This week, after 102 days of being virus free, New Zealand identified its first resurgence of COVID-19 community transmission.
In order to battle the spread of the disease, the New Zealand government has announced a dramatic change to their containment strategy: going forward, any person who tests positive for the virus will be quarantined in a government facility.
This is a no tolerance approach, and is similar to the strategy China used at the beginning of the outbreak.
This aggressive response is only possible when the problem is small.
It got me thinking about the way we deal with other problems in our workplace, in our homes, and in our communities.
When the problem is small and measurable, it’s better to move fast and nip it in the bud. But once the issue has multiplied and embedded itself, elimination no longer becomes and option, and we need to shift our focus to mitigation.