Preparing leaders to navigate global complexity and accelerate the transition to a sustainable society by building their capacity to practice resilience.
Orientations of Resilience
At Resilience in Action, we pair deep inquiry with conceptual frameworks, insights and practical tools that enable leaders to thrive and catalyze transformative change in the contemporary world. We distill insights about resilience from disciplines as diverse as ecology, psychology and military strategy. We translate those insights into action, working with partners to understand and adopt core orientations that foster resilience.
Credit: Gnarly bay
Connect
Connecting is about being grounded – first being connected to yourself, your principles and your history – and then being open to seeing your connections to the broader world.
It’s about adopting a relationship lens – reaching out across borders, building trust, and seeing the dynamic nature of local and global connections – between humans and nature, between inputs and outputs, and across timescales.
When practiced well, a Connect orientation fosters sound decision-making that balances diverse perspectives and considers impacts over large timescales.
Connect draws on the innate human endowments of self-awareness and conscience and the drive to belong while also being unique.
Credit: The jet life
Adapt
Adapting is about being open – to your own potential and to signals from the complex, changing environment around you.
It requires dismantling fixed orientations and unconscious biases, and being willing to leave your comfort zone to explore the unknown. The combination of internal exploration and continuous monitoring of the contextual environment drives rapid growth and learning.
When practiced well, an Adapt orientation engenders the foresight and agility needed to pursue effective pathways in rapidly changing contexts.
Adapt draws on the innate human endowment of free will and the drive to learn and grow.
Credit: Sustainable Harvest
Innovate
Innovating is about being radically proactive – seeing new possibilities and tapping into your creativity to shape the future.
It’s about making novel combinations from the adjacent possible and finding “flow” – a state of optimal performance where your inner critic is quieted and your capacity for insight is dramatically boosted.
When practiced well, an Innovate orientation provides a foundation for optimizing creativity in service of intergenerational wellbeing.
Innovate draws on the innate human endowment of imagination and the drive for meaning and contribution.