Adaptive leadership in the Covid-19 response: navigating crisis and change

The ongoing coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic is posing unprecedented challenges to leadership across the world. The pace at which policymakers, practitioners and researchers react to this emerging and complex crisis will make a profound difference to people’s lives and livelihoods. But how can we ensure effective, collective decision-making based on emerging evidence, changing trends and shifting scientific understanding, all in the face of considerable uncertainty? Recent experience highlights the need for adaptive leadership in national and global responses to the outbreak. This requires adaptive leadership capacities like being open and transparent about learning, using collective decision-making processes and building trust with communities and individuals. Using ODI’s research on adaptive leadership during the coronavirus response, we discuss practical applications of adaptive responses during the Covid-19 outbreak, bridging science, policy and practice.