COVID-19: The Importance of Learning
Learning from our failures is vital for a post-COVID future
COVID-19 is a complex entity. Over the past few months, several challenges have been experienced across health, social and economic sectors. In Matthew Syed’s ‘Black Box Thinking’, an emphasis on learning from the challenges (or failures) faced is encouraged. In doing so, the knowledge gained can be used to update existing models, strategies and behaviours. This is especially important, given that there have been over 35.5 million recorded cases of COVID-19 and over 1 million recorded deaths due to COVID-19 (WHO, 2020).
In an example referring to the aviation industry, Syed highlights a quote from Chesley Sullenberger, the pilot who famously landed US Airways Flight 1549, an Airbus A320, on the Hudson River in 2009:
“Everything we know in aviation, every rule in the rule book, every procedure we have, we know because someone somewhere died . . . We have purchased at great cost, lessons literally bought with blood that we have to preserve as institutional knowledge and pass on to succeeding generations. We cannot have the moral failure of forgetting these lessons and have to relearn them.” (Syed, 2015, p.44)
There are clear parallels to the COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, COVID-19 is still a cause for many…
