This week I have been immersed in marking student assignments…one of the perks of teaching! We follow a simple principle for student handback – give feedback and feedforward. The feedforward is aimed to give students advice/hints on how to improve their work and provoke thoughts around other possibilities. In my last post, I left some thoughts hanging about the ‘new’ new normal, and after hearing comments from some of those who read the blog (thank you!), I realise that it is hard to imagine a way forward when we are constantly being fed the elimination rhetoric.

Feedback. During the 100 days or so of being Covid-free and living lives as pre-Covid times, we stopped thinking about things like social distancing and hand sanitisers and masks and tests. When the world outside of our borders broadcast news of their ongoing battles with Covid, it seemed surreal, almost as if we were on a different planet…counting our lucky stars while at it. I had conversations where people invariably said they had forgotten lockdown life.

I remember walking into Devonport Chocolates shop a few weeks before lockdown round 2 and seeing a sad-looking bottle of hand sanitiser on a chair outside the front door, sitting on top of a sign that read “Sign in, stop the virus” – that infamous black and yellow Covid tracer card! I debated with myself whether I should use the hand sanitiser, but then thought, “I’m clean, and flipping heck, we are Covid-free”. So, in I went, without signing in and sanitising. The lady in the shop served me with a smile. It’s not her’s/the shop’s fault.

Feedforward. The elimination rhetoric drives the risk of complacency, as we all start to believe and think that elimination has been achieved. But if the messaging from our country managers was more about how to live with the pandemic going forward, we might behave differently. Right now, we are so focused on elimination that we are not looking towards what lies ahead, in the long-term. I think it’s time to wake up and smell the coffee…to recognise that we are part of a global community here, everyone in the world is battling against Covid.

And if “Team NZ” (not my words) is really a team, then we need to be allowed to behave like adults, as members of a team. So that the next time I go into Devonport Chocolates, or any other retailer, without signing in, wearing a mask and sanitising, the staff should feel empowered to not serve me and ask me to leave the shop.

We hear lots of talk about simple messaging. Well, let’s do just that. Let’s have simple, clear rules and consequences around alert levels and not hover, in uncertainty, between levels i.e. the X.5 level. Good leadership demonstrates what good behaviour looks like, long-term. If wearing a mask all the time when in public is the right thing to do, I should feel ashamed not to wear one, and more importantly, I should be aware/fearful of the consequences. Much like the drunk driver has consequences to face for not adhering to the rules.

The alternative is, of course, to continue to isolate, yo-yo-lockdown-style, as individuals and as a country. Our old people already feel isolated. How much longer do we subject them to a world without hugs and visitors and not having loved ones around in their hour of need? And elimination creates the tendency to isolate from the rest of the world.  

After lockdown round 1, I embarked on a curiosity-driven research project within my friends circle, soliciting their views about their lockdown experiences (feedback) and what they thought life would be like going forward (feedforward). My responses were not included in the research project but I shared my views with the participant group. This is what I had said about my feedforward, and for once in my life, I would have liked to be wrong:

“Going forward – is it really going to be a new world that we inhabit post-lockdown/Covid-19? I don’t know how long the acts of kindness around the world will continue. I sense and fear a new wave of isolationist-driven hate speech and actions, against immigrants, refugees, the outsiders – those who (are accused of )‘bring(ing) in or breed(ing)’ illnesses and unwanted what-nots, according to those who want to protect their lands and people. Maybe I am a cynic…” (Vikashni, 10 May, 2020).

Our elimination rhetoric is taking us down a very slippery path. The elimination-leading-to-isolationist actions make us equal to, dare I say it, the Brexiters and Trump supporters. If we are not careful, we will become just like these people…while proudly wearing our Elimination badge. Let us, instead, think about other possibilities.

See more:

http://themoorestory.com/index.php/2020/08/23/what-will-be-our-global-message/

http://themoorestory.com/index.php/2020/09/12/the-uninvited/