Going Viral, but Not in a Good Way

Republicans and Democrats have connected failures to control spread of Ebola to the other guys’ actions. We’re requiring stressed-out bureaucracies to perform out-of-the-box with zero tolerance in arenas of mind-boggling complexity.

1 minute read

October 20, 2014, 11:00 AM PDT

By Hazel Borys


This level of perfect performance in a complicated environment is something we expect of few other individuals or organizations. What can city planners learn from this dynamic? Ben Brown recommends that we go lean.

"Hello, you in the hazmat suit. Can we talk?"

"Though no one can authoritatively predict, from an epidemiology perspective, what will happen next, Ebola reached new levels of infection in the body politic last week."

"Republicans and Democrats seem pretty sure they’ve identified likely sources of toxicity. And it should come as no surprise that they’ve connected failures to control spread of the virus to the other guys’ policies and actions."


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