Learning Not Blame -- “Inquiry” Not “Inquisition.” We Can Work With This in Getting Back to Some Form of Normal.

What Can We Do With What We Are Learning from the Progress We Are Making?

We are beginning to see the signs that our public and private COVID-19 mitigation actions and sacrifices are beginning to drive the recovery outcomes we desire and need to begin the return to some form of normalcy. There is an evolving understanding at all levels of what is effective and what is not as effective as expected. 

As we begin to perhaps turn this corner, and the panic begins to subside slowly, we are also beginning to see the inevitable focus on blame for our current personal, regional, and national state of being at the same time that we are seeing the light at the end of this dark tunnel. As I watched the Sunday news programs play out across the cable and public networks, I was dismayed that there was an increasing focus on whom to blame for the current state rather than increasing the focus on what we are learning and now doing that is effective, and what is not effective, in getting to that light at the end of the pandemic tunnel.

Are We Focusing on the Right Things?

Across several of the various network talk shows, CNN, for example, I was struck by the structure and continuity of the questions across their morning line-up. How the time blocks worked to elicit “blame” answers rather than “information and learning” answers that we all need to understand to get through this physically and emotionally.

People, organizations, infrastructure are all taxed to the max in pandemic crisis resolution (e.g. PPE, testing, communication, logistics, cure, et al) and sorting out and then executing a measured, fact-based, and evidence-based recovery for our multidimensional and deeply linked economies. These efforts require time focused, extraordinary, efficient, and effective effort and investment in research and analysis using limited and taxed people, resources, and money.

Wouldn’t the scarcity in these resources be better focused on the extensive learning that is necessary to build the strategies and platforms necessary to address future pandemics?

Wouldn’t it be more effective for networks and pundits to focus on and elicit what we know and are learning, in the moment, and for the future, to avoid reliving the severity with which we are going through this crises now and to minimize the tragic outcomes that we have now? 

Are We All Working Together?

News outlets reported Friday that Congressman Adam Schiff introduced legislation to begin an investigation into administration handling of the pandemic. 

I believe this is sad.  

A better headline, for example, would be that Congress is focused on a commission or task force to aggregate all the learning and is providing grants to do the necessary analysis and solution building we need now and for the future. It may be there but did not rise to the top of the headline pile. 

We just appropriated trillions of dollars to address cross-national pandemic impacts. Is now the time to focus on the politicization of the pandemic and its tragic consequences? There will be plenty of time to address accountability later but more effectively from the perspective of what lessons we learned about forecasting, research, threat analysis, planning, mitigation, logistics, policy and the other knowledge areas that form part of what should be a transparent and multidimensional response to a future threat. The population can make accountability decisions at the ballot box based on the facts.

"Inquiry Not Inquisition - Learning Not Blame"

Again, this approach to "performing and learning" will address accountability but from a learning (lessons) perspective, not a blame perspective…from inquiry, not inquisition. 

Contrast this network “news” approach with NY Governor Cuomo’s daily COVID-19 progress briefings. His communication strategy and his leadership in building public trust for the actions that must and are being taken, represent a model of “performing and learning, is forward-looking and fact-based, transparent and clear, and within the “what’s next” reflect ongoing learning that we can use to build a future roadmap for the next pandemic.

Inquiry not inquisition... Learning not blame. We can work with this in getting back to some form of normal. 

People want to be in control, to blame—it feels good to vent— but it takes time and patience to learn and apply. This approach focuses scarce resources on “what’s next” and “why.”