John Tipper is teaching decision making in a crisis

When given the chance to live in Tanzania as a uni student, John Tipper jumped at the opportunity. 

Not only did he discover a culture very different to his experiences growing up, but he also witnessed the compounding impacts of the Rwandan genocide at much closer quarters. The experience spurred John to move from his work supporting at-risk youth in New Zealand, to the international humanitarian sector. 

Now with 20 years’ experience working across the world—from South Sudan to Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, the Balkans, the Philippines and Indonesia—John is a crisis management expert. He’s also the author of two books on decision-making in disaster response, with the latest one just released. Billed as ‘choose your own adventure’-style books, they’ve been described by senior managers in the sector as the closest thing to working in a humanitarian response without having to be there. 

In this episode, John chats with Sally about how to make better decisions when under intense pressure, as well as the importance of training and cross-cultural communication when working in international crisis settings. 

Host: Sally Cunningham 

Guest: John Tipper 

Producer, engineer and composer: Jill Farrar  

You can find John’s books here. 

You can join our conversations on LinkedIn and Facebook.  

You can find out more about RedR Australia’s training courses here.