Resilience vs Risk - how nature recovers after disturbance
By: Denise Deluca - 21/09/2010
Unlike the business world, nature has no ability to predict future events, but instead uses 'resilience' as its strategy for recovery after disturbance. Inherent within this are creativity and innovation which bring wider benefits. In these transformational times of volatile change, businesses can improve their ability to thrive (not just survive) by focusing on their resilience.
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As we plunge into the decade of volatility, businesses are struggling to keep up with an accelerating pace of new risks from unpredictable disturbances. Ranging from volcanic eruptions to crop-killing droughts to shifts in Pentagon spending - all of these have spreading and sometimes compounding ripple effects.
Montserrat volcano erupting
The business world copes, in part, by allocating ever more resources to risk analysis and management. Unlike in the business world, nature has no ability to analyse data to predict future events and possible outcomes; organisms have to deal with whatever occurs whenever it occurs. To survive such uncertainty, nature manages future risk by focusing on resilience, the ability to recover after a disturbance.
What is it like to focus on resilience versus risk?
As an organism yourself, you know that prevention is far easier than a cure. When you focus on keeping your body healthy and maintain your resilience, you are excited to try the next new activity, love to try new foods, and look forward to rich and interesting new opportunities that await. If you let your body go, you worry about catching every cold that comes through the office, worry about hurting yourself because you never quite heal from injuries: your activities, interest, and optimism are curtailed by risk - you feel old and un-resilient.
Focusing on resilience rather than risk in your business, as with your body, not only helps you bounce back from unpredictable disturbances, but also brings with it dynamic vibrancy, creativity, innovation, and optimism – all of which are part of becoming a Business Inspired by Nature.
To provide innovative solutions to the challenges businesses are facing, Kew and Biomimicry for Creative Innovation (BCI) have formed a unique partnership focused on helping businesses develop a culture that fosters creativity, co-operation, and resilience. Follow the related links at the top of this page to find out more about Business Inspired by Nature. To read more about resilience, see BCI’s briefing “Risk and Resilience”.
- Denise -
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'Business Inspired by Nature' is an emergent, resilient, dynamic new collective of individuals with a unique combination of skills, experiences and insights. We have a common goal of creating a healthy vibrant world by bridging business and biology, in other words, ecological thinking for radical transformation. We aim to transform industrial supply chains into business ecosystems, and to merge business ecosystems into natural ecosystems.
'Business Inspired by Nature's' collaboration of professional change agents, biologists and design professionals work with clients to apply nature's principles to business products, processes and systems.
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3 comments on 'Resilience vs Risk - how nature recovers after disturbance'
Lyle Almond says
08/11/2011 3:14:12 PM | Report abuse
It's what is embraced in the U.S. as "the new now".
Polly Williamson says
15/11/2010 12:39:38 PM | Report abuse
Thanks Philip. One of the benefits of taking a resilience-based approach rather than a risk-based approach is that is frees you from operating in fear or feeling the need to hide from unpredictable disturbances. It is about being forward-looking rather than backwards-looking, adaptive rather than static, responsive rather than protective. It is about constantly working towards positive outcomes rather than simply driving toward fixed goals.
Philip Smith says
22/09/2010 10:22:54 AM | Report abuse
This is very interesting. But when does preparedness become fear when resilience becomes hiding under the duvet?