This interview-style TED talk featured Dr. Larry Brilliant talking about the global pandemic and the numerous mistakes made by governments worldwide. The video opened with a clip of him in 2006 explaining how a pandemic originating in South Asia may spread around the world, highlighting the importance of the first 2-3 weeks where most contaminating contact is made. The general trend was the governments who received a better “grade” from Dr. Brilliant (yes that is his name) but aside their fear, accepted the reality of the situation, and acted quickly within this 2 week window. This reminds me of some of the leadership concepts that we’ve talked about regarding decision making. Just like in the reading, he believes that taking steps immediately, even if they are smaller steps does more than waiting to find the perfect solution because the virus will not wait for our governments to catch up.

Another important point he touched on was the need for coordinated efforts across governments. Our world is the most global it has ever been; people trade and travel worldwide all the time, meaning every nation needs to coordinate with one another. I think it will be interesting to observe how global leaders handle the next few months because as more tests and potential treatments emerge, every one will want access to the same technology which might create more competition than collaboration. We will simply have to wait and see.