The Courage of Resiliency

For too long we have been falsely seeking stability at the expense of resiliency. When people and businesses become 'stable', they stagnate. Even, and perhaps especially, when they are enjoying high rates of growth. You become a 'victim of your success' when you're too busy counting the cash pouring in and can't change fast enough when the tap starts to drip.

A resilient company and society is one focused on continuous change. They change well before they are forced to. If your organization was working on 'what's next' versus applying more steam to whatever success that has now had its day, then you are much closer to being resilient and your ability to weather these economic storms is not so daunting. Complex systems lose resilience when they cannot adapt and learn -- or perhaps more importantly, unlearn. The challenge of the day in my mind is for us all to set aside and get beyond our current concepts of success in order to make space for new and different ways to operate.

In complex situations there are no final answers. Clarity, objective metrics and control is what business strives for, but it is not the reality of complex living systems. Are we relying too much on our leaders and experts to have all the answers? If one thing is clear that has resulted from our fiscal malaise, the 'experts' who did not predict them mess we are in, really don't know the way out.

No one knows that more than the people of Iceland.