Samenvatting

As soon as uncertainty rears its head, mistrust increases and people seek interpretation and clarity. Both reactions strongly appeal to the ability of public organisations to make contact precisely then, at the critical moments. That’s no mean feat. What makes establishing and perpetuating contact in a unique context such as the corona crisis so complex? That question is central to this contribution. The authors set up their consideration from the philosophy of appreciative communication. The complexity lies in several things, first of all, the necessary customisation. Management is communication and communication is people’s work and that makes it custom work. In a crisis, you cannot simply fall back on protocols, existing policies, etc. The situation requires constant reassessment, coordination and making choices. In addition, you have to make those choices in an ever-changing context that is characterised by factors such as the initial invisibility of the problem, the unprecedented scale, the uncertain course, the indivisibility of the government, and the unease with the government. In combination with a number of faltering communicative levers, various tensions arise that complicate the contact and thus the administrative task. The authors identify seven contact keys from the philosophy of appreciative communication that can be helpful in practice and conclude with a review of these ideas based on the communicative tasks identified by the Dutch Safety Board in its first evaluation. What takes place in a crisis is not an isolated communicative task that can be outsourced, but reveals a quality that is the guiding principle in everyone’s – managerial – actions.