Authors: Bert Brugghemans and Tim Van Achte
The authors construct an understanding of what crisis intelligence actually is in an academic manner, through definitions, process descriptions, and tools. The word intelligence has already been widely used in sectors other than crisis management, namely by the well-known CIA and in the military world.
Has the era of technical progress as a tool in crises been left behind? Is only human improvement expected in crisis information? Of course not. The world does not stand still, and technology has never developed as rapidly as in our times. Therefore, in crisis management too, there must be something like crisis intelligence, to enable crisis managers at all levels, from strategic to operational, to have a common and correct understanding of the facts that matter, to have a unified vision of the disaster.
For never before has so much data been available, not everything is relevant, and it is difficult to create clarity in the multitude of data. The trick is to extract relevant information from the data, process this data into knowledge, and be challenged to reflect on this knowledge. To make decisions. The right decisions.
To cut to the chase: in a manual counting about 60 pages, the authors talk about the four steps of the process that crisis intelligence encompasses:
Dynamic information needs assessment
Satisficing data collection
Content curation
Information design and dissemination
Crisis intelligence is something that is still developing. It needs further construction.