Sunday 29 April 2012

Intelligent Communication Changes Behaviour

We're working on a fantastic new series for one of our customers which involves creative use of slow motion shooting.  It started me thinking about an amazing commercial I'd seen and loved about a year ago.

Created to raise awareness of the importance of wearing a seatbelt, "Embrace Life" was deliberately developed to provide a counter-point to the hard-hitting 'shock and awe' advertising so common to road safety.  The general public had been beaten over the head with this for years, in fact since it became law. And yet there were still people chancing it, apparently.  The problem was, the shock "blood & guts" approach made us all somewhat desensitised.  Like the X-rays of spotty lungs we saw on posters for for anti-smoking lobby.  It seemed to have nothing to do with us.

An so it is with information security awareness and compliance.

Nobody has thought about the motivators for this - ask yourself as a user "why do I need to do this?" Few people are SO malicious that they do it out of some kind of devilment. Most simply do not see the need. If the need is as real as we say, then it's down to communication and education. As it is, usually only a piffling amount of budget is spent on this as a percentage of overall risk management / compliance / information security spend. So why are we surprised at the employees lack of respect for the "rules".

Also - we might try treating employees like grown-ups...instead of pre-schoolers?

We've managed to get people to recycle their waste, put on seatbelts, and seriously think about changing their habits be it drink-driving, eating fatty foods, or smoking. In every case, it was great communications that did the trick. Just like the one I mentioned above.

I believe, passionately, that creativity can solve these kinds of problems. 
In fact we've built our business on this simple truth.


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