4. WHAT IS RESILIENCE THINKING?
RESILIENCE THINKING REQUIRES 3 SHIFTS
Thinking resilience requires 3 shifts from "thinking as usual".You might have already achieved such shifts, and if so, well done!Yet it is important to understand what you had achieved.The three thinking shifts are:
ANTICIPATE likely THREATS, and opportunities.
Think CAPACITIES, believe in EMPOWERMENT.
Embrace COMPLEXITY.
What is the difference with "thinking as usual"?
1. ANTICIPATE THREATS
"Thinking as usual", is often pre-set: we plan, and we tend to believe that our plans will happen. We think we can control a future situation. This might be true in some instances. But, in general, life is always full of bumps, and we ignore them at our peril! Conventional thinking tends to stick to pre-set actions and outcomes. We want to follow the blueprint. So, when a "bump" happens, we are often not prepared. We might respond, but we then try to just revert back to plan.Resilience thinking is about "think risk, think opportunities" from the start! What can go wrong? What opportunities can arise? We do not control the future. But we can better equip ourselves to anticipate threats and possibilities. It is much more useful to anticipate, adapt and dance with change than pretending that things will just go as we hope (and having to patch up what will inevitably go wrong). Anticipating threats is even more important for marginalized or vulnerable people, as they are more likely to be hit by the bumps.2. CAPACITIES, EMPOWERMENT.
We all know that development and humanitarian projects need to put "people at the center". But too often people are, at best, clients of interventions. If people are not fully involved in resilience building, then resilience is not achieved. Because resilience is not "a thing". Resilience is the power to avert threats, whilst embracing possibilities.Resilience thinking puts capacities (absorb, adapt, transform) at the center. It is not about technical fixes, but about empowering people living with threats to absorb, adapt or transform them.
3. COMPLEXITY
"Thinking as usual" hopes to achieve change in simplistic ways. We often think: "if we do this, then change will happen". But this way of thinking does not always work! It often fails to see the full picture. What is at play? What factors are driving change? How do they interrelate?Looking at this means appreciating complexity. Resilience thinking reminds us that we need to consider diverse factors and their inter-relations. We then understand that we cannot probably fully control change. But we can learn how to be flexible and influence it.Do you agree with the statements below?
Are they in line with the definitions of resilience and with "resilience thinking"?Read the statements, take the time to understand if you agree or not with them.