The Mechanical, Psychological, and Biological Interventions of a Pandemic

The Mechanical, Psychological, and Biological Interventions of a Pandemic With Johnson and Johnson also pausing it’s #Covid19 #vaccine trial, it is becoming clearer to more of the public, that the long steady path to a vaccine is not something that can be rushed for anyone’s political agenda or preferred view of the world.

We’re learning about and just about have the mechanical interventions worked out – mask wearing, social distancing, continual hand washing and where needed restrictions of movement to ever small circles to stop infection spread.

We don’t yet have a full handle on the psychological interventions – supporting individuals and society placed into smaller circles to stop the spread. Many businesses have done a great job at allowing their staff to find ways to connect whilst at home. Schools and familial disconnections seems harder, and the ideological space harder again.

And the biological intervention, despite the ideological wish-list and myth-making could be years off because it plays in the realm of scientific truth – best knowledge for now, not final knowledge for now. In that space it is always open to new discoveries, some pleasant, some less so. But no amount of myth-making will bring the vaccine to fruition sooner. And myth-making that claims it will, places an ever increasing burden on the psychological and mechanical interventions that have kept many people safe

Australia, We Are Killing Ourselves

Jan 28, 2019

Every where we look we are being given clear signs of the blatant stupidity and arguably outright criminality of a toxic system of decision making. The Menindee Lakes and Darling River disaster is one example   A couple of years ago I was invited to speak at a Private Equity conference at a lovely resort…

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2019 The International Year of the Cooperative

Dec 30, 2018

Every year I aim to identify what I think a major focus of the upcoming year will be and in that light I’m declaring 2019 the International Year of the Cooperative. I’m prompted by a multitude of signals that my daily research has uncovered, many of which will be familiar to you – Cost of…

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Can the United States Survive the Childish Tantrums of an Incompetent President?

Dec 23, 2018

Here we are with the last posting of the year looking at the potential for wide ranging strategy for a country like the United States. Arguably the United States is undergoing its own version of #Brexit though without the vote of the people. Instead the dictatorial nature of what I see as an incompetent strategic…

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When will the next Federal Election be held in Australia?

Dec 3, 2018

I’m reluctant to make predictions but am getting a few calls so: My tip is on a March 2019 election – the 9th or 16th But that will be an attempt to protect the existing NSW Government hoping that voters will have sufficiently vented. That said though, it also required a Federal Minoroty Government to…

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Asia on the Rise – why Australia’s Neighbours Will Leave us Behind

Oct 30, 2018

The Asian Productivity Organisation has shifted gears from being a centre for member countries to talk about productivity, to one that now wants to upskills its member countries. We’ve just completed the first chunk of helping National Productivity secretariats to ready their staff for a more proactive, future facing approach to their Country’s development  …

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10 years on from the Australia 2020 Futurists Summit

Oct 18, 2018

The question is, ‘how does the thinking inside this document stack up?’ Turns out, pretty good. What we spotted and what problems we said we’d have to watch out for, are just about spot on   When it was discovered that the then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was going to hold the Australia 2020 Summit,…

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BBC Article on the Future of work and the likely skills needed

Oct 14, 2018

it’s OK not to know your career path when you leave university – sometimes that won’t emerge until much later down the track,” Barber says. “We should remind kids that the pathway they select to start off with is unlikely to be their final pathway,   Was interviewed by #TheodoraSutcliffe who wrote this article for…

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Inverting the City/Country Dynamic

Aug 17, 2018

At a recent session with the Gen Y group working on the ‘Future Melbourne’ project for the City of Melbourne I suggested that the group consider what the result might be if they could ‘invert’ the way the State of Victoria operates. What would you be likely to see if more of the functions of…

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When it comes to decision making ‘Bias’ can be friend or foe

May 19, 2018

McKinsey’s interview with Richard Thaler on ‘debiasing the corporation’ is a really good one. I’ve spent the best part of two decades trying to help organisations unpack their biases through the use of foresight. I recommend this article to you   Nobel Laureate Richard Thaler offers some great insights as to how to make more…

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Disaster Ahead for the People of Ipswich

Apr 22, 2018

As the Ipswich Council has determined that recycling schemes are too expensive and indicates it will end collections, the question is ‘what happens next’? If result of the explosion in Tip fees by Councils around Australia is anything to go by, what happens next will not be good   China recently decided to end acting…

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