Audrey Hinchcliffe | COVID-19 and groups

COMMISSION, COMMITTEE, task force, board of directors, management board, and working group. They have roles and responsibilities whether in affairs of the state, businesses, clubs, or non-governmental organisations.

The roles are set out in terms of reference which defines their purpose and structures to accomplish their shared goals. One assumes that members are imbued with experience and special skills in the subject areas and led by a chairman who becomes the voice of the respective groups. This arrangement lends itself to group-think and group-speak.

Group-think is a psychological phenomenon in which people strive for consensus within a group. In many cases, people will set aside their own personal beliefs or adopt the opinion of the rest of the group (Irving L. Janis, 1972).

Group-speak “is a collection of three or more speakers who come together to accomplish message content goals”. We hear them at press conference, political meeting, board and club meetings. We also hear them on special interest topics.

These groups represent what should be reasonably expected from how decisions made in representation, business management and operations and policymaking.

But things fall apart when everybody is in charge, and nobody is in charge. We see the result being borne out in conflicts, misunderstanding of messages, and more recently we see results in the form of the response by persons showing up to be vaccinated amid chaos at sites, confusion in messages and inadequate public education programme. Group-think and group-speak cannot run a business nor make policies if consensus cannot be reached as the basis for a coherent message to the public. If there is any truth to the article ‘Vaccine Programme Rift: Cabinet and Health Ministry stand-off over mandatory Vaccination Policy’ posted by Ricardo Brooks, October 6, 2021 ( nationwideradiojm.com) then it behoves the prime minister or the minister of health and wellness, or both, to say or do something to get the vaccination programme back on track or the coronavirus will continue to stare us down and keep Jamaica at the bottom of the pile – meaning the lowest vaccination rate in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).

VACCINATED JAMAICANS

Last in vaccination rate while discarding vaccines, first in murders, high on corruption scale should not be where Jamaica wants to be. The world is watching and already the reaction is not good. Take the recent cases of vaccinated Jamaicans being treated as unvaccinated in the UK. One can try to explain the rationale, but it does not reduce the black eye the country has to endure.

It is a sad day to have to listen to Jamaicans say they will take the vaccine to get a USA visa, but not for their own health protection and that of their family, co-workers and, by extension, their communities. The message-carrying horse has already bolted through the gate with either no message, inadequate message, or incoherent messages.

So, we look for messaging from behind prison wall. Court of Appeal President Justice Seymour Panton puts it boldly that “the administration should not recruit unrepentant murderers and other criminals to be vaccination ambassadors”. If this is among the vehicles we have left, then is this not an example of group-think, as groups are known “to take irrational actions or overestimate their positions or moral rightness”.

Groups are known to make mistakes by biting off more than they can chew. For example, taking on situations which can result in devastation, distrust, hate, among others. In the case of edicts, based on the Disaster Risk Management Act, protocols and guidelines developed to reduce the spread of the coronavirus, we see negative responses resulting in COVID-19 overwhelming the health system, parties going on unabated, anti-vaxxers openly voicing their distrust, the rise of conspirators and charlatans. Group-think – whether commission, committee, task force, or working group and policymakers in this case must observe the reaction and behaviour of the citizens as indication that they have not grasped what is best for them for their own health protection, social and economic well-being. So, there is the need to “wheel and come again”.

IMPACT

COVID-19 does not care about group-think measures, nor group-speak messages, although at times they seem to be having an impact, if only small. But group-think can be effective when, as Janis suggested, there is:

- a strong persuasive group leader;

- a high level of group cohesion;

- intensive pressure from the outside to make a good decision.

I refer you to the article ‘Avoiding Fatal Flaws in Group Discussion Making’ ( Mindtool.com). I am at one with Janis in regard to a strong, persuasive leader. As far back as January 12, 2021, published in The Gleaner was my article titled ‘COVID-19: In search of a czar or czarina’. It spoke to the need for a person who can “exercise great authority and power in a particular field”. In this case, a voice for the coronavirus and the related vaccines. What we got recently is a National Vaccination Commission with such wide-ranging responsibilities and further stated by the minister of health and wellness, “among other things to the extent possible, facilitate cooperation at policy, technical and local levels between government, non-governmental and private sector agencies or organisation, and civil society in the plans’ development and implementation”. Here I return to Rob Giles saying “too many voices in my head, like my eyes are seeing red”.

I declare that my humble opinion still holds, and even now more than before. COVID-19 and vaccines need a strong persuasive group leader – a czar.

A high level of group cohesion is needed, and if Ricardo Brooks is to be believed, things are indeed falling apart. Finally, published in The Gleaner on Wednesday, October 6, 2021, is the article ‘Business Groups Call for Covid Vaccine Mandate in Private Sector’. This, as Janis suggested, is the intensive pressure from the outside to make a good decision. This speaks to a policy to make vaccinations mandatory which, among other truths, is “not only to save lives but also to reduce disruption in business and sustain productivity”.

We are seeing symptoms of group-think and group-speak and these are unhelpful, not only in the case of handling of vaccines, but what is coming at us under the DRMA. Like others, I used to set aside time to listen to COVID-19 press conferences. If these are not examples of group-speak I don’t know what is. Health started in the driver’s seat, and as the hours progressed, health gets booted out, and what little message was intended gets lost. The questions from the media, some irrelevant to the subject at hand, do not help either.

Everybody cannot be in charge when the result is suggesting that no one is in charge.

I repeat, if for no other areas of the pandemic, we need a vaccine czar because group-speak is missing the goal of the message.

- Audrey Hinchcliffe is chief executive officer and founder, Manpower and Maintenance Services Ltd Group. Send feedback to ceo@manpowerja.co; columns@gleanerjm.com