The Stockholm Resilience Center's Planetary Boundaries course offers a profound introduction to Earth's resilience challenges. It provides a framework for understanding the limits of human impact on the Earth system. Crossing these boundaries may lead to an environment incapable of self-regulation. Nine boundaries are identified for a safe and just Earth system, encompassing climate, biosphere integrity, freshwater use, nutrient cycles, and air pollution, at both global and sub-global scales.
It is a very complex topic and because of those complexities is a rich source of knowledge that can be applied at individual and organizational levels. One of my key take aways is the precedence of diversity over uniformity.
Scientists have found that all complex systems that are highly adaptive, tend to share certain features (Westley et al.: 2011:773):
Diversity: The individual elements that make up the systems, such as companies in a market economy are extraordinarily diverse. That creates great diversity of responses, which is an important strategy for building system resilience.
Decentralisation: The power to make decisions and solve problems is not centralised in one place or thing; instead, it is distributed across the system’s elements. The elements are then linked in a loose network that allows them to exchange information about what works and what does not.
Balanced Stability and Innovation: highly adaptive systems are unstable enough to create unexpected innovations but orderly enough to learn from their failures and successes.
Systems with these three features stimulate constant experimentation, and they generate a variety of problem-solving strategies. These traits encourage constant experimentation and diverse problem-solving strategies, leading to greater resilience than in systems that prioritize stability and uniformity.
At individual level it can mean that:
We can benefit from constant search for new ways to solve problems. “I know better” attitude is not resilient. It also means that we should look to have people around ourselves who are very different than we are. It is a difficult one to implement. We have tendency to like more what we know, and who do we know better that ourselves? I struggled for example to have people around who need time to reflect and are very detailed, and yet they were always the best fit to complement my abilities. Surrounding yourself by diversity makes you more resilient.
We need to juggle between ownership and collaboration. “I own it” attitude is not always resilient. You can lose a lot of valuable learnings if you are always on the ball. Neither fully taking ownership of all decisions nor consistently delegating them fosters resilience.
We should try to balance improvisation and experimentations with learning from them and building a foundation for the challenges to come. Otherwise, we risk repeating the same errors all over again, without realising them.
At organisational level it can mean that:
While teams that appear perfectly aligned may seem harmonious, they may lack the diversity of perspectives that promotes resilience. Embracing diversity of thoughts and experiences can lead to innovative solutions and enhanced adaptability.
Resilience is hindered by centralised decision-making. This conclusion is linked to my other area of research, which are cross-cultural differences. High power distance, which is driving centralization of decision processes is, in this light, the braking force in the long-term resilience journey.
Experimentation and innovation require sufficient level of structure. Rules and regulations can serve as innovation tools, which enable people to focus on solving new problems rather than reinventing the wheel all over again. They also serve as a repository of learnings, allowing organizations to codify and disseminate best practices across the entire organization.
These principles are crucial for improvisation in challenging situations, one of the cornerstones of the resilience framework I advocate.
Sources:
Harvard Business Review, Goleman D., Sonnenfeld J.A., Achor S. - Resilience (HBR Emotional Intelligence Series), Harvard Business Review Press, Boston, 2017.
Rockström J. at al.: Planetary Boundaries: Exploring the Safe Operating Space for Humanity. Ecology and Society, 2009.
Rockström J. et al.: Safe and just Earth system boundaries. Nature, 2023.
Steffen W. et al.: The Anthropocene: From Global Change to Planetary Stewardship. Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences 2011.
Westley F. et al. - Tipping towards sustainability: Emerging pathways of transformation. Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, 2011
Stockholm Resilience Center: Planetary Boundaries. https://sdgacademy.org/course/planetary-boundaries-human-opportunities/
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