COVID-19 is a black swan-type disruptive event, which has exposed the fragility of our social systems, our leveraged business models and our just-in-time way of life. It has also challenged many of our political self-serving elites and exposed the faults in our political and institutional systems, regardless of ideology, race or creed.
Black swan events are unpredictable, high-impact, disruptive events. They have not just caught us all off guard but have exposed the fragility in our systems, structures and business models. These have become highly interdependent and increasingly leveraged with no room for slack or even free time. Our obsession with prediction, optimization and specialization has been driven by false assumptions about the nature of our world, the types of phenomena we encounter or can control and the degree of (un)certainty in our lives. Instead of trying to predict, optimize and control, we should focus more on creating antifragile systems and structures which can withstand black swan events when they happen, like COVID-19. We need to foster agility and resiliency, as key business skills.
Management education must become a driving force in these ontological and structural shifts, not simply respond to market needs and run like a business. In these unsettling times, which are not as historically unprecedented as we might think (if one, for example reads Ian Morris' Why the West Rules for Now), it is time for management education to re-join the original notion of academia, as consciousness of society. Referring to managing in turbulence, the father of modern-day management, Peter Drucker, noted: “The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence; it is to act with yesterday's logic”.
I believe global civic universities, like Victoria University of Wellington can play a key role in moving forward and addressing so-called wicked problems of our time – these are related to broad societal problems which by their very nature cannot be solved but can only be tamed. Taming such problems and creating antifragility, agility and resiliency in our society, business and daily lives will require a new kind of societal renaissance. Moving from Drucker's yesterday's thinking to tomorrow's solution will require less intellectual hubris, stronger collective action, a higher degree of social agency and above all, a shared sense of humanity. Global civic universities are particularly well-equipped to support such change. He waka eke noa=we are all in this together (Māori proverb).
Matevz (Matt) Raskovic, Director of Learning & Teaching, Victoria University of Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand (individual member of CEEMAN)