We were faced with a problem, a request to debrief the UK Emergency response to the crisis using our debriefing methodologies called 10kv. Traditionally, over the last 20 years and 400 debriefing sessions, we had asked people to come into a room, to attend the workshop. With the restrictions of Covid 19 that was simply not possible. Also as we had been asked to run a session with full engagement of key stakeholders and expert practitioners,right across the UK. Even if the social distancing restrictions were not in play, the prospect of bringing all these people together mid-crisis was simply impossible.

We had to think differently, we modified the 10kv system, that was designed to run on iPads in a room, to work on smartphones in the field. This was not a trivial piece of work. Also, to benefit from the live facilitation, the heart of such events, we incorporated live video into the application to enable dynamic engagement with the participants throughout the session.

The event was sponsored by ACC Shaun West, the chair of the Covid 19 National Foresight Group. He with his team arranged for at least 160 participants from UK LRFs and SCGs including, Wales, Scotland, England and Northern Ireland. To provide academic and analyst capabilities Dr. Rowena Hill from Nottingham Trent University, brilliantly lead a team of psychologists and other academics working alongside the Hydra Foundation to provide analytical products.

So on 22nd April we opened the first ever 10kv event with live video facilitation. Over 250 participants logged in from all over the UK. They inputted over 57,000 words across a number of questions dealing with the response. They were asked to talk about their lived experiences of what had gone well and what they were proud about as well as where there were challenges. They were asked to look forward, to consider the impact of a concurrent crisis. Daring to ask what practitioners are proud of is an utterly counter-cultural approach and provided an incredibly rich data set that provided fantastic opportunities to capture learning. The objectives were simple, we were allowing those in the field to have a voice, they spoke loudly, with incredible passion.

Their comments were full and in long paragraphs, they both challenged each others comments and supported them, expanding them where they felt they had more to add. The full product was analysed by Dr Rowena Hill’s team and emerging recommendations were shared with the UK Government and Strategic Coordination Groups and Local Resilience Forums. We were able to influence strategic thinking.

This approach has now been applied to the Metropolitan Police, London, Northern Ireland and Pan-Wales, over the last 4 weeks. In all events, there were over 150 participants and on average 40,000 words generated.

We are going to repeat the events, looking into the recovery phases of this crisis. We acknowledge and give thanks to the commitment of the professionals and volunteers who are tirelessly working to save lives.

A link to the video where I explain this mid-crisis can be found at https://vimeo.com/426150109

Professor Jonathan Crego M.B.E. PhD – Director of the Hydra Foundation