The social-ecological-systems (SES) framework is a scientific model for understanding and managing complex systems that has been developed by ecological scientists over the past 50 years. More recently, social scientists have been increasingly interested in the relevance of SES thinking to social systems. Our research, supported by federal and state funding, aims to generate a better understanding of how organisations inhabit a SES thinking framework and the benefits of its application for company leaders.

The study looks at five organisations that are diverse in their systems, structures, sizes, and locations.

The study consists of five parts.

Bounding the organisation’s Focal System.
Managing for resilience requires understanding the adaptive cycles and thresholds of change and the vulnerabilities and windows of opportunity that these cycles introduce. The focal system interacts with, and is influenced by, the larger-scale systems in which it is embedded, as well as smaller-scale systems of which it is comprised. In social systems, cultural, political, social, economic, ecological, and technological components interact.

The Interactions that promote General Resilience, and Governance that promotes Social Capital
With multiple variables at play, there is a potential for cascading thresholds in which system variables interact. The challenge is to identify the critical, slow-changing variables that can either trigger abrupt change or interact with other system variables causing other thresholds to be crossed. The focus here is social capital, including trust, psychosocial and cultural safety, and innovation and openness.

Leading Action through Resilience-based Stewardship
Leadership is a critical part of governance and an attribute of social capital, a particularly important resilience attribute, enabling flexibility and adaptability to absorb unexpected shocks, and embrace and use failure as a way to learn.

Capacity for Resilience and Transformation
Adaptive capacity of the system to be proactive is the preparedness to deliberately and explicitly learn and respond. Transformative capacity is the capacity for innovation and novelty.

Taking Action
We guide a process for building knowledge and understanding of the interactions, dynamics, and potential thresholds of concern to synthesise the assessment findings and suggest potential strategic and management actions.

Data will be gathered through leadership interviews with CEOs and Board Members, facilitated group processes with staff and key stakeholders, Leader’s reflective writing, and analysis of strategic plans and governance articles.

We will conclude by discussing the usefulness of SES thinking as a tool for leaders to assess organisational sustainability and resilience.

The overarching goal is to extrapolate a model for resilience-based stewardship using SES thinking that provides benefits to society.

We present outcomes in relation to:
1. Enabling leaders to examine their decision-making for the future of their organisations and provide options for pathways forward that encompass complexity.
2. Embedding adaptability in organisations by paying attention to the internal variability of their structure and to the quality and type of relationships with external organisations and structures.
3. Encouraging more imagination and transformation from companies into new organisation structures with functions that have greater longevity and stability.