Resilience is emerging as the seminal skill for leaders as more economies slide towards recession. The American Psychological Association, which has studied resilience closely since the terrorist attacks of 9/11, defines it as the ability to adapt well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats, and from sources of stress such as work pressures, health, family or relationship problems.

A resilient person is not only able to handle such experiences in the moment, but also to bounce back afterward. The good news is that leaders can develop resilience by managing their thoughts, behaviours and actions.

- Resilience: How to Build a Personal Strategy for Survival by Gill Corkindale in Harvard Business Blog

This weekend, the University of Houston Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts and Blaffer Gallery presented a conference titled Systems of Sustainability: Art, Innovation, Action (SOS). Described as part arts festival, part academic symposium, SOS centered on exploring and discussing creative enterprise as an integral tool for cultural growth and social change, with presentations given by people whose creative works simultaneously elevated the human spirit and the human condition by successfully addressing social problems.

Matthew Wettergreen was asked to discuss his work via Caroline Collective at SOS; and during his preparation we discussed the question, “What makes a community sustainable?” This turned into a debate about which quality is more essential for a community to be sustainable: Resilience or Adaptation? Matthew’s argument was that Adaptation – which he defined as responding to change – was essential, and that resilience would “be nice.” My argument was that Resilience – which I defined as being able to “bounce back” or recover from adversity – was essential, because without the ability to recover from a setback, a community would crumble or dissolve.

To many, the argument seems moot because these two words are commonly used synonymously. It’s just semantics. But to Matthew, the sticking point was that Adaptation excludes the connotation of a “positive” or “negative” result – a community must simply be able to change when faced with a new situation. To me, however, in order for a community to be sustainable, that change must have a positive outcome. If the change has negative results – if it adapts to a setback by fragmenting or dissolving, for example – then that community is no longer sustained. Resilience, then, seems essential to a community’s sustainability, as, by definition, it excludes negative outcome. It is not just adapting, but adapting “well in the face of adversity.”

The practical question is, “How do we build resilience into communities, so that they may be sustainable?”

Developing personal resilience among individual leaders would be helpful for any group. However, organizational resilience is a different beast: it relies more on systems and practices integral to the organization, rather than to specific individuals. Through ongoing participation with diverse groups over the years – arts, business, ethnic, nonprofit, political, service, etc. – I’ve observed that formal organizations eventually wither away without the following:

• A critical mass of members who believe in the need for the community to exist and persist
• A critical mass of members who actively contribute to the community and are proactive towards solving any challenges it encounters
• Enough engaged members to support the loss or absence of a few

These qualities – critical mass, individual buy-in,  and a proactive, contributing membership – appear essential to building capacity and engendering organizational sustainability. Seeking and cultivating critical masses of engaged, proactive members among less formal groups, then, and extrapolating that to a unified critical mass of engaged, proactive groups within a region, could be a way of incorporating resilience into communities to foster long-term sustainability. It’s worth a shot, at least.

How do you think you could develop and improve community sustainability? Do have any insights or best practices to add?