On the first day of work, we briefly talked about how our communities reacted to the impact of the Covid emergency. It was tough, but somehow everyone found the strength to take action to withstand the shock, limit the damage, and maybe even rediscover hidden resources and capabilities. This ability to react without succumbing to a sudden situation of chaos and loss of control is precisely that quality we call resilience.
If you want to listen to some of the testimonies that followed during the two days of the meeting, you will find the recordings on our FaceBook page (publication in progress).
Better prepare for the future
However, it may be useful to treasure what we have experienced in this phase of the pandemic and better prepare ourselves for future scenarios. We tried to do this by analyzing the characteristics of resilient systems, with particular reference to socio-ecological systems. We did this through a document from the Stockholm Resilience Centre which focuses on seven important principles that we should be concerned about implementing both locally and at the European level.
In this post, however, we could introduce the topic with this video by Professor Brian Walker who explains what resilience is in a very effective way. The analogy with the condition of a critically ill patient admitted to intensive care is really useful to frame the moment in which a deep crisis affects our systems.
You can instead see here the video of our overview during the meeting and download here the slides for you for your convenience.
Future scenarios
We also listened to the report by Dr. Tommaso Brazzini of the Researcher at GEEDS - University of Valladolid (Spain) on future risk scenarios. Indeed, it is clear that many of the elements that have supported our societies and economies up to now are now in crisis: energy, resources, biodiversity, social protection, there is a lot to work on. It is certainly better to know, to be ready, to prepare as much as possible and perhaps also to find aspects of these changes that can be exploited for a positive and desirable evolution.
You can see his presentation here and download the slides.
Introducing new tools
On the second day we listened to a new round of testimonies, this time trying to identify in the various stories the presence of the seven principles suggested the previous day. One thing became clear, responding to the sudden evolution of complex scenarios is really difficult and challenging.
This is what gives rise to the need to equip ourselves with tools for analyzing and planning our actions. We therefore tried to introduce the Cynefin framework and the use of the Causal Diagrams. These are mental models that have been developed in the sciences that study the dynamics of complex systems precisely to facilitate our decision-making processes by reducing the risk of making wrong decisions or producing unexpected negative consequences.
You can see the presentation here and download the slides.
Here you can also see the presentation of Dave Snowden on YouTube.
Save the date for the next meeting
Our next online meeting will be on December 15th and 16th virtually hosted by Valsamoggia (ITA). Now that we have acquired a first little set of tools on a theoretical level, we will dedicate the two days to practice, addressing real cases from our communities and trying to combine these new approaches to our consolidated habits.
Stay tuned because we will soon publish the registration form.
