Dancing off the edge

I think of resilience as a plateau upon which the system can play, performing its normal functions in safety. A resilient system has a big plateau, a lot of space over which it can wander, with gentle, elastic walls that will bounce it back, if it comes near a dangerous edge. As a system loses its resilience, its plateau shrinks, and its protective walls become lower and more rigid, until the system is operating on a knife-edge, likely to fall off in one direction or another whenever it makes a move. Loss of resilience can come as a surprise, because the system usually is paying much more attention to its play than to its playing space. One day it does something it has done a hundred times before and crashes.

Donella Meadows, Thinking In Systems (emphasis mine)

Each day at work and at home, the routines blend together into the same dances; days may differ from one to the next, but week to week or month to month are more similar than different. We learn to trust that this will continue to be true, even if we’re wearing away at the trust or resilience in the systems we rely on: our clients or customers, our organization’s culture, our partners’ and peers’ tolerance for our own behaviors…

When’s the last time you thought to yourself, “ughhh, if that happens one more time, I swear I’ll…”?

Might your colleagues be having the same thought? Or your customers? Or your team? Or your partner?

The day-to-day is important and ever so compelling–but taking the time and space to build more resilience into your systems is survival-level vital. The status quo may very well be draining your system of resilience over time.

What needs some repair? What long-running issue risks eroding trust?

Have you tried asking?