ZenPundit
Saturday, May 20, 2006
 
ON MORAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL RESILIENCE

Steve at ERMB has already commented on the most recent post* by Wiggins at OSD, entitled " Of Moral Resilience and Technical Resilience" where Wiggins wrote:

"There are two related ideas here. One way to understand them is as two aspects of resilience. The first issue is resilience on what Boyd would call the moral level. The second issue is resilience on a technical level. There is a complex feedback loop between these two aspects of resilience; it leads to both excitement and confusion. This is my attempt to explore that relationship. Be warned, my enthusaism might overwhelm my clarity.

Moral resilience is what Boyd focused upon late in his life and a topic that Chet Richards has expanded upon in Certain to Win. The issue they consider is why certain organizations have been able to consistently prevail against adversity. They have concluded that success depends upon maintaining internal cohesion while disrupting the cohesion of your adversaries. When Mark discusses the importance of consilience, I see him implicitly recognizing this. It is not sufficient to just bounce back quickly, because such a strategy is inherently reactive. It abdicates iniative, conceeding the most important factor to
one’s competitors. "

Very much in agreement. Moreover, Wiggins direct reference to Colonel John Boyd's ideas allows us to move the resilience ball further down the field from the organization or group (moral resilience) to the individual(psychological resilience). In Patterns of Conflict, Boyd summarized the "Essence of Moral Conflict" which relates directly to a group's resiliency:

Essence of Moral Conflict

Negative factors

* Menace:
Impressions of danger to one’s well being and survival

*Uncertainty:
Impressions, or atmosphere, generated by events that appear ambiguous, erratic, contradictory, unfamiliar, chaotic, etc.

*Mistrust:
Atmosphere of doubt and suspicion that loosens human bonds among members of an organic whole or between organic wholes

Counterweights

*Initiative:
Internal drive to think and take action without being urged

*Adaptability:
Power to adjust or change in order to cope with new or unforeseen circumstances

*Harmony:
Interaction of apparently disconnected events or entities in a connected way


As a military theorist, Colonel Boyd was concerned primarily with collectives - the enemy, one's own forces, the uncommitted civilian population - into which individuals and their behavior were perforce subsumed. However, Boyd's elements of moral conflict and some of his other ideas can also help explain an individual's psychological resiliency or lack thereof, being affected by extrinsic factors like social relationships and shared values.

When an organization goes beyond a mere functional objective and deliberately inculcates a coherent and identifiable set of values in its members, it is engaged in building moral resilience. We are familiar with many examples - the cadet honor code at West Point, Bushido of Japan's medieval samurai, Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.'s philosophy of nonviolence - all of which were adopted by large numbers of followers and expressed within such groups not only with a common vocabulary but with mutual understanding.

These programs of moral resilience were reinforced by the dynamics of a social network so that individuals, when put under stress or hazard, would face not only a trial of their conscience but the expectations of their peers, superiors and subordinates that they live up to the movement's ideals. Psychologically, this would tend to increase individual resiliency in the following ways:

* Reduction of Uncertainty:

There is no moral confusion only a moral choice. Values, once deeply internalized represent a cognitive frame through which all situations are evaluated. Paralysis is avoided and the individual moves quickly to decide and to act ( Conversely, uncertainty is increased not by increasing the level of stress - many hard-core believers in a cause will welcome sacrifice as proof of their devotion - but by delegitimizing the underlying values that provide the resilience).

*Reduction of Anxiety:

As the individual enjoys the benefits of moral resilience their response to stress is less. Their thoughts are focused, clear, determined to adapt, overcome or if need be, accept the consequences of a situation in a way that does not betray their values (Conversely, the way to raise the anxiety level here is not through a frontal attack but by offering temptation ).

*Increase in Motivation:

Resilient individuals faced with a challenge or a threat are apt to react by fighting back - to take the initiative, as Boyd suggested- while identifying all the more closely with the value-set that provides the core of their moral resilience. Persecution seldom does anything but reinforce the ideological intensity of the group being oppressed ( Conversely, a lack of friction with the outside world -despite the best efforts of group leaders to incite it - can often instigate a devastating cycle of ideological de-escalation and complacency among the membership. A Zen proverb relates that if you wish to fence in your bull, you give him a large meadow).

Moral resilience operates on multiple levels. First, at the level of an organization as a result or product of what Colonel Boyd described as:

"A grand ideal, overarching theme, or noble philosophy that represents a coherent paradigm within which individuals as well as societies can shape and adapt to unfolding circumstances—yet offers a way to expose flaws of competing or adversary systems. Such a unifying vision should be so compelling that it acts as a catalyst or beacon around which to evolve those qualities that permit a collective entity or organic whole to improve its stature in the scheme of things."

