Turning crises into learning opportunities for institutions and communities

In an era of permanent discontinuity, emergencies and crises are no longer exceptions but have become the standard condition of public action. This is the implicit premise of a book born from the convergence of academic reflection and institutional experience. In La cultura della sicurezza (The Culture of Safety, EGEA, 2025, Preface by Titti Postiglione – in Italian), Franco Gabrielli and Elisabetta Trinchero argue that managing the exceptional is no longer enough. Instead, they call for a rewriting of the grammar of public action through generative leadership, a kind of leadership that not only reacts but transforms uncertainty into a driver of learning, cohesion, and innovation.

The book is structured into five chapters, each tackling a key issue: the distinction between crises and emergencies; building resilience as a relational process; the role of leadership in critical moments; the co-creation of value in participatory governance practices; and, finally, communication as a strategic lever to provide guidance and reassurance. Each chapter bridges theory and practice with the support of concrete case studies—from the L’Aquila earthquake to the Costa Concordia shipwreck, from the COVID-19 pandemic to national cybersecurity—and concludes with questions that foster operational discussion.

Written in an accessible style, the book explores the same themes addressed in the Crisis management in sanità e nella PA program, directed by Elisabetta Trinchero.

At the core of the authors’ thinking is the concept of public leadership as the weaving together of relationships and meaning. The leader is reimagined as an “architect of meaning,” able to inhabit uncertainty, exercise discernment, and foster widespread trust. Experience, even that of failure, becomes a foundation for vision and planning. Trust, rather than technical competence alone, emerges as the real relational capital in managing adverse events, with communication serving as the bridge between decision-making and legitimacy.

The book presents a vision of governance based on the active participation of citizens not as a consultative add-on, but as a structural tool for anticipating and managing uncertainty. In this framework, prevention becomes a collective process rooted in dialogue, listening, and co-design.

The volume is intended for public managers, civil servants, scholars, and professionals involved in strategic planning and risk management. It may also prove useful to those working in social innovation, participatory processes, and institutional communication. In a context marked by growing uncertainty, the book offers a compass for those seeking not merely to survive crises but to transform them into opportunities for systemic change.

• Publisher: EGEA
• Publication date: 2025
• ISBN/EAN: 9791222980409
• Pages: 172
• Format: Print, E-Pub, Digitabook

FRANCO GABRIELLI is Professor of Practice in Public Management at SDA Bocconi School of Management. He has served as Undersecretary of State to the Prime Minister, the delegated authority for national security. Over his career, he has held top positions in the fields of security, safety, and intelligence, including Director of the Central Anti-Terrorism Service, Director of SISDE and AISI, Prefect of Rome and L’Aquila, Deputy Commissioner for the earthquake emergency, Head of the Civil Protection Department, Chief of Police, and Director General of Public Security.

ELISABETTA TRINCHERO is Associate Professor of Public Management at SDA Bocconi School of Management, where she directs the program Crisis management in sanità e nella PA. Her work has been published in leading international journals. In 2016, she received the Best Full Paper Award on Public Management and Governance at the annual conference of the British Academy of Management. In 2024, she was awarded the Bocconi University Research Prize for her contribution to the Horizon Apollo 2028 project on the resilience of healthcare professionals in contexts of permacrisis.