Page 103 - The Resilient Organization

90 Part Three: Step 2. Building Resilience into the Organization

Further, coordinated action is clearly necessary to respond effectively to
global warming, yet difficult to mount since one person’s effort to reduce
his or her carbon footprint makes no difference if other people continue to
act as before. There is a temptation to take a “free ride.” If the majority of
people change their behavior, everyone, also the free riders, will benefit. Yet
those who change pay the direct cost, and the rest of us get the goods free.
This can erode morale and hence any motivation for collective action.
Also, sometimes persisting in a pursuit may be tough precisely because
it is working, thus reducing the perceived need for continuation (for exam-
ple, if there is no visible threat). These are tough challenges for resilience
leadership. Regardless, tough but foreseeable challenges are the very burden
of leadership.

THE DIFFICULTY OF TAKING ACTION

Hurricane Katrina was “one of the most fully predictable and scenario-
tested nature disasters in American history, but that fact still did not
lead to appropriate preparatory actions or adequate crisis response on
the part of the responsible officials at the local, state, or federal levels”
(Fukuyama, 2007: 3). Thus leadership failed at all levels of government.
Explaining that “obviously the wrong people were in charge” (sic!) is
too simplistic an explanation. Where were the “right” people and what
were they doing?

THE PERILS OF TAKING COLLECTIVE ACTION

• Mounting political will (Not me. Or, Why now?)
• Overcoming denial (Can’t be happening.)
• Catalyzing sufficient action to make a difference (the majority or an
influential minority)
• Managing cost versus benefit distribution (over time)
• Preempting free riding (Otherwise the collective will to act may
erode.)
• Persisting in the pursuit (against time and a perceptible lack of threat)