Most of the systems at work in our lives have been optimized for efficiency. We live in a world of just in time processes, low margins, and contingent labor. Since we gained the bounty of the computer revolution, we’ve often used it to organize people as if they were machines.
Resilience, on either a personal or community level, doesn’t look efficient it all. It looks fat, expensive, and wasteful - right up to the moment when it really matters.
Listen to the president and COO of investment bank Morgan Stanley talking about his firm’s disaster recovery systems after the 9/11 attacks in 2001: “Multiple backup sites seemed like an incredible extravagance on September 10th. But on September 12th, they seemed like genius.”
The organizers of the Wimbledon tennis tournament bought pandemic insurance for about $1.9 million a year for the last 17 years, after the SARS epidemic. They cashed in the policy this year for $142 million, having spent a total of $32 million on premiums.
As Jemele Hill said, “If you stay ready, you ain’t gotta get ready.”
When resilience works best within a system, the work tends to be invisible and boring. There’s much less drama, because a resilient system addresses problems before they get exciting. By definition, this is hard to see, and even harder to appreciate.
True resilience is a triangle with three sides to it:
Openness: Your team has to be capable of seeing reality as it is right now. Current events are showing us yet again how hard this can be, even for experienced leaders. The more your community’s incentives run against accepting reality, the harder it will be for your systems and processes to adapt to the present moment.
Capacity: You need slack in the system to absorb changes in direction or unexpected events. Systems that are fully optimized for efficiency have no slack, by design.
Simulation: You need opportunities to practice responses to disruption. Your simulations won’t line up with the exact details of the real deal. This doesn’t matter. By creating alternate processes and identifying vulnerabilities, you’ve given the response a head start. Systems built for efficiency tend to do half-hearted simulation - one scenario, once a year, like a fire drill in a grade school.
These concepts go out of style when it seems like they’re no longer necessary. Years can pass without an event that truly tests your resilience. It’s not a coincidence that some of the most resilient businesses around, like Waffle House and H-E-B, are family-owned and mission-driven. It’s easier to think about the worst case scenario and not fall into despair when you are working from a foundation of faith and hope.
A programming note - I’ll be away on a solo camping trip for the next two weeks, beginning this weekend. During that time, I’ve set up some shorter Build Notes reflections to send out to you in my absence. I will share some pictures from this adventure when I’m back.
Introducing DadLine
Confession time: Some of you know about this project already, and most of you don’t - I can tell when I look at our listener numbers.
Earlier this year, my friend J.C. and I started a podcast called DadLine. We wanted to talk about how we’re trying to live life as what we call “professional dads” - guys who are trying to be good at their careers, parenting, and their partnerships all at the same time. We’re bored with the sitcom dad stereotype of guys who are disconnected from the lives of their families.
We also wanted to create a way of connecting with friends of ours who have really busy lives and can’t make it out to drink beers in the backyard, or whatever socializing looks like in COVID times. We keep the episodes short by podcast standards - 20 to 30 minutes - aiming for the length of a commute, or a drive to soccer practice.
Season 2 of DadLine begins today. We’re focusing on isolation and community as our theme, for all the obvious reasons. To kick things off, we interviewed reporter Billy Baker from The Boston Globe. He wrote an article about men and loneliness in 2017 that he’s now turning into a book.
I’ve been really intimidated at the idea of sharing this project with a wider audience, because it’s so personal. But Billy dropped such great wisdom on us that I feel like I have no choice. Here we are. Aaaaah!
You can follow the link below to access the latest episode and our archive, or you can find us by searching for DadLine on your podcast app. We’re on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and a few others.
(Podcast audio; episodes are 20-30 minutes long, usually 20 or so)
And Finally…
This past week, I learned that jazz pianist Johnny Costa, who was the musical director for Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, released an album of songs from the show in the 1980s. Costa’s album reminded me of the work of the Vince Guaraldi Trio from the Charlie Brown TV specials. (I actually made a playlist on Spotify to put all of their albums together in one place. You can access that here if you like.)
The song for this week is Johnny Costa playing “What Do You Do?”, a song that Fred Rogers wrote to help kids understand how to deal with anger. This version is instrumental and has no lyrics; you can watch Rogers perform the song here.
Hope you get some rest this weekend, friends.
- Michael
Did you receive this as a forward from a friend? Build Notes is published each week on Thursdays, which are 100% the best day of the week.
Subscribe to future updates here: