It isn’t easy to make sense of all the interactions between the different levels, but it is something we need to do. As I discussed earlier this year, Panarchy (resilience theory) is a great tool to help us think about this. The father of resilience theory, Buzz Holling, received the 2008 Volvo Environment Prize. Volvo has created a short film (included below, or visit this link to view) that introduces Buzz and his concepts (hat tip Garry Peterson).

The interactions between the different scales across a panarchy are important in respect to resilience. In terms of Panarchy, three elements are considered: the focal system (in our case “the project”), the higher scales (e.g. the company, or professional group, or society) and the lower scales (e.g. individuals or teams). “The resilience characteristics of any focal system are in large part determined by the interactions of scales across this panarchy, from the focal system to coarser scales and from the focal system to the finer scales.”

Understanding resilience within human systems is part of the “Second Turn” of The Four Dharmas Of Project Management. In this Second Turn you focus on the interaction of people.

Resilience Explained By Buzz Holling is a post from: Project Shrink.