Melbourne Hotel Quarantine – Was the failure due to leadership?

There has been a lot written about how the Melbourne hotel quarantine system went so wrong. Leaders need to manage and have operational plans and policies in place that are effective.

COVID has arguably brought out the best in our leaders. Both the Premier of Victoria and the Prime Minster have ticked all the boxes of what leaders need to do. That is, to articulate:
– A shared honest view of the current reality
– A shared vision of where we want to get to
– A shared set of values and behaviours of the things we all need to do to keep ourselves and our community safe
– A shared feeling of power that we can play a key role in getting to the other end of the virus.

However, leaders must do more than just lead. They also need to manage and have operational plans and policies in place that are effective. It would appear that the events surrounding the Ruby Princess and the Melbourne Hotel Quarantine debacles have shown a disastrous lack of managerial and organisational capability.

Management is defined as getting things done through other people. While we await the outcome of the Victorian Judicial Enquiry it would seem clear that the following organisational and managerial principles were not followed:

• The security personnel did not exhibit the culture and ethos required to perform their role. They were neither appropriately trained and equipped nor were they the most appropriate source of personnel for the task at hand;
• The right accountability structure was not established at the outset of the quarantine process;
• The right system of checks and balances was not established to ensure that the first line of control was operating effectively; and
• The right resources were not provided to do the job effectively and safely.

In my experience, managerial effectiveness requires:
• Proper delegation, with clear lines of authority, responsibility and accountability;
• Strict role clarity with no overlaps for each person involved; and
• An appropriate management style of direct instructions and strict supervision. The critical situation called for no less.

The above items comprise the criteria crucial to operational effectiveness. Hopefully the judicial enquiry and other internal departmental reviews will closely examine the events that lead to the deadly second outbreak in the light of these criteria.

This is not an exercise in blame, but it is a necessary examination of accountability so that the regrettable events never happen again!

Robert J Re

Robert Re is a Leadership and Management Consultant with over 35 years’ experience both in Australia and Overseas. He is the Co-Author THE BUSINESS OF LIFE: Proven pathways to personal and organisational effectiveness