Reopening our cities after COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has provided examples of both good and bad leadership. In the best moments we see honest, direct, and scientifically based statements and actions. In the worst we see spin, vague, and intuitive claims about the pandemic and ways to address it across the world.

In the days ahead, journalists, academics, politicians, and citizens will increasingly propose ways to move forward after the pandemic begins to subside. Richard Florida, author of The Rise of the Creative Class, and Steven Pedigo offer their insights on what must be done to reopen our cities in their Brookings article, "How our cities can reopen after the COVIC-19 pandemic." The proposals are not earth-shaking and that is part of their beauty - the recommendations are practical and actionable.

The priorities proposed by Florida and Pedigo are based on "detailed tracking of the current pandemic and historical accounts of previous ones, presenting some key measures to prepare our cities, economy, and workers for the next phase." Florida's earlier research has documented the fact that cities are the crossroads for talent and innovation. Therefore, protecting the unique aspects of urban centers such as universities and arts/cultural organizations, should be paramount in moving forward.

There are many urban centers throughout the world and one of the best is Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. The work of imagining the post-COVID-19 world is not being postponed until after the pandemic declines. The mayor of the city and governor of the state frequently mention the importance of protecting education and arts/cultural organizations and a COVID-19 Relief Fund has been established to protect and chart the course for the future.

Coronavirus - learning for the future

Conversations and debates are raging in the U.S.A. about the implications of the spread of COVID-19 (Coronavirus). There are those who predict the U.S.A. is in worse shape than many other countries, then there are the politicians who promise that preparations have been "perfect" and there's nothing to fear, and then there are the state and local leaders who attempt to provide a realistic (and alarming) picture while adopting the best strategies available to them and warning that they may not be enough. With today being March 22, the real impact will be known within 7-10 days although the work of responding to COVID-19 will be ongoing for many more weeks and perhaps months.

While the potential for significant suffering and damage is almost inevitable, the U.S.A. will come out of this with yet to be determined loss of life and decline in the economy. After this period of disaster response is over, many more of us will continue to explore "How did this happen?" and "How can we make sure it never happens again?"

I can't remember for sure but 15 to 20 years ago I became aware of Otto Scharmer and "U Theory." Scharmer joined with several other colleagues in creating the model (including Peter Senge) but Otto has remained one of the central figures advocating and applying the theory. I included "U Theory" as one of the primary elements of the "deeper leadership" model that I published in Deeper Learning in leadership: Helping colleges students find the potential within (Jossey Bass, 2007). Since that publication I've continued to believe that presence, flow, and oscillation are critical and ongoing developmental pathways for leadership learning.

One of the best responses I've seen to COVID-19 is Scharmer's "Eight Emerging Lessons: From Coronavirus to Climate Action." This blog post suggests that COVID-19 is a harbinger of things to come, and specifically in the area of climate change. He also analyzes what has occurred in different countries as COVID-19 has spread across the globe. Ultimately, Sharmer says, "The coronavirus situation provides an opportunity for all of us to pause, reset, and step up. COVID-19, like any disruption, essentially confronts each of us with a choice: (1) to freeze, turn away from others, only care for ourselves, or (2) to turn toward others to support and comfort those who need help." Ending this paragraph with "The more the world sinks into chaos, desperation, and confusion, the greater our responsibility to radiate presence, compassion, and grounded action confidence." These two responses are summarized in the Figure that is copied here:

Figure 2 (Scharmer, Two responses to disruption -  two social fields, 3-16-2020)

Scharmer predicts that far-right and isolationist populism will meet its match in COVID-19 and that it will fail. In its place the potential is for a renewed civic engagement to emerge that is grounded in science and real knowing about the world around us.

My bet is on Scharmer, rising collective consciousness and action. My commitment is to act in whatever way I can to support this critical change in our world.

Bremmer - Geopolitical recession and COVID-19

Ian Bremmer, President and Founder of EURASIA Group, offers insight on the rise of nationalism/isolationism and the geopolitical recession that emerged from it. The SAP produced video, "What's happening in the world," which features Bremmer is an eye-opening explanation of why intergovernmental cooperation has declined and why this fracture is likely making the COVID-19 pandemic more dangerous and why economies around the world are shuddering.

Having begun after WWII, globalization (the transfer of commodities, products, people, and currency around the globe) accelerated until the recent rise of populist/nationalist politicians in numerous countries, including the four largest democracies in the world - U.S.A., India, Indonesia, and Brazil. The result of this retreat from globalization moved the language of politics from win/win at the zenith of cooperation to the win/lose antagonism that is so often witnessed in current news.

There are few examples that more convincingly demonstrate the decline of governmental cooperation than the cross-border response to the pandemic of COVID-19. As the U.S.A. and China point fingers at each other, the virus spreads and more and more people die. In past cross-border crises, even countries that typically would not cooperate put their differences aside in the name of protecting humanity. So the finger pointing continues, perhaps the result of politicians covering for their own ineptitude, while gaps in knowledge and expertise widen. The Chinese likely knew of the dangers of COVID-19 yet demurred from sounding the alarm as its own citizens criticized politicians for mishandling the early stages of the spread of the virus. U.S.A. politicians likely had reason to worry but chose to deny the potential for COVID-19 to significantly take hold in North America.

Bremmer's point is that we now face a breakdown which results in a lack of transparency, less efficiency and cooperation, and disruption of the supply chain coherence on which we used to be able to rely. We didn't know COVID-19 could be this bad because China lacked trust in the U.S.A., because the U.S.A. wasn't listening, and because both countries were waiting to pounce on any evidence of misdeeds. The geopolitical recession has left citizens around the world bereft of leadership that could have more effectively prevented and certainly could have better managed the crisis that we now see.

Globalization never was the enemy as the interconnectedness of the world steadily and inevitably marched forward. What was and is the enemy is exploitive and isolationist politicians who portray themselves as champions for their own people (i.e. nationalism and xenophobia) who use the denigration of other politicians, cultural groups, and countries, to make themselves look better.

For those who are educators, and more specifically leadership educators, who might be reading this blog post, there is a dire need to engage with others to lift up, advocate, and support cooperation across all types of borders in leadership. As a shameless plug and hopefully not an "I told you so," Darbi Roberts and I edited a book titled Cultivating Students' Capacity for International Leadership that was written precisely to challenge the anti-globalists and isolationists. We had great authors who offer terrific insight into what we can do to get back to the interconnected world that strives for mutual benefit and resolution of common problems that we all face - not the least of which is COVID-19 at this moment.