Page 126 - The Resilient Organization

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The word sisu denotes, in Finnish, a certain tenacity, persistence, and
toughness, perhaps even hardheadedness, in the face of adversity. It is a per-
sonal (or national) quality, one that may be necessary to survive in the lat-
itudes of the far North, having fought wars with much bigger neighbors and
learning to respect the fragile yet tenacious nature that gives nothing for
free. Sitting in the shade under a mango tree and waiting for the fresh fruit
to drop down for eating would not constitute a very viable life strategy. The
Finnish national literature tells tales of frost killing the year’s only harvest
as a standard plot line. As one Estonian refugee (also a daughter of harsh
climate and political conditions) who traveled via Helsinki, Stockholm, and
Sidney in the 1940s and 1950s to become a successful businessperson in the
United States, now in her nineties, declared when asked about the hardships
of escaping, with a newborn baby, Estonia under Soviet occupation during
World War II: “Give up? There is no such option.” There is a soul of steel.
I have found sisu in many parts of the world: not only in the Northern
countries but also in many others including Afghanistan. The case study of
Innovation Democracy below tells an Afghan story. Sisu is formative as
Innovation Democracy has self-funded its operations and has sought to
break away from the traditions of development aid. The limitations of such
aid, and its tragic lacking of impact, have been lamented by people such as
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in March 2009. As recently as my
December 2006 experience in a Kabul home, despite billion-dollar aid,
Kabul still had electricity only an hour or two a day. Afghans have developed
their own small-scale innovation to help: I saw old car engines converted
into electricity generators in an effort to provide warmth in the winter. While
this causes some pollution, the innovation points to power solutions that are
modular—focusing on the needs of the single family unit—and that are
portable and potentially more effective than building the large centralized
infrastructures still only in the planning phase.

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