A lot of people are confused about what ‘capacity’ is. You’re seeing it.

This is worth reflecting on, not just because it is heartening to see. I personally think these sorts of displays of capacity are happening regularly in our organizations, just on smaller scales. It’s there. Keeping things going. Hidden in plain sight.

This disaster will be horrible but it will be less horrible than it otherwise should have or could have been because of the adaptive capacity within the system, some of which was intentionally designed to be there, some of which wasn’t and we’re just benefiting from it.

This is adaptive capacity on display. People being the solution.

Think about the people stepping in to help with evacuations. The businesses providing resources or helping people find a place to stay. Or the people checking in on neighbors. Giving help to strangers. Donating money and food. And so on.

But also all the other people. The people keeping the water flowing, the lights on, the trash picked up, despite sometimes having to do so in terrible conditions.

Think about all the fire fighters (heroes, every last one of them, including the incarcerated fire fighters who are risking their lives for the rest of us).

But research and our experience shows it’s the opposite most of the time. We see the best in people. People stepping up, helping each other, doing their duty and beyond.

There are always people stepping up and helping in these situations. Some people think disasters and emergencies bring out the worst in people (e.g., panic, looting, etc.)

That’s why I personally think ‘safety first’ type initiatives are at least as problematic and probably more problematic than ones for ‘zero harm’.
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And when we ignore that complexity it doesn’t go away. We just push the complexity out of sight, which means those closer to the risk are the ones who have to deal with it because we opted not to.
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