Resilience: Why Things Bounce Back

Key Features

• In the last decade we've seen a new kind of nonfiction storytelling emerge from Gladwell to Stephen Johnson. While most such books were appropriate for their respective time, the world has now changed, and we're hungry for new ideas. Just as The Tipping Point was the perfect idea for the 90s, Resilience is the perfect meme for now.
• Because Resilience applies to many domains, from how people bounce back from trauma to how whole economies become brittle, this book has across the board appeal-to business readers and psychology readers; science readers and those interested in ecology and the future on the planet.
• Throughout this whirlwind tour of fascinating resilient People and systems, we learn how we can design our businesses and ecosystems to be more resilient; how we can build in better shock absorbers for our companies-and even ourselves.
• Each chapter is a field trip to a fascinating realm. We travel to a coral reef to understand how natural systems recover. We go to Chicago, where an innovative community group called "Ceasefire" has can gun violence in half. We meet hothouse innovators working on a new American power grid. We look at personal trauma, like PSD, and learn why some can recover from it perfectly, while others never do.
• Andrew Zolli is the curator of the annual POPTECH conference, which, like the TED conference, is one of the buzziest conferences in the world and gets attention year round. Zolli is a massively in?demand speaker, is frequently quoted in major media, and has been interviewed for NPR's Marketplace, Business Week, The New York Times, Wired, and elsewhere. He has been named one of the "Next Establishment" by Vanity Fair and was on Fast Company's "Fast 50," their list of America's top 50 emerging business leaders.

About the Book: Resilience: Why Things Bounce Back

In an age wracked with devastating natural disasters, global economic meltdowns, and escalating political turmoil, Resilience uncovers the hidden interconnectedness of systemic failures-both natural and man-made-and shares paradigm-shifting lessons in recreating stability and sustainability in a volatile world. All systems break down. Some bounce back, others do not. This is a book about why. Resilience is a dazzling exposition of fresh thinking about how the world works. It covers business, economic, geographic and social systems in a thrillingly readable narrative. A wealth of absorbing examples are covered, from the link between US oil prices and the recent 'tortilla riots' in Mexico to what was really happening when the US government decided not to bail out Lehman Bros. Resilience introduces completely new ideas, such as 'flipping' which is when a systems has been pulled out of shape so often it changes forever. The thinking in Resilience has crucial implications for how to understand the world in which we live.

About the Author: Andrew Zolli

Andrew Zolli is a leading global foresight and innovation expert and is the creator of Pop! Tech, a renowned social innovation network and thought leadership forum. The New York Times calls Pop! Tech 'an enduring, not-to-miss event drawing big names who reach for big ideas.' Andrew is a major speaker on both sides of the Atlantic and has been interviewed for The New York Times, Fast Company, Business Week, the BBC and Wired. Ann Marie Healy is a playwright, screenwriter and journalist. Her writing has been supported and honored by organizations as diverse as the Sundance Institute, The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and The New York State Council for the Arts.

Reviews

"In an increasingly complex world, we can't avoid shocks??we can only build better shock absorbers. This is brilliant exploration of how best to do that, told with compelling examples and stories."-Chris Anderson, Editor?in?Chief of Wired, author of The Long Tail and Free

"Smart and sophisticated, this is a landmark work in a new field. If you are part of a system that wants to avoid clapse, read this book." -David Eagleman, Neuroscientist, Baylor College of Medicine, and author of Incognito and Why the Net Matters

"Resilience is mandatory reading for people of all disciplines that will transform how you approach daily global events. Part complexity theory, part psychology, it is a pivotal book for today and a necessity to strategically plan for tomorrow." -David Agus, MD, Professor of Medicine and Engineering, University of Southern California, Author, The End of Illness

"A whirlwind tour through an idea whose time has come. I suspect that the concepts in this book will define the next decade." -Jad Abumrad, Host and Creator of RadioLab, and 2011 MacArthur Fellow

"We all know someone who has endured the unimaginable and not only survives but thrives, while making all our lives better. A part of this may be genetic, some environmental. But resilience can also be learned, and taught, which is exactly what Andrew Zolli and Ann Marie Healy do with this book." -Juan Enriquez, author of as the Future Catches you and Homo Evolutis and Managing Director of Excel Venture Management

"Spending time with Andrew Zollis mind - that is what you will experience when reading Resilience - provides an understanding of the deep structures that will govern success in the coming century." -Bruce Mau, Co?founder and Director, Massive Change Network