Secondly, as the membership internalize the values of the "unifying vision" and acquire moral resilience which in turn produces psychological resilience in the form of the individual's behavioral response to stress or threat.

Thirdly, moral resilience is itself an attractive meme, a " beacon" that draws support in the form of new members ( a "catalyst") or the admiration of uncommitted observers. Or perhaps, repeated demonstrations of moral resilience may have a daunting effect or undermine the morale of adversaries and competitors.

Resilence operates across a spectrum of dimensions and by overlapping your levels of resilient scenarios they will become mutually reinforcing.
 
Comments:
“When an organization goes beyond a mere functional objective and deliberately inculcates a coherent and identifiable set of values in its members, it is engaged in building moral resilience.”

I wonder if this is actually true. Isn’t the organization just increasing their velocity? They are making the movement between orientation and decision-making quicker than their competitor’s. With this added acceleration comes greater force, so they are adding to their force and not bending it to fit the situation. They are trying for a zero sum situation that is to their advantage. This, to me, seems to be just the opposite of resiliency. Of course I am having a hard time with this word because it seems to be more of an Eastern (forces West of our western shores) than Western concept.
 
mark

how about a post from you on
a. robb's original
b. tb's original zinger
c. tb's new connectivity post
d. where you stand on the basic difference between JR / TB, as it looks, on whether the US is (i) in principle capable of connecting a country like iraq or (ii) whether in principle such difficult/complex 'imperial' tasks are beyond a modern democracy itself wired to media and system that enforces transparency to a large degree and therefore inevitably torpedos difficult projects...

we await your voice...!
DC
 
"we await your voice...!"

Fair enough, DC. I'll post up tonight and see if anybody gets mad at me ;o)

Larry wrote:

"They are making the movement between orientation and decision-making quicker than their competitor’s"

Very true. A great efficiency so long as the values/cognitive frame offers an advantage in terms of the situational reality ( when it stops offering an advantage yet ppl are compelled to adhere to the vision, or stubbornly cling to it, well, that's a MAJOR problem)

"With this added acceleration comes greater force, so they are adding to their force and not bending it to fit the situation"

Maybe. Depends on other variables including the perceptiveness of the leadership

"They are trying for a zero sum situation that is to their advantage."

They may. Or maybe not. Zero sum vs. Nonzero sum outcomes can be measured by an objective yardstick as well as by what the group itself considers a valued outcome. They can " win" possibly on their own terms while creating an outcome or spillover effect that they may consider unimportant but the other group considers a " win" (or a "loss")
 
“Very Zen-like answers to my questions. If there are like 10 points of Zen, then you must have moved up a notch to …. nine? You seem to have taken both sides of this issue. I can only say great!

Anyway back to your discussion on resiliency,
"When it stops offering an advantage yet ppl are compelled to adhere to the vision, or stubbornly cling to it, well, that's a MAJOR problem)”
Yes it is, but not to the resilient organization. That is because the organization you describe is a movement. It gets its resiliency from it ability to move towards its strengths when it is under stress. The organization either moves to "action" or "re harmonization", depending on where its strengths are.
"When put under stress or hazard, [the members] would face not only a trial of their conscience but the expectations of their peers, superiors and subordinates that they live up to the movement ideals."

"They can "win" possibly on their own terms while creating an outcome of spillover effect that they may consider unimportant but the other group considers a "win" (or a "loss")”
A bit of wishful thinking isn't it? Why should the organization even search for this "win"? They "win" much more by making sure their moral ground is unmixed by impure conscience. Movements get their resiliency by "moving". But that movement is not left or right, just backward or forward depending on the stress.

"Depends on other variables including the perceptiveness of the leadership"
The leader may be perceptive, but it is almost as impossible for a leader to change the implicit law of his followers, as it would be for an outsider to change them. The most, in the end, is that his followers will "see" the true way. Usually someone dies when this happens. Definitely a system perturbation, as TB calls them.

I believe Islam and Christianity are resilient because they are able to move towards their strengths when they are under stress.

I believe China is resilient because of its use of "benevolent" leaders. It is kind of like having disposable leaders to carry your implicit laws. At least the benevolent leader carries them until the laws need to change. Good-bye Mao, hello the New Deal. If you could, what are your thoughts on China’s resiliency? They are rated very low in countries who are globalized, but seem to be the darlings of the US effort in globalizing. It must take some kind of resiliency to pull that off.
 
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