When we are in the middle of what we study
Comments as the rolling outbreaks of COVID-19 unfold across the world
By David Woods – woods.2 (at) osu.edu
The work in Cognitive Systems and Resilient Systems as well as in systems safety and disaster resilience around the world have looked at emergency operations in complex systems across many settings for a very long time. The events and studies have been scaling up over the last 20 years and now we are in the middle of a global scale event. We are experiencing ourselves many of the processes that play out for people caught up in these events – the noise, the uncertainty, confusion, the selfish responses, the mis-coordination, the exemplary behavior, the incredible endurance of those who find themselves at the front lines, the slow/stale reactions of the management and political classes, and the muddling through that is always part of these events whatever the scale.
Here are my comments as the situation has unfolded and emailed as part of discussions with colleagues.