We have studiously refrained from giving a running commentary on the Covid-19 crisis in our blog, but I was intrigued to hear the Archbishop of Canterbury’s comments reported this morning on the need to delegate elements of the crisis response to a local level. This struck a particular chord because I used to use the following quote about delegation from another religious leader, Pope Pius XI, in crisis management training courses:
“It is an injustice and at the same time a great evil and disturbance of right order to assign to a greater and higher association what lesser and subordinate organisations can do.”
If the Archbishop and the Pope agree that delegation is important then that is proof enough for me! This also begs the question what other insights into crisis management we might gain if we sought the advice of our religious leaders?