A group recently gathered at The Boathouse to play the IFF World Game.  The game is based on a ‘world model’ with 12 interconnecting nodes.  We used the opportunity to explore how a potential pandemic might unfold in today’s complex, interconnected global context.

Thinking through the management of a pandemic crisis in this way prompted interesting observations and insights about the nature of resilience and the way we tend to respond to ‘emergencies’ with a relatively short term mindset.

At the same time other more specific insights emerged about how a pandemic might play out over time and perspectives that may be missing or underplayed in current contingency planning:

Managing Worldview:  the heart of the governance challenge in a pandemic is to shape how the public interpret the unfolding crisis.  This is not easy, striking a balance between reassurance to avoid panic and engendering a complacent, false sense of security.  Given that the pandemic is likely to strike in waves, with the first probably dying out with relatively little impact at least in northern climes, maintaining trust and attentiveness for public messaging over time will be a challenge.  (more…)