Resilient by Design: How Communities Adapt & Shift

What Helps Us Bend Without Breaking?

A friend recently recommended this Stanford Social Innovation Review article as we were talking about the state of affairs in the kind of work we do [1]. Somehow I missed this when it came out a few months ago. She and I often exchange book recommendations and ways to adjust our thinking and doing in light of changing dynamics and the evolution of systems we have come to know.

I’ve been thinking about what evolution actually means when it comes to our sense of community. How and why do we change, how do we adapt to our shifting environments; how do we experience the unknown and uncertain, and how do we bear the losses and receive the gains that come as a manifestation of change. Do we know what is happening as it happens?

Large scale social transformation doesn’t always announce itself. We can’t always see the bigger picture, the way things emerge and shift and change. But what would we do differently if we could?

In times of deep disruption, adaptability isn’t about returning to normal, it’s about shaping something new.

In our last post, we focused on efficacy or the ability of a community to coordinate, align, and drive outcomes that matter. But no matter how effective a system is today, it also needs to be built for change. Adaptability is what allows communities to bend without breaking, to reorganize without losing momentum, and to keep moving toward our goals even when conditions change.

If efficacy gives a community or ecosystem power, adaptability gives it staying power.

What It Means to Be Adaptable

Adaptability is more than flexibility. It’s also measurable set of features that allow a community or ecosystem to function, and even thrive, when circumstances shift. I like to think of this as our collective capacity to be anticipatory in the face of uncertainty and emerging new realities. This is about creating ways to shape what is to come without knowing the specifics. It’s something we can actually do that helps us prepare, create, and participate in what we want to see next, how we want to evolve together.

So, in terms of adaptability as a community system, we can focus on a few characteristics backed by research. Adaptability means that an ecosystem or community has:

Strong, interconnected networks of people and organizations that can step in for each other when needed regardless of whether it’s their job or role. We help fill in the gaps they appear.
Trust and social cohesion strong enough to support rapid realignment. We see the value of each other’s contribution and we act with good intent.
Decision-making that is clear, shared, and flexible enough to meet the immediate need. We deliberate quickly because we trust each other’s intent.
Feedback loops and learning systems that make it possible to sense, respond, and recalibrate in real time. We communicate directly, we listen more, and we learn and pivot quickly.

Adaptability is both structural and relational. It’s the social infrastructure that turns disruption into an opportunity for renewal. Adaptable communities don’t wait for stability to return, they use the moment to redefine it.

What The Research Tells Us

Across systems science, resilience research, and community practice, adaptability consistently emerges as a defining characteristic of communities that can sustain progress under pressure. I prefer to think of this as a developmental process, one that builds upon each point until it is whole. Let’s walk through the logic:

If We Build the Structural Backbone of A Strong Community or Ecosystem

A community or ecosystem functions as a complex adaptive system and network. As a network, redundancy, diversity, and modularity provide the architecture that allows communities to “route around” disruptions, maintaining continuity of services, relationships, and resource flows [2]. Functional redundancy—multiple actors or pathways able to perform similar roles—ensures that if one element fails, others can step in, reducing the likelihood of systemic collapse [3].

That Can Strengthen Relational Capacity

Social cohesion and trust are powerful predictors of recovery, enabling communities to informally reorganize and self-organize when formal systems are slow or unavailable [4]. High-trust relationships support faster coordination and smoother role transitions during times of disruption[5].

By Embedding Adaptive Practices,

Adaptive governance systems with built-in flexibility, local discretion, and iterative learning are more likely to sustain critical functions during institutional or environmental change [6-8]. These systems create the conditions for timely decision-making and innovation under pressure.

Distributing Roles and Responsibilities,

Mechanisms that support distributed roles and responsibilities protect against single points of failure. When one leader, partner, or funding stream is lost, others can step in to maintain momentum and preserve progress [9-10]

And Developing Continuous Learning and Feedback Loops,

Learning infrastructure and real-time feedback systems enable quicker decision-making and alignment, especially when paired with community voice and lived experience [11]. These mechanisms help communities not just adjust to change, but actively evolve in response to it.

We Can Become More Adaptable And Ready to Shape Transformational Change.

How Adaptability Becomes a Practice

Our basic premise is this: Strong structures, shared responsibility, and ongoing learning make communities more adaptable and better equipped to experience change as growth and opportunity.

So where do we go from here? Here are specific strategies to translate our Adaptability Pathway into action that a community collaborative or ecosystem can do now.

Diversify and Map Your Network. Intentionally expand relationships across sectors, geographies, and lived experiences. Use network measurement to spot gaps and identify where redundancy or diversity needs strengthening. Check out our white paper on this for more. Why it matters: Strong ecosystems and communities can always find another path forward.

Create Overlap Where It Matters Most. Ensure that multiple people or organizations can perform essential roles. Cross-train, share resources, and document critical processes so others can step in seamlessly when needed. It’s not about maintaining the status quo, it’s about effective stewardship of the change and pivot. Why it matters: Overlap in critical roles keeps services, resources, and information flowing under pressure while opening new doors for innovation.

Grow and Diversify Future Leaders. Support emerging leaders and distribute authority so there’s no single point of failure. Rotate facilitation roles, mentor new decision-makers, and share visibility across the network. Remember our relay analogy - this is where it comes in handy! Why it matters: Leadership depth ensures the baton is always moving, even when key players step away.

Govern for the Pivot. Create clear but flexible decision rules that allow local discretion and quick pivots. Build these into policies, MOUs, or partnership agreements so adaptation is a norm, not an exception. This is not a time for rigid bureacracy or “we’ve always done it this way”, allow for and encourage change. Why it matters: Flexibility keeps decision-making in the hands of those closest to the challenge.

Practice the Pivot. Simulate disruptions and opportunities to practice rerouting workflows and priorities in real time. What will we do when we experience the loss or gain of a partner, funding cuts or new funding opportunities, sudden demand spikes or declines? Why it matters: Practicing change builds muscle memory, so real adaptations happen faster and with less friction.

Learn, Adapt, Repeat. Combine regular info gathering with set times to meet, share what’s happening, and decide on next steps and pivot points—like seasonal check-ins, quick roundtables, or partner huddles. Talk about what’s happening as it happens, name the change. Why it matters: When we learn as we go, we can pivot with purpose instead of reacting in panic.

Why Adaptability Matters Now

It does us no favors to try to stop the clock and it does not serve us well to admire the problem, become paralyzed by uncertainty, inertia, and rapid change.

We are in the middle of a large societal transformation and it is time to get creative.

As Reudy and her colleagues put it, we have an opportunity and a responsibility to be an active part of shaping that transformation. I believe in the power of community, purpose-driven ecosystems, and deeply relational networks to recognize and creatively adapt in ways that are benevolent, restorative, and just. That’s how we shape our futures together. It’s where hope remains eternal, at least for me.

We can’t predict everything, but we can prepare our communities to adjust without losing their way. The real measure of resilience isn’t just how we perform on a good day, it’s how we reorganize, recover, and refocus when the ground shifts beneath us.

“All that you touch, you change. All that you change, changes you. The only lasting truth is change.” [12]

So What’s Next?

Efficacy gives us the ability to move with purpose. Adaptability ensures we can keep moving when the path changes. In the final part of our introduction to the building blocks of community resilience, we’ll explore sustainability—how resilient communities build the capacity to last, grow, and regenerate over time. And like efficacy, adaptability is interdependent with sustainability: the more we can adapt, the more likely we are to sustain progress over time.

Stay with us, we’re all putting the pieces together and building for the future.

Here Are a Few of the Many Things We’re Reading

Ruedy, N., Scharmer, C. O., & Williams, A. (2025). Grappling with systems collapse: How leaders can respond with adaptive action. Stanford Social Innovation Review. https://ssir.org/articles/entry/grappling-with-systems-collapse
Kharrazi, A. (2020). Network diversity and resilience in complex social-ecological systems. Complexity, 2020, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crsust.2020.06.001
Biggs, R., Schlüter, M., & Schoon, M. (2015). Principles for building resilience: Sustaining ecosystem services in social-ecological systems. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781316014240
Aldrich, D. P., & Meyer, M. A. (2015). Social capital and community resilience. American Behavioral Scientist, 59(2), 254–269. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764214550299
Daly, A.J., Finnigan, K.S. A bridge between worlds: understanding network structure to understand change strategy. J Educ Change 11, 111–138 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10833-009-9102-5
Boyd, E., Nykvist, B., Borgström, S., & Stacewicz, I. A. (2015). Anticipatory governance for social-ecological resilience. Ambio, 44(Suppl 1), 149-161. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-014-0604-x
Sharma-Wallace, L., Velarde, S. J., & Wreford, A. (2018). Adaptive governance good practice: Show me the evidence!. Journal of Environmental Management, 222, 174-184. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2018.05.067
Chaffin, B. C., Gosnell, H., & Cosens, B. A. (2014). A decade of adaptive governance scholarship: synthesis and future directions. Ecology and society, 19(3). 56. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26269646
Koschmider, A., Oberweis, A. and Zhang, H. (2010). PROCESS-ORIENTED COORDINATION OF COLLABORATIONS IN SOCIAL NETWORKS. In Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technology - Volume 2 (pp. 361-366). https://doi.org/10.5220/0002855703610366.
Selsky, J.W., Ramírez, R. & Babüroğlu, O.N. (2013). Collaborative Capability Design: Redundancy of Potentialities. Systemic Practice and Action Research, 26, 377–395. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11213-012-9257-5
O’Mara-Eves, A., Brunton, G., McDaid, D., Oliver, S., Kavanagh, J., Jamal, F., ... & Thomas, J. (2013). Community engagement to reduce inequalities in health: A systematic review, meta-analysis, and economic analysis. Public Health Research, 1(4). https://doi.org/10.3310/phr01040
Butler, O. E. (1993). Parable of the Sower. Four Walls Eight Windows.