This issue

– agile governing
– the road to recovery from COVID-19
– LGBTIQ+ communities and COVID-19 
– wealth of cities
– innovative cultures
Plus what I'm reading.

Research brief: Agile - a new way of governing 

A forthcoming paper in Public Administration Review looks at agile as a concept and how it can benefit public managers. It explores the challenges managers face when they are expected to make their organisations more flexible and responsive. Read our brief on the paper.

ANZSOG’s Leading in a crisis series continues to produce new material on the public management issues raised by COVID-19. The most recent paper looks at how countries can most effectively learn from each other during a global crisis.

You can additionally register for a free Leading in a crisis webinar, Navigating leadership during the COVID-19 crisis, happening 12 May 2020. 

The road to recovery from COVID-19 

An expert taskforce of more than 100 researchers from the Group of Eight Universities has presented the Federal Government with a national COVID-19 Roadmap to Recovery report aimed at guiding Australia out of the pandemic crisis.  

An ethical framework informs the report, with principles including: 

• a commitment to democratic accountability and the protection of civil liberties 

• equal access to healthcare and a social safety for all members of the community 

• the economic cost must be shared fairly across the whole community. 

Two options proposed and one rejected 

1. Two options are presented for consideration: Elimination of community transmission means maintaining lockdown measures beyond mid-May to have fewer total infections, hospitalisations and deaths.  

2. Controlled adaptation involves controlling the spread of the virus while making sure society adapts to living with ongoing infections. It allows restrictions to be lifted as early as mid-May but may mean a slightly higher number of cases, hospitalisations and deaths. 

The choices are not binary but along a continuum. They will both require some restrictions, large scale testing, tracing and isolation systems. 

A herd immunity approach was rejected. This would let the epidemic run through the population with around 15 million Australians becoming infected. The disruption of healthcare, the lives lost and the inequalities of impact did not make this a viable option. 

How the report was prepared  

Experts were recruited from across the Go8 universities in epidemiology, statistical modelling, infectious diseases, public and mental health, psychology, economics, political science, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander expertise. They collaborated via Melbourne University’s SWARM cloud platform.  SWARM uses high-level structured analytical techniques to support collaborative online reasoning. 

A report from Equality Australia discusses the impacts of COVID-19 on Australian LGBTIQ+ communities and building a strong response. 

LGBTIQ+ people face many of the same COVID-19-related issues which impact on all Australians including health issues, economic hardship and social isolation.  However, some LGBTIQ+ people will experience the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis in more acute ways, because of circumstances associated with their LGBTIQ+ status and the discrimination they face.   

These include:  

• health disparities which put some LGBTIQ+ people at greater risk of severe health consequences from contracting COVID-19 

• mental health disparities, particularly in rates of depression and suicide. These place LGBTIQ+ people at significant risk when faced with physical distancing measures and greater isolation coupled with a sudden loss of community support and cultural spaces 

• historical and continuing experiences of discrimination, which make accessing inclusive healthcare, services and information more challenging. LGBTIQ+ organisations also need to cope with increased demand for their services. 

This combination of impacts and consequences may be further compounded for those with additional needs based on other attributes, such as disability or age.   

The report proposes a series of recommendations including: 

• information and services are inclusive and accessible to LGBTIQ+ people 

• safeguards and alternatives are available for LGBTIQ+ people living in vulnerable situations, such as those who are homeless, in aged care facilities and supported accommodation 

• collecting data on LGBTIQ+ people in service delivery and health and wellbeing metrics so that the impacts of COVID-19 are properly counted.   

The hidden wealth of cities 

A new World Bank report discusses the creation and management of successful public spaces. Between 1960 and 2017, the world’s urban population quadrupled from about 1 billion to more than 4 billion people. Today, 55% of the world’s population live in cities and this figure will increase to about 66% by 2050. 

Cities that invest in the creation of human-centred, environmentally sustainable, economically vibrant and socially inclusive places perform better.

They implement smart strategies across their public space asset life cycles to yield returns on investment exceeding monetary costs. The strategies strengthen liveability, resilience and competitiveness. 

Using a case study approach, the report identifies that successful public spaces accommodate multiple uses, and are well managed and maintained throughout their life cycles. Often, these public spaces involve public and private collaboration during the process of their creation and management. 

Case studies include Beijing, Colombo, Lima, Brooklyn, Seoul and Singapore. 

The hard truth about innovative cultures 

This Harvard Business Review article is the winner of the McKinsey award for best 2019 HBR article. While innovative cultures in the private sector are seen as desirable, the article explores why they are hard to create and sustain, with lessons for those trying to build innovative cultures in the public sector. 

It argues innovative cultures are misunderstood and paradoxical. A tolerance for failure requires an intolerance for incompetence. A willingness to experiment requires rigorous discipline. Collaboration must be balanced with individual accountability.

Unless the tensions created by this paradox are carefully managed, attempts to create an innovative culture will fail. 

Building and sustaining an innovative culture is difficult for three reasons:  

1. As innovative cultures require a combination of seemingly contradictory behaviours, they risk creating confusion. 
2. While certain behaviours needed for innovative cultures are easy to embrace, others will be less palatable. 
3. Innovative cultures are systems of interdependent behaviours and they cannot be implemented in a piecemeal way. 

1. To understand the psychological toll of quarantine, watch space films 

According to an article in The Economist, the movies which will resonate most during the coronavirus pandemic are the ones set in space. In these films, the characters cannot pop outside for a walk nor can they meet anyone new. There is nothing beyond their narrow quarters except silent, often lethal, emptiness. Start your viewing with the classic 2001: A Space Odyssey.  

2. Finding meaning and creativity in adversity​

At this time in history, many people are wondering how life will resume . Will we recover with dignity and grace? A Scientific American article looks at how resilience and strength can often be attained through unexpected routes. The science suggests not only will we recover, but we will demonstrate the immense human capacity for resilience and growth. 

‘Til the next issue

Maria Katsonis