Thread by @AmyCEdmondson

An excellent roundup that got me thinking about the difference between "either/or" thinking and "both/and thinking."

The former boxes us in; the latter is more uncomfortable but forces innovation. nyti.ms/3bgzD1U
1/x #corona

Either/or thinking goes like this: It goes like this: if we prioritize the economy, we are indifferent to the costs in human life. And if we prioritize public safety, we are living in some kind of dream world where we don’t need jobs and the exchange of goods and services.
2/x

It’s a false dichotomy, the idea that we have to choose between people and the economy. People make up the economy, and the economy serves and supports people, via compensation and community. You cannot really choose one over the other.
3/x

Well, duh, you might say. But it turns out that how we frame things truly matters. Do you frame it as a contest to be won or lost? Or as a problem to be solved? We think and act differently when we use questions that ask “how” rather than “which one wins?”
4/x

The new question must be the development of the best possible strategies for increasing the survival chances of people and businesses—lives and livelihoods, hand in hand.
5/x

What new, innovative, approaches are possible to help find ways to keep people safe and keep businesses from failing completely? What tools will we need to make progress in what is undeniably new territory?

We are getting a crash course in just how much we owe to the valiant people who are now risking their lives to care for a patient, work a cash register, or drive a delivery truck. We may not realize it, but innovation is happening every hour, often starting in small ways.

As I write this, these people and organizations are innovating ways to get jobs done safely. We WILL invent strategies for incorporating social distancing into manufacturing and distribution operations, and for targeted restarting as ably as possible.

The either/or frame of people (or health) versus business (or economy) limits not only our ability to solve problems in new ways – it hampers our sense of compassion for those seemingly taking the “wrong” side of the debate.

As long as we are tied up in people versus business thinking, we will never be able to find novel, viable paths forward through the crisis.