{"id":2719,"date":"2020-07-09T00:18:18","date_gmt":"2020-07-08T22:18:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/?p=2719"},"modified":"2023-11-01T15:49:28","modified_gmt":"2023-11-01T14:49:28","slug":"a-fierce-old-story-fighting-a-plague-with-common-decency-by-david-hurst","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/a-fierce-old-story-fighting-a-plague-with-common-decency-by-david-hurst\/","title":{"rendered":"A Fierce Old Story: Fighting a Plague with Common Decency <\/br>by David Hurst"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

David Hurst : Are analogies a faster solution than data based decision models?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rats gave the first clue: they staggered onto the streets, emitted a drop of blood from their noses and died in droves. As their bodies piled up, newspapers agitated, and citizens complained \u2013 why was the sanitation department not removing them? The rodents were collected and cremated and the citizens returned to their preoccupation with working hard and getting rich.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drucker Forum 2020<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>
\n

This article is one in the \u201cshape the debate\u201d series relating to the fully digital 12th Global Peter Drucker Forum<\/a><\/span>, under the theme \u201cLeadership Everywhere\u201d on October 28, 29 & 30, 2020.
#DruckerForum<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Too little, too late<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only a local doctor and his colleague recognized the pattern \u2013 a plague was beginning to sweep through the population. They tried to alert the authorities, but the government was reluctant to sound the alarm. Some action was taken, but the language was optimistic and politicians downplayed the seriousness of the problem. It took a jump in the death toll before serious measures were taken: the town was sealed, and a plague officially declared. The pestilence went on to ravage the city, as usual affecting the poor the most.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From allegory to analogy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 You may recognize this story outline from Albert Camus\u2019 The Plague <\/em>(1947). Anyone who has read his newly popular allegorical novel would know what to expect during a pandemic.   At the onset of the current coronavirus pandemic, when there was little data, experts conducted what can be thought of as an analogical inquiry, using the liberal arts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They consulted historians who had studied the flu pandemic of 1918 and other plagues from the past. They looked for comparable coronaviruses, like SARS and MERS. They began to compare experiences in different countries with similar circumstances. They searched for metaphors and analogies, even fiction like The Plague<\/em> for ideas that might be relevant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Action before data<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like so many entrepreneurs, it seems clear that those countries whose leaders took early decisions to quarantine their societies, based on wise judgement, had much better experiences. They were willing to commit to action, rather than wait for the inevitable delay for data and calculation. Only once data was available could they claim to be \u2018guided by science\u2019 and \u2018evidence-based\u2019. But because of the exponential growth of the virus, a few days delay could make a huge difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What really matters<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are only two or three human stories,\u201d wrote Willa Cather, \u201cand they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before.\u201d We are living through just such a story right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The universe may be made of matter, but we humans live in a world of value and significance, of \u2018what matters\u2019. Science deals with fact, narrative deals with truth. As screenwriter, Robert McKee<\/a> explains, \u201cWhat happens is fact, not truth. Truth is what we think about<\/em> what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leadership requires empathy and decency<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the power of analogical inquiry. The liberal arts help us learn from the experiences of others, to feel what they felt and to think what they thought. We call the quality \u2018empathy\u2019, the essence of what it means to be alive and the critical ingredient of effective leadership \u2013 a preoccupation with \u201cwhat matters\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is Camus\u2019 message: the \u201cplague\u201d, ill-fortune and injustice in its many forms, comes and goes but never completely disappears. It is the underlying human condition, to which our response must always be one of caring \u2013 \u2018common decency\u2019 \u201cThere is no question of heroism in all this,\u201d says Dr. Rieux, Camus\u2019 narrator, \u201cIt\u2019s a matter of common decency. That\u2019s an idea that makes people smile, but the only means of fighting a plague is \u2013 common decency<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About the Author:<\/strong>
David Hurst<\/strong> is a speaker, writer and management educator <\/em>(www.davidkhurst.com). His most recent book is The New Ecology of Leadership: Business Mastery in a Chaotic World (Columbia University Press 2012)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is one in the \u201cshape the debate\u201d <\/strong>series relating to the fully digital 12th Global Peter Drucker Forum<\/a>, under the theme \u201cLeadership Everywhere\u201d on October 28, 29 & 30, 2020.
<\/em>#DruckerForum<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The rats gave the first clue: they staggered onto the streets, emitted a drop of blood from their noses and died in droves. As their bodies piled up, newspapers agitated, and citizens complained \u2013 why was the sanitation department not removing them? The rodents were collected and cremated and the citizens returned to their preoccupation with working hard and getting rich.[\u2026]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2760,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":""},"categories":[277],"tags":[278,59],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2719"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2719"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2719\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4366,"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2719\/revisions\/4366"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}