Sustainability or Resiliency?
It seems that we are always looking to make our programs, organizations, initiatives sustainable. But is sustainability really the right goal? What if instead, we became resilient? Resiliency is being able to weather storms, bending in the wind, and then rising up again when the storm is over. It evokes images of flexibility, adaptability and change. Sustainability seems to evoke for me, images of cement, keeping in place something that is tried - even when the world around us is moving quickly.
But how do we become more resilient, more adaptable? I'd love to know your thoughts? Can we develop programs, services and organizations that build resilient characteristics into the design?
Resilient orgazations is a concept I will explore at the Communities Collaborating Institute. I'd love to engage in a conversation with you if this is something you have been thinking about as well.
- Liz Weaver's blog
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The research on resilient children speaks of flexibility, adaptability an change as well. It also very importantly has identifed that resilient children very often have a significant adult in their lives who as Albert Treischman suggests is 'absolutely wild about them".
One of the key elements of resiliency is that the child is not in isolation and is "in relationship" with at least one adult mentor.
Perhaps a parallel is is true for resilient programs, organizations and initiatives and their success, (however you may want to define it) is dependent in part on "being in relationship" with your community, fellow workers and consumers>
Varley Weisman
Varley
I really appreciate your thoughts about resiliency and relationships. I think that is an important component, if you exist in relationship and things go wrong, you can get the support of others. This is true for families, for organizations and I'll be for collaborations and communities. Does this mean that the more social capital we have in our communities, the more resilient they will become?
Can we build those networks of social capital that reach not only to the usual suspects in our groups but to unusual suspects as well. Vibrant Communities has included people living the experience of poverty at the collaborative table. This has lead to some interesting impacts - the urgency and relevance of the issue becomes more intense and the challenge of poverty becomes somehow more real.
People and relationships are important elements in resiliency. Are there others? How can we collectively build them in community?
Liz, I think many of us are in relationship with many of the "unusual suspects" already and have not yet ventured into exploring how these relationships can be expanded and explored in ways not yet imagined. Perhaps it is recognizing that a large part of this work is changing the nature of the relationships and capitalizing on the knowledge, skills and strengths of both the usual and unusual suspects.
So perhaps part of the question is how do we go about changing the nature of the relationships to recognize that knowledge, skill and strenght that each person brings to teh relationship.