Resilience & Group

After thirty years in business, my first year as a university professor challenged my assumptions about Gen Z, education and learning. I found students far more similar to previous generations than different. At the same time, AI raised a deeper question: if everyone can access knowledge instantly, what should an educated person still know and be able to do? Reflections on curiosity, collaboration, expertise and continuous learning after my first year in academia.

How can 50 groszy clean a woodland? A small patch of woodland near my home provides an unexpected answer. Just a few months ago it was littered with empty beer cans and plastic bottles. Today, the rubbish is gone—not because people suddenly became more responsible, but because Poland's Deposit Return System has made discarded containers worth collecting. A small financial incentive, or "nudge," is quietly changing behaviour and making public spaces noticeably cleaner.

Some managers spend their days fighting fires. Others quietly prevent them before they start. And then there are those who seem to create chaos wherever they go. This reflection explores “management by setting fires”, the psychology of uncertainty, and why resilient people need to distinguish between genuine crisis and manufactured urgency.

Warsaw is changing fast. Iconic buildings like Intraco, Ilmet, and Atrium International are disappearing, replaced by newer developments that signal progress. Yet demolition comes with hidden costs — lost materials, embodied carbon, and the erosion of urban memory. As the construction sector accounts for nearly 40% of global emissions, renovation and transformation may offer a more resilient path. The modernisation of V-Tower shows that progress does not always require starti

Minimalism is often framed as restraint, yet it may be better understood as a search for what is truly necessary. In a world shaped by material excess and status competition, choosing less can become a careful choice rather than sacrifice. This reflection explores minimalism as adaptive preference — a quiet recalibration of aspiration — and asks whether it signals personal resilience or the beginning of a broader cultural shift.

Why do capable teams so often underperform? More than a century ago, the Ringelmann experiment showed that adding people can reduce collective effort rather than increase it. This reflection explores social loafing, coordination loss, and why motivation alone is not enough. Drawing on research and examples from elite sports, it asks what allows some teams to move closer to flow — and why leadership is less about pushing effort and more about shaping the conditions for collect

Does organisational resilience come from balanced, collaborative teams — or from the creative tension of opposing views? Drawing on Aristotle’s idea of mesotis and Heraclitus’s metron, we explore two contrasting views: one grounded in virtue and harmony, the other in conflict and transformation. Perhaps true resilience lies not in choosing between them, but in the capacity to hold both.

In Part 3 of the Resilience in Agriculture series, we explore how farming might transform if Nature had a voice. Drawing on Prof. Julia Wright’s work on Subtle Agroecologies, this piece contrasts industrial and ecological knowledge systems, questions how we define success in farming, and proposes a bold idea: could the price of an apple reflect a deeper harmony between people and the land?

How can farmers respond to growing challenges like climate change and economic instability? Resilience seems to be the answer—but what kind? Drawing on animal metaphors from the Polish Academy of Sciences, we explore the trade-offs between robustness, adaptability, and transformation. Can a farm be like a turtle, chameleon, and butterfly all at once—or is a new metaphor needed?

We recently held a resilience seminar at Juchowo Farm, exploring how agriculture can adapt to the challenges of climate, consumption, and biodiversity loss. Biomass now accounts for 28% of climate impact and 97% of biodiversity loss. Can models like biodynamic farming offer a path forward? Resilience is no longer a buzzword—it’s a necessity.

Machiavelli isn’t a devil, he’s a realist. While we praise conquerors who left ruin behind, we condemn the man who dared to describe how power truly works. His insights challenge our belief in human goodness, but offer a path to resilience. If we stop expecting virtue to be rewarded and focus on outcomes, we might better navigate the modern world. Appearances change, human nature doesn’t.

In Woke Inc., Vivek Ramaswamy argues that corporate social responsibility often masks a deeper profit motive. He sees CEOs as using “woke” causes to gain power while avoiding accountability. Ha-Joon Chang counters by highlighting structural flaws in shareholder capitalism, where short-term interests dominate and broader stakeholders lack a voice. Both agree: the impersonal nature of corporations is at the root of the problem.

During a performance review, a colleague told me I seemed “too obsessed with time.” At first, I brushed it off. But the comment stayed with me — leading me to explore how punctuality, once a local custom, became a global expectation. This essay reflects on how we’ve standardised time, why we did it, and how we might reclaim a more human relationship with it.

Visiting Dwórzno Vineyard in Poland sparked reflections on entrepreneurship, resilience, and the value of moving at nature’s pace. In a country where vineyards didn’t exist under communism, this family-run business shows how patience, stress, and long-term vision can shape sustainable growth. Sometimes, deep roots matter more than fast returns.

Africans' biological resilience to disease, once a strength, became a tool of exploitation during the transatlantic slave trade. Immunity marked them as “suitable” for forced labor. This dark irony reveals a deeper truth: individual strength is powerless against systemic power. History shows it’s not personal grit but collective action that endures. Perhaps we should stop striving to be superhuman and start striving to be super connected.

The modern narrative is very optimistic and full of pride: we are progressing, becoming more empathetic, more just. Empathy has become a moral buzzword, a marker of our supposed advancement. But what if this progress is more illusion than reality? What if we’ve simply mastered the art of hiding the truth?

Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein introduced the behavioural economics concept of "nudging": gentle, contextual cues that influence choices without limiting freedom. Economist Ha-Joon Chang shares a delightful historical example—British sailors were nudged into preventing scurvy by mixing unpleasant lemon juice into tasty rum cocktails ("grog"), saving countless lives.

Does a resilient organization need resilient employees? This assumption is rarely questioned. In a recent post, I shared findings on building a resilient salesforce through psychological safety. But the same question extends beyond the workplace: Does a resilient society require resilient organizations?

Robin Dunbar, a British anthropologist and evolutionary psychologist, estimated that the maximum number of stable social relationships a human can maintain is around 150. While you might truly count on only a dozen close relationships, you can collaborate effectively with many more if you build networks thoughtfully, manage expectations, and communicate clearly.

In resilient systems, redundancy isn't waste—it's an opportunity for wisdom. It’s the buffer that absorbs shocks, the backup that keeps things moving, and the diversity that helps ideas evolve. Generative AI is a powerful tool for building this kind of creative safety net.