By Kerry Maxwell, communications manager, British Poultry Council
It seems to me that ‘resilience’ has become something of a reflex. When people make sweeping statements that “we need to make XYZ far more resilient,” or ask questions about how we do so, I interpret that in the context of how do we manage in the face of adversity, threat, stress, or change? I hate to be the person who answers a question with another question…but what exactly are we willing to change, and what are we not?
It is easy to lean on ‘resilience’ because no one can disagree that managing in the face of adversity, threat, stress, or change is important. But, really, ‘resilience’ is only one part of a bigger conversation about how we navigate change. We know we need to be resilient. However, ‘resilience’ is a conversation that has been allowed to go on so long in its current state that now we risk falling into a habit of simply celebrating ‘bouncing back,’ as opposed to assessing the value and relevance of what we are trying to ‘bounce back’ to.
Maybe it is just resilience fatigue on my part, but I struggle to make sense of questions like “how do we make XYZ resilient?,” because it reads like we don’t want to find the answer. How can questions like that ever translate to an actionable pathway if we don’t ask ourselves things like – what can we adapt to? What compromises are we willing to make? What are the non-negotiables?
I’m a massive believer in that if you want to think about change, then you (probably) have to change the way you think. Meaningful progress only happens when our plans align with the values of the culture they are meant to serve, and if you want to ‘create’ a new culture then you need to critically examine what should be preserved and what needs to evolve. You need to strike the balance between thinking ahead and leaving no one behind.
It is crucial to examine not only how we endure challenges but what we are enduring them for. If well thought out (aka beyond endurance), ‘resilience’ could be our ticket to shaping systems that align with who we are, what we believe in, and, ultimately, what people want from them. Otherwise, we are just turning our back on inevitable changes without having ever considered if those are changes we may want to see.