Empathy, Trust, Competence: Have our leaders failed us?

This Webinar by The Strategy Group took place in March, 2022.

In this webinar, Founder of Public Purpose, Martin Stewart-Weeks and Managing Director of The Strategy Group, Dr Jeffrey Tobias discuss and explore how, in these emerging conditions, organisations can adopt a problem solving mindset and innovation tools to lift performance and drive for transformation.

An overview of the discussion

At the start of the pandemic, Martin and I discussed how good government has always relied on a combination of empathy and competence to earn the trust it needs to work effectively and deliver the results that citizens deserve and respect. Initially, governments in Australia performed well, acting swiftly and decisively to mitigate the pandemic’s projected impact on community health and safety, employment and the economy. But more recently planning, logistics and delivery issues have misfired and frustration, even anger has grown

So what went wrong? We’d argue that trust evaporated as a result of the perceived failure of leaders’ empathy and competence. That connection is what good government is always about. And it seems to have gone missing.
 
The initial “trust dividend” that was wrested from a very difficult, disruptive set of circumstances appears to have been squandered.  
 
The question now is whether governments – and the business community as well – can shift their attention from crisis management to combine empathy and competence to rebuild trust at the heart of good policy and adaptable service delivery to tackle the opportunities and risks of the post-Omicron period.

If you would like to continue the discussion, learn more about any of the topics covered in the video, or if you would like to find out more about what we do at The Strategy Group please contact us. We look forward to hearing from you!

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