There’s hope for 2021, but only if governments abandon command-and-control for co-creation

My home town, like many other jurisdictions across the globe, is starting 2021 while under a government-imposed lockdown. And while mitigation measures are certainly required to stem the spread of the virus, a strategy of command-and-control governance is short-sighted and will likely exacerbate the long-term effects of the crisis.

If hope for rebuilding in 2021 is to be justified, governments of all stripes need to wean themselves off of the unprecedented powers exercised over the past year. Power is a dangerous intoxicant. And we need leaders who see themselves first and foremost as partners, privileging co-creation over command-and-control. There is no lockdown severe enough or stimulus generous enough to assure that the society we emerge to after the crisis will be worth living in.

Complicated problems can sometimes be solved with a heavy hand. But the pandemic is a complex one. Complex problems require flexibility and a plethora of innovative partnerships. Governments need to work not only with experts in epidemiology, but policy, psychology, business, ethics, sustainability, education, community-building… really anyone with a window into how we can accurately measure the price of the context specific trade-offs involved in any course of action.

While the widely cited change management failure rate of 70% has dubious origins and is probably wrong, it persists as something of a heuristic because large-scale efforts involving wholesale cultural and strategic change are incredibly difficult to execute, and have significant failure rates.

Make no mistake – rebuilding after the crisis is change management on an unprecedented scale. But what too many officials have forgotten, is that with every action they take, there is responsibility. Responsibility to those impacted by their actions. Responsibility to those who could impact the effectiveness of their actions. Responsibility for the subsequent reactions, expected and not.

Consider one of the few bright lights of 2020: the creation of a vaccine. Pundits on the right and left lauded the news of big pharma finally scoring an important social win. But what has not been explicitly stated is that the creation of the vaccine is a story that needs to be told in the language of co-creation. Government acted as a partner, regulator and customer to support researchers in these efforts.

Meanwhile, so-called "non-essential" industries have been treated with a command-and-control approach. Even worse is the way public officials have been using the language of ethics, stakeholder management and care to justify shifting critical resources to already powerful players, while stifling innovations that are desperately needed in other industries.

For example, early in the pandemic, the National Ballet of Canada partnered with Harbourfront Centre to present socially-distanced performances, a very innovative response, but were shut down. Local restaurants re-conceived what outdoor dining in our inhospitable climate might look like, coming up with really novel solutions, only to see their innovative efforts and substantial investments deemed expendable. Even my local indie bookstore re-conceived what browsing means and innovated a new shopping experience, only to be ordered closed despite no evidence of anyone catching the virus in that setting.

We are losing sustaining innovations and disenfranchising innovators. Most innovation happens when folks seek to get better at what they are already doing. Shooting down these innovators will have catastrophic effects on our social future. 2020 has shown that our varying levels of government have little interest in these innovations... they want to achieve bigger wins by working with the powerful few, encouraging the rest of us to be good and sit quiet.

To start, 2021 needs a moratorium on government and public health officials asking most of us to stay on the side-line while they do the important work. The idea of personal sacrifice for the common good is noble. But it is simply not true that our best effort is to be found in passivity. The mantra for 2021 needs to be “Doing with others.” Only through co-creation can we be well-equipped for the uncertain future.