Resiliency+ Roundup August

  August 10, 2020

Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) continue to face unprecedented upheaval, and are working hard to remain resilient and responsive in these uncertain times. The PartnersGlobal Resiliency+ Framework offers our civil society partners a lens to focus on building their resiliency around 7 key factors.

The first of its kind, the R+ Framework weaves together the many strands of resiliency topics to help CSOs proactively prepare for and navigate the rapid changes to their environment.

Check out some of the wonderful resources that have been inspiring us recently, organized by our R+ factors:

Legitimacy: Radical Transparency and Constituent Engagement

In Who Does Development Serve? Projects should be accountable to communities before donors. Semiye Micheal posits that organisational accountability is a tool to change relationships and systems, increasing project sustainability and impact.

We Are Restless’ What Does Accountability Look Like During Times of Disruption, argues that the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic provides an opportunity for civil society organizations to forge new ways of working, that center accountability practices. Katie Fuhs argues that “we must capitalize on the potential of the moment before it slips into normalcy or history.”

The Dynamic Accountability Community of Practice’s recent Newsletter explores themes of power privilege and inclusion and examines how dynamic accountability can help improve internal practices and contribute to more systemic change.

Adaptive Capacity: Preparing for the Unknown

In The Socially Dynamic Organisation: A new Model of Organisational Design, Julian Stodd explores a new model of “Organisational Design: set against a background of broad digital transformation, increased social connectivity and movement, and a global shift to distributed working”

In Bouncing Forward, not Bouncing Back: Adapting with Resilience (Part 1), Gwendolyn Vansant posits that “in times of adversity, resiliency is the ability to navigate breakdowns that are often out of your own control, be nimble, or admit failure (and embrace it).

Business Acumen: Entrepreneurial Mindset

The GlobalGiving Team lists free products and services to help nonprofits or small businesses manage new challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rights CoLab’s Mapping Civil Society Innovation To Advance Human Rights, offers a collaborative space for groups to explore opportunities to organize and resource human rights activities in novel ways.

Connectedness: Greater than the Sum of its Parts

In Network Governance Structures Infographic, Alex Derr introduces four common network governance structures and highlights some of the inherent advantages and disadvantages of each.

A Network Approach to Capacity Building posits that nonprofits that are part of a network are more effective in leveraging resources and building capacity than those organizations that “go it alone”.

In this report, The Youth Action Lab, in partnership with CIVICUS, posits that “designing an alternative resourcing mechanism that centers meaningful youth participation is imperative to achieve a sustainable, resilient, and inclusive civil society.”

Nathaniel Heller, Alan Hudson, and Nada Zohdy, past and present leaders of Open Gov Hub, detail the usefulness of a thematic co-working space, and how that value transcends physical structure in this piece titled The Open Gov Hub: A Pivotal Partnership that Created a Vibrant Community.

Engaging the Narrative: Intentional Communications

In Changing Our Narrative about Narrative: The Infrastructure Required for Building Narrative Power, Rashad Robinson posits that we need to build new narrative infrastructure in order to build narrative power. He argues “without narrative power, we are not going to change the rules of society – our society’s operating system- and shape society in the image of our values.”

This report by Amnesty International, argues the importance of standing up to “us vs them” politics to assert humanity’s oneness, especially in light of leaders and movements that stand to benefit from growing polarization.

Stories, Scenarios, Exploratory Talk, and Futures Thinking, speaks to the importance of future thinking and creating space for exploratory talk in efforts to imagine new stories, new scenarios, and new narratives for the future.

Resilience Ethos: Embracing Uncertainty

Beyond Survival: Practical Hope in Powerful Times, is a free downloadable pamphlet by Graham Leicester where he shares insights on practical hope, survival, insight, and perseverance in this moment of international crisis.

Converge Network’s recent article on Designing for Integration by Yingzhao Liu, offers insights on becoming aware of integrated states and disintegrated states, wholeness practices, the importance of networks of impact, and paying attention to those working on systemic level solutions.

In the changing nature of nonprofit boards, Amitabh Behar critiques the current make-up of many non-profit boards of directors, especially regarding their traditional appetite for risk, keeping in mind the sectors’ commitment to social transformation and social justice.

Situational Awareness: Systems Thinking

Check out the Australian Tax Office’s new systems-led design guide. The design guide provides insight on how ATO bring a systems-led perspective to the way they design and embed change. The guide details the thinking behind their approach and includes their model, principles, and handy tools and techniques.

This piece produced by Independent Sector highlights how one organization used scenario planning to think through its COVID-19 future. Lindsey Waldron, Bradley Seeman, Alexandra Jaskula-Ranga, and Bob Searle, reflect on how this tool helped them define what success looked like and then identified key decision points and options.