The 2013 World Economic Forum Conference that began today in Davos is dedicated this year to resilient dynamism. As Arianna Huffington noted earlier in the day, the key concept that gives rise to the need for resilience is our global interconnectedness. Quoting Rockefeller Foundation President Judith Rodin, she cites five attributes that resilient systems characteristically share:
- Spare capacity
- Flexibility — the ability to change, evolve, and adapt in the face of disaster.
- Limited or “safe” failure, which prevents failures from rippling across systems.
- Rapid rebound — the capacity to reestablish function and avoid long-term disruptions.
- Constant learning, with robust feedback loops.
Huffington adds a sixth, “the will to want to be resilient.”
To that list, I feel we must add a seventh requirement for the present and future, Resilience Narratives: stories that will help disparate and potentially adversarial players see themselves as active participants in collaborative futures. Continue reading