Resilience Reimagined: A Practical Guide for Organisations

Define impact thresholds

Balance strategic choices

Discuss future failure

Consider connected impacts

Understand essential outcomes

Stress test thresholds

Enable adaptive leadership

By examining connected impacts across three timelines (short, medium and long), the five capitals framework also helps us become more aware of how our individual and collective actions today shape the future. Mapping connected impacts from the three horizons’ perspectives can generate conversations that foster understanding and future consciousness as the basis for collaborative action and transformative innovation. Without this future-looking perspective, you may fail to consider long term consequences and may be missing out or not capitalising on emerging trends and insights where fresh growth opportunities reside. Organisations should consider the potential impacts of disruption across all five capitals and the effects’ timeframe, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. The short, medium and long term impacts of disruption across the five capitals

Five capitals

Short (weeks)

Medium (months)

Long (years)

Natural

Environmental impact

Human

People impact

Incident

Social

Reputational/Regulatory impact

Built

Operational impact

Financial

Financial impact

(Charts are for illustrative purposes)

Using the five capitals model for decision-making can lead to improved resilience and avoid negative consequences. Conventional processes tend to deprioritise environmental and social elements and promote siloed sequential short-term development. Effective resilience requires a connected approach across the five capitals.

15 Resilience Reimagined: A practical guide for organisations