBDRR) initiatives.

4. Include equity and inclusion
The study warns of the "dark side of resilience"," where strategies unintentionally marginalise vulnerable groups. Building resilience must be equitable and ensure that no sub-group disproportionately bears the cost of risk.
Communicators must utilise inclusive communication strategies that take into account intersectional vulnerabilities (e.g. socio-economic status, gender, age).
From framework to practise: bridging communication and action
Graveline and Germain’s work draws attention to a critical gap: While resilience is widely celebrated, its operationalisation remains inconsistent. This is where communicators play an important role.
By conceptualising resilience as a dynamic process that encompasses prevention, preparation, response, and recovery, crisis communicators can guide communities through each phase of disaster risk management.
Key strategies include:
Convert complex resilience concepts into relatable narratives.
Encouraging public participation in resilience planning.
Regularly informing stakeholders about progress and learning opportunities.

The way forward: Integrating resilience into long-term planning
The future of risk communication lies in its focus on broader global challenges, including climate adaptation and sustainable development. The study emphasises that resilience must not only mitigate the impact of disasters but also address systemic issues such as inequality and environmental degradation.
For crisis communicators, this means taking a forward-looking approach that encourages innovation while anchoring strategies in the reality of the community.
As resilience becomes increasingly interdisciplinary, communicators must bridge the gap between science, policy, and local action.
This study reminds us that resilience is not just about surviving the storm but also about equipping ourselves for the time after the storm.
What do you think?
References and further reading.
1 Graveline, M.-H., & Germain, D. (2022). Disaster Risk Resilience: Conceptual Evolution, Key Issues, and Opportunities. International Journal of Disaster Risk Science, 13(3), 330–341. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13753-022-00419-0
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What I am reading/testing/checking out:
Research: The Prompt Report: A Systematic Survey of Prompting Techniques
Article: Using natural language processing to analyse text data in behavioural science
Tool: AI search optimisation and search research.
How To Article: How to use NotebookLM for personalized knowledge synthesis
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