“Except our own thoughts, there is nothing absolutely in our power.” That is what Rene Descartes stated in his “Discourse on the Method” in 1637, which is truly applicable to us in this 21st century. The coronavirus disease, which was named COVID-19 since it started at the end of 2019, has extended to the sixth month of 2020, and as it is predicted by the World Health Organization and the governments around the world, COVID cannot be easily terminated. Until a cure tests positively and effectively, the entire globe must abide by strict social distancing and safety regulations.
The impact of social distancing and lockdowns continues to be detrimental on various sectors: health care, world economy, education, and social safety, including mental health. Tracey Burns, OECD Senior Education Policy Analyst, writes that “Disruption is the new normal, at least for the next 18 months”. This will give rise to more challenges that educational institutions and businesses must prepare for through short- and long-term strategic plans.
Because of the terrible loss variables and the universal uncertainty and anxiety, we cannot isolate decisions within individuals and institutions. Fundamental processes and sets of dynamics must unfold to regulate the different governing factors at first, and then design new roadmaps for education and businesses to carry on their work. Central to this is a clear set of guidelines, monitored to ensure safety and efficiency. What we need now is to create feedback loops to encompass the entire operation targeted at readiness for post-COVID.
Feedback is well-known to be the various sources of information collected from different stakeholders to study the pathways of a process and assess whether there is a need for improvement. Feedback has long been a common, reliable, strategic practice in many institutions worldwide. However, in our unprecedented situations of health and economy fight-for-survival, the regular feedback must develop a more advanced and interconnected form so that it can produce creative ideas and innovative solutions for the multiple safety and educational issues at hand.
These complex forms of feedback, or feedback loops, are those observations and information that we use to cause a change, whether slight or huge. These loops are part of our natural existence on different levels – physiological, environmental, and social, and they do influence our lives dramatically. The results of not noticing these loops can lead us to closed tunnels, unable to explain the causes and the effects of situations. Such cases of invisible loops render us lost in discussions of theories and conspiracies, which only increase our fears and confusion.
The first step is to collect information through the regular feedback methods. Fortunately, the observable conditions are global. The pandemic has forced us to lock down for social distancing purposes, and as long as there is no cure for this new type of coronavirus, strict distancing restrictions must be administered. That has necessitated remote working and online learning. Most institutions have quickly prepared digital platforms with the assistance of technology providers, and gradually, we have seen that classes were conducted in many countries around the world. So were business meetings and daily operations.
However, some serious concerns emerged, such as serious safety measures, extended lock downs, more unemployment, increasing rate of salary reductions, and mental health issues. Here comes the second step, which is reflecting upon the routes of these concerns and the trials to handle them, to ensure the effectiveness of the immediate plans. The reflections must not be made in the form of espoused theories or acts based on guidelines only. Well-selected personnel within the institution collect the data from different sources and work in committees to analyze the findings. In line with these inward reflections go daily updates about the situation so that the right steps are taken accordingly. Given this new global pandemic, governors, leaders, and proprietors cannot quickly and accurately respond to the observed flaws and challenges.
That is why the third step is connecting outwards to organizations and institutions to experiment, analyze, and adopt successful policies. Leaders must be keen at being updated with the reliable sources and daily reports, including data analysis that depict the situation as accurately as it could be. The governing forces in the field of education are manifold. School community safeguarding, campus gate monitoring system, sanitation systems, daily operations, coronavirus detection procedures, revising curricula, learning losses, increasing achievement gaps, professional development for teachers, mental health monitoring, digital infrastructure, staff supply, accreditation, revised financial plans, school fees, and more. These factors add up in disadvantaged, vulnerable communities, which have no devices, internet access, or the necessary hygiene.
These clusters work together to understand all the above-mentioned governing factors, along with their respective government policies, studying the successful approaches for reinforcement, and the inefficient ones for balance. Both feedback loops involve effective practices and strategies - the first builds skills to empower the process, while the second regulates the flaws, keeping systems within balance or within the desired expectations.
It is helpful here to refer to Heinz von Foerster and Niklas Luhmann theory of “second-order observations”, in which there is a group of “first observers”, who provide a broad, imprecise image of the process and its variables. Another group is the “second observers”, who analyze the process from a more detailed, structured angle, focusing on the target only – which is managing COVID-imposed factors so that the unproductive, ineffective strategies and resources are taken out. The fourth step in the loop is to make the necessary changes based on the data analysis findings so that the planning is research-based. This is the closing of the feedback loop. For more effective results, these feedback loops can be doubled into double loops, which ensure that the changes are closely connected to the institutions’ objectives and values.
These times are unprecedented. That is why we, as decision makers, have to pay close attention to feedback loops that are disturbing our COVID managing schemes and create feedback loops that are supportive and focused, simply because we have no time to lose and no more losses to take upon us.
“When map and terrain differ, follow the terrain.” We cannot guarantee the coming days and months and what they will unfold, despite all the advanced governmental systems in the world. However, when our plans face potential shocks, remember to adjust quickly. Support your "first observers", trust your "second observers", and remain committed to your objectives and values.
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About the Author Manal Zeineddine is the founder of O.R.B.I.T.S. Development Code. She has twenty years of expereince in international education, eleven of which as Academic Director. She is currently based in Jeddah, KSA and focusing on her work as global educational consultant and a potential development expert, supporting holistic learning, quality monitoring, accreditation, sustainability, mindfulness, and nature education. http://www.linkedin.com/in/manal-zeineddine-maan-44718630
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