In turbulent times, why do some people, communities, companies and systems thrive, while others fall apart?
Andrew Stolli answers that question and more.
Andrew is the author of the best-selling book “Resilience, Why Things Bounce Back” published by Simon and Schuster in the U.S., and in many other languages and territories around the world. The books is his research on the dynamics of resilience in many contexts, people, systems, communities and companies.
Resilience forces us to take the possibility even necessity of failure seriously – Andrew Zolli
On the podcast Andrew talks about why he wrote the book. Starting in 2001 and ending in 2010 you had a decade defined by two crises in the same zip code; 9/11 and the financial crisis. Normally size matters, the bigger you were the safer you were because size conferred a certain advantage. What we discovered during that period, however, was that it didn’t matter how big you were. There are some storms you simply cannot withstand.
So how do we recover and thrive in this period of sustained volatility?
On this podcast we talk about it
- How organizations and people bounce back
- Social media and resilience
- Society and whether social safety nets make us more fragile
- The impact of faith on resilience – and it’s not what you think
- What he learned about organizational resilience in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina (you’ve got to hear this story)
I would love to follow Andrew around for a few days and as he is involved in some incredibly interesting projects. For 11 years, he was the creative force behind PopTech, a renowned innovation and social change network. He served on the board of the Garrison Institute and Blurb. He also serves as an advisor to PlanetLabs (a revolutionary Earth-imaging company), DataKind, which is bringing data science to the social sector, and The Workshop School, an experiment in what a public high school can be. He served as a Fellow of the National Geographic Society. He advises governmental organization, startups, cultural and civil society groups including leadership teams at companies like GE, Nike and Facebook.
Show Notes and Resources
[00:07:57] Where we discuss the forces that likely put Trump in office
[00:13:53] Resilience and the inverted ∩
[00:22:05] Resilience as a skill
[00:23:33] An example of organizational resilience in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina
[00:32:59] What makes organizations resilient
[00:32:59] Middle management and organizational resilience
[00:34:20] Social programs and resilience
[00:43:40] The 10 factors that encourage personal resilience
[00:44:35] I ask if Facebook making us stronger or weaker
[00:50:52] Intentionality and emotional control
Andrew’s website
Planet’s media page here
A bit of background on the Garrison Institute here
Twitter: @andrew_zolli
