The Resilience Dividend: Being Strong In A World Where Things Go Wrong

New York. Athens. Boston. Tohoku. Newtown. Oslo. West. Wenzhou. New Orleans. Dhaka. Moore. Nairobi. These communities are just a few among the many that have been hit hard by one of the “wicked problems” of today’s world: natural catastrophe, disease and contagion, systems or social collapse. If you haven’t been directly touched by one of these disruptions yourself, you are sure to have been affected by them in some way. They harm people, destabilize communities, and threaten organizations and even whole societies.

These problems have become such a part of our world that knowing how to prepare for them, how to respond when they happen, and how to recover from them should be essential skills of modern life for all of us.

We have certainly made progress in this regard, especially in the years since 9/11, but we are still at greater risk than we should be. We can’t anticipate every disruption that might come our way, but we can develop an overall approach for dealing with the wicked problems, and formulate specific plans for areas where we and our communities are particularly vulnerable.

Being Strong in a World Where Things Go Wrong is both timely and important important as both the severity and frequency of disruptions are increase. We face extreme weather events, rapid population shifts, and global interconnectedness that make us vulnerable to disruptions wherever they take place. What’s more, the list of global risks that we face in the coming years is truly daunting: from cyber-attacks to food shortage crises to extreme volatility in energy price. We can no longer assume we are immune to the world’s wicked problems, no matter who we are and where we live. It develops both a way of thinking and practical tools for taking action for protecting the world’s people and communities and shows how to create a blueprint for change.