I’m writing on a pretty momentous day. This week, the UK registered over 100,000 deaths due to Coronavirus. I’m listening to the lunchtime talk show and just heard an interesting piece in response to the question: was the UK prepared for such a pandemic. I’ve watched through a leadership lens as the world has struggled to navigate this past year. Today I heard a key insight from a Senior UK Government Minister. He said the UK and USA had invested heavily in pandemic response – BUT they were prepared for a flu pandemic and not a SARS type pandemic. He admitted they had been running the assumption that because they had never experienced a SARS type episode, they didn’t think to prepare for it. If only, I thought, someone had asked the WHAT IF? question. I wonder whether the story of these times would be different — and whether many lives might have been saved? Of course I can’t say for sure. However, in leadership terms, it does highlight the challenge of questioning the assumptions from the past on which you base your actions.
Your turn: What questions are you not asking? Are you using What If thinking? What assumptions are you relying on that may not serve your possible future? What future scenarios have you yet to envision? #Lead Boldly
