People that work in groups (project, organization, society as a whole) have to cope with change. The more effective you are in this area, the more success you will have in this ever morphing world. This is a short outline of how people effectively cope with change.

Photography by Sabrina's Stash.

Humans In Groups Are Systems

"Whatever your take is on projects, at the end of the day it is just a bunch of people working together to achieve a certain goal. During this endeavor to laugh, cry, pull pranks, play dirty tricks and have all other kind of behavior towards each other." (source)

"The central thought that the interactions of a lot agents make up the behavior of the entire system, is similar to the opinions I hold when talking about projects: the interactions of all the individual stakeholders make up the behavior of the project." (source)

To cope with change human systems need resilience

"Resilience is… the ability to absorb disturbances, to be changed and then to re-organise and still have the same identity (retain the same basic structure and ways of functioning). It includes the ability to learn from the disturbance. A resilient system is forgiving of external shocks. As resilience declines the magnitude of a shock from which it cannot recover gets smaller and smaller. Resilience shifts attention from purely growth and efficiency to needed recovery and flexibility." (source)

Resilience = Capacity To Adapt

"Adaptive capacity in ecological systems is related to genetic diversity, biological diversity, and the heterogeneity of landscape mosaics … In social systems, the existence of institutions and networks that learn and store knowledge and experience, create flexibility in problem solving and balance power among interest groups play an important role in adaptive capacity …' (source)

Resilience lies at the agent WITHIN the system

Resilience is not some kind of magical star dust that can be attributed to an abstract concept like "project", "organization" or "society". Resilience comes from each individual agent. However each individual agent (human) is operating within a group.

Resilience = MIND + NETWORK

The resilience from every individual is a combination of his mind and his social networks. The mind provides the lenses to which reality can be perceived, and the network provides information and social constructs that feed and shape the mind.

Resilience = OODA

"Each individual adapts to its environment by performing continuous OODA-loops. John Boyd, a famous military strategist, created the so-called OODA loop to give us structure when discussing this subject. The loop consists of four steps: Observe, Orient, Decide and then Act. Observe: get information from the environment; Orient: make sense of the information in some kind of mental model of the world; Decide: choose your options; Act: perform the option chosen." (source)

"Before the enemy airplane is even within visual contact range, the pilot will consider any available information about the likely identity of the enemy pilot: his nationality, level of training, and cultural traditions that may come into play. When the enemy aircraft comes into radar contact, more direct information about the speed, size, and maneuverability, of the enemy plane becomes available; unfolding circumstances take priority over radio chatter. A first decision is made based on the available information so far: the pilot decides to "get into the sun" above his opponent, and acts by applying control inputs to climb. Back to observation: is the attacker reacting to the change of altitude? Then to orient: is the enemy reacting characteristically, or perhaps acting like a noncombatant? Is his plane exhibiting better-than-expected performance?" (source)

OODA = Information + (social) constructs

The OODA-loop is depending on the information that arrives through the Observe step, and the mental models that are available in someone's mind in the Orient step.

"… in the context of social systems being affiliated with a certain social group brings a specific set of mental constructs with it. If you consider yourself religious, you are guided by a different mental model than when you are a Darwinian. The effectiveness of adaption in social complex system can be considered depending on the quality and amount of mental constructs a person has as its disposal." (source)

Network = Input for Information and (social) constructs

The social network is the network of people you have some kind of interaction with. It is the path to which information comes to you. It is the path to which new social constructs arrive into your mind.

Network = Output of Information and (social) constructs

By the final step in the OODA-loop (Act) you also provide output of information and (social) constructs into the social network.

Speed + Diversity = More Resilience

The faster you have quality information, the more effective your OODA-loop. Having multiple information sources and having more diversity into the network and mind makes you more robust against false or biased directions. Having multiple mental models to judge information against, provides you with a better change of successful adaption.