Kiwis know what its like when life throws curveballs Weve had major quakes floods fires an eruption a terrorist attack and now a pandemi
Kiwis know what it’s like when life throws curveballs. We’ve had major quakes, floods, fires, an eruption, a terrorist attack and now a pandemic. In those situations, it’s the ability to collectively «get the smarts», to devise clever, adaptable responses, that really makes a difference. But the challenge now is to keep doing the smart thing as we continue to face risk from the ongoing pandemic. Our research echoes international studies in finding this requires leaders who can recognise what a crisis needs, frame the situation and then draw people together to act in new creative ways to deal with the circumstances. For a nation or group, adaptive resilience occurs when we are thrown out of our normal routines and have to find new ways of responding. It draws on our planned resilience, the resources and plans we’ve prepared in advance. Adaptive resilience then moves forward, with agile ways of responding, making decisions on the spot, and rapidly learning while a crisis is still happening. Pandemic reaction Studies of New Zealand’s response in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic display a masterclass of resilience and agility. Read more: If border restrictions increase to combat new COVID-19 strains, what rights do returning New Zealanders have? Leaders identified the needs and drew together the most relevant people from wherever they were, cutting across organisational boundaries. The teams focused on the pressing urgency of the crisis situation, bypassing standard bureaucratic processes and instead used new streamlined rapid responses, making decisions on incomplete information. They continuously sought out new information, leading to their realisation that official WHO guidance was inaccurate. From there they were brave enough to take a radically different approach.
