The world needs more facilitators – AND improvisers!

13 July 2007 0 By Viv McWaters

I was checking out Dave Pollard’s prolific blog and came across this. He’s describing 12 of the most important areas of expert consensus about the next pandemic:

Resilience, practice and improvisation skills are more critical than good planning in a pandemic:
Redundant systems, people who have been through emergency situations or rehearsals, excellent, evidence-based decision-making skills, trained facilitators who can make effective ad hoc use of volunteers who have natural immunity, and people with the competence to adapt to quickly changing circumstances, have been shown to help in emergencies far more than having a detailed plan. Plans can’t predict what will happen in complex situations, so they’re only useful when scenarios play out ‘according to plan’, which they seldom do.

I may not be an ‘expert’ but I agree. Adaptability, willingness to try something, building and maintaining relationships, are improvising are proven approaches to dealing with catastrophic (and even minor) change.