Convergences: a workshop designed to bring together economic challenges, social responsibility, and long-term sustainability.

The Convergences workshop begins with an observation: our system is in the midst of a major shift, and we are moving from a world that has been relatively stable and abundant in recent decades (at least in the Western world) to a world that is once again becoming limited and unstable, due to the overshooting of planetary boundaries and the proliferation of crises (the phenomenon of polycrisis: crises that are increasingly frequent, interconnected, and intense).

Obviously, this shift does not happen overnight; on the contrary, it unfolds over the long term, but with exponential momentum, and in complex, cross-cutting ways. The problem, however, is that our organizations are designed to manage short-term problems, with linear dynamics, and in a siloed or simplified manner. 

Conclusion: we are not ready to manage this shift.

Yet we are already seeing the effects of this shift on businesses, with very concrete risks:

• on the business model (e.g., insurance)

• on the value chain (suppliers, shortages, commodity prices)

• on sites and buildings (physical damage: floods, fires, etc.)

• on workplace health (heat waves, stress, pollution, etc.)

• on employee engagement

All of this stems from the fact that we are in a constant pursuit of performance, and this makes us vulnerable and diminishes our ability to respond to crises

All of this is very well explained by Olivier Hamant, a researcher and biologist from Lyon, who has done extensive work on the resilience of living systems and its applications to business.

And what he tells us is that the world is becoming increasingly unstable, and the 21st century will be the century of fluctuations. 

And in a fluctuating world, the systematic pursuit of performance is actually a very destabilizing strategy. On the contrary, the right strategy to develop is resilience—that is, the ability to maintain a stable and viable system despite fluctuations.

And all of this represents a huge challenge for companies, since up until now the number one priority has mostly remained performance and profitability. The more unstable the world becomes, the more it will put pressure on other priorities such as responsibility and sustainability. 

So the challenge will be to shift from this current approach to one where we instead seek a certain balance, to develop a more robust organization that maintains its stability despite fluctuations. And this will be possible with the Convergences workshop.