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.

Resilience is a concept that is intuitively understood but surprisingly difficult to measure. For the Earth as a system, the Planetary Boundaries Framework offers a relatively precise set of measures that help define resilience in environmental terms—essentially, how much pressure our planet can absorb before its vital systems are at risk. But when it comes to individuals, organizations, or even entire societies, no such commonly accepted measurement framework exists.