Reflecting on Resilient Organizations

This fall, as we celebrate our fourth anniversary, we have been reflecting on our continued learning - both as a team and as individuals.  With every new collaboration comes new challenges and opportunities for growth; we take great pride in the fact that we are an ever-evolving organization, ready to embrace the next leg of the journey.

Our team’s growth and development over the past year has deepened our curiosity about exactly what makes an organization resilient. Despite an increased recognition of the importance of wellbeing and resilience on individual practitioners’ ability to sustain themselves and their social change work, there has been notably less reflection on how organizations and teams sustain themselves for the long haul. Across sectors, how organizations are structured, and how they conceive of and practice leadership, advance strategy, and navigate the internal contradictions and inequities they’re trying to combat externally, influence not just the experience of employees but also the progress they are able to make collectively. 

Working across domains and sectors has offered Four Corners insight into some of the core elements that make organizations resilient: 

• A clearly articulated, organizational-level theory of change serves as a roadmap, a source of inspiration, and a unifying thread. When individuals, teams, and departments understand exactly how their contributions advance their organization’s mission and their social justice mandate more broadly, it helps staff feel aligned, focused, and motivated in radical new ways. 

• Organizations naturally fall along a wide structural spectrum, from the firmly hierarchical to the fully horizontal. Regardless of structure, it is important that the decision making process is transparent for all staff.  Furthermore, despite the structure, it is critical that individuals at all levels feel empowered to provide feedback, elevate concerns, and assume a leadership role in those decisions that impact them directly. 

• Social justice work requires tenacity, dedication, and endless hard work. Being intentional about making the journey fun and meaningful and fostering human connection help to contribute to a sense of belonging, allowing organizations to tackle sensitive issues from a place of increased trust.

We are very proud of the work that we do to contribute to a more resilient ecosystem of social change organizations. Whether conducting an evaluation to measure a program’s impact, providing strategic counsel to teams navigating growth and change, or helping to design new initiatives, Four Corners is committed to taking a data-informed, equitable, and people-centered approach that places organizational health at the center of long-term success. 

Thank you for playing an important role in supporting our efforts to build more resilient organizations to advance social change. We are forever learning from our clients, partners, and extended networks, and we look forward to continuing to evolve alongside you as our journey continues!

P.S. For those interested in further reading, we recommend this important piece that has informed our own thinking; penned last year by Maurice Mitchell, a movement leader, the essay dissects the challenges facing social justice institutions and movements and lays out practical solutions.