Leading in a Contested Information Environment: A One-Day DISARM Program on Hybrid Threat, Crisis Decision-Making, and Institutional Resilience

About the Program

In an environment shaped by cyber incidents, synthetic media, foreign interference, reputational shocks, and declining trust, senior leaders are increasingly asked to make high-consequence decisions before the facts are complete. Data shows that organizations and leaders must prepare for today’s cyber threats: 

• 62% of organizations experienced at least one deepfake attack in the last 12 months involving social engineering or exploited automated processes (Gartner survey of 302 cybersecurity leaders, March–May 2025). 
• By 2026, 30% of enterprises will consider identity verification and authentication solutions unreliable in isolation due to AI-generated deepfakes (Gartner, February 2024).  
• By 2027, 50% of enterprises will adopt products, services, or features specifically for disinformation-security use cases, up from less than 5% today (Gartner, March 2025). 

The nature of conflict and strategic competition is changing. Governments, businesses and civil-society organizations are increasingly exposed to manipulated information, influence operations and other forms of hybrid pressure. Leaders need practical tools and a common language to understand these threats, assess their significance, and coordinate coherent and proportionate responses across organizational and sectoral boundaries. The DISARM Framework provides a shared language and structure for analyzing influence operations and connecting analysis to defensive action. It is increasingly used by governments, civil-society organizations and private sector institutions, researchers and technology partners to develop shared situational awareness and support coordinated responses. 

In collaboration with the DISARM Foundation, Telfer Executive Programs is pleased to offer Leading in a Contested Information Environment, a one-day, in-person program that helps leaders learn to make coherent, proportionate, and accountable decisions under narrative and hybrid pressure. Participants will learn practical concepts from the DISARM Framework*, apply them to a realistic case-based scenario, and leave the program with a clearer sense of how to strengthen decision thresholds, how to collaborate across domains and teams, apply crisis communications methods, and build institutional resilience. 

*Developed and maintained by the DISARM Foundation, the DISARM Framework provides a common language and structure for defenders to share data and analysis, and coordinate whole of society responses to malign influence operations.  The DISARM Framework is open-source and can be used by anyone to document influence operations.  

Who Should Attend?

This program is designed for senior leaders and senior functional leads who must coordinate an institutional response when information is contested, fast-moving, and incomplete. It is relevant across sectors, including:  

• Federal, provincial, and municipal government leaders: Assistant Deputy Ministers, Directors General, city managers, CAOs, and leads in strategic communications, policy, security, legal, emergency management, and digital services;  
• Financial sector leaders: risk, operational resilience, fraud, compliance, communications, and public affairs executives;  
• Health system leaders: hospital executives and leads in emergency preparedness, communications, privacy, and patient safety;  
• Private sector and critical infrastructure executives: senior leaders in energy, telecommunications, transportation, technology, and professional services; and  
• Civil society, academic, and foundation leaders: heads of organizations exposed to polarization, foreign interference, or community trust risks.  

The program is most valuable for leaders with cross-functional coordination responsibility, rather than those in technical or communications-only roles.

What You Will Learn

By attending this program, participants will:  

• Recognize how cyber incidents, synthetic media, foreign interference, reputational disruption, and trust erosion reinforce one another;  
• Identify where legal, policy, cyber, intelligence, operations, communications, and executive teams operate from different assumptions and thresholds;  
• Distinguish observable facts, analytic judgments, confidence levels, and decision thresholds for proportionate action;  
• Apply the DISARM Framework as a shared language for describing influence behaviours and mapping mitigation, communication, resilience, and accountability options; and  
• Design and document accountable responses when evidence is partial, disputed, sensitive, or not publicly releasable. 

Program Takeaways

Participants will leave the program equipped with:  

• A structured decision method for leading under ambiguity that can be carried directly back into their own organizations;  
• A practical readiness checklist covering gaps in authorities, workflow, documentation, communications, escalation, and partner coordination;  
• A shared vocabulary for cross-functional coordination during contested information incidents;  
• Hands-on experience pressure-testing decisions through a realistic crisis scenario; and  
• A network of senior leaders from across sectors and shared approaches to real-world challenges. 

Program Facilitators

Jennifer Irish

Program Co-Director

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Jennifer Irish

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Program Co-Director

Jennifer Irish is an accomplished former Canadian diplomat and senior international and national security executive, currently serving as a Program Director at Telfer Executive Programs, where she leads its security and intelligence programming. She is the Founding Director of uOttawa’s Information Integrity Lab, advancing the understanding, analysis and mitigation of disinformation, misinformation and foreign influence operations. 

Over a distinguished 36-year career in Canada’s foreign service and security community, Ms. Irish served in five international postings and held senior roles addressing national and international security, foreign affairs, humanitarian crises, and climate change. She further honed her expertise leading intelligence assessment and geostrategic analysis as Director General of the Integrated Threat Assessment Centre and as Director of Operations at the Intelligence Assessment Secretariat in the Privy Council Office, providing strategic intelligence to senior decision-makers.

She brings that extensive experience to her training, facilitation, and consulting — helping organizations strengthen resilience, sharpen risk and crisis communications, and build effective alliances in a complex and contested information and geostrategic environment.

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