The global coronavirus crisis should remind everyone that, when dealing with a pandemic, information and empathy are key to understanding and empathizing with co-workers and clients who may be on different parts of the journey, according to Norman Dreger, Partner at Mercer. Mercer is an affiliate of Guy Carpenter.
Confronted with a cacophony of voices and ever-changing facts on the ground, it is important for us, as colleagues and business leaders, to understand the likely path of developments. Otherwise, people will create their own narrative, which can be disruptive — or even dangerous.
Thankfully, as a global community, we have rich data and experience in dealing with pandemics. While every health crisis will be different, some of the patterns observed repeat themselves, allowing us to extrapolate insights from prior situations to the current one. And just as the development of a crisis tends to follow the same pattern, so does our emotional response to it.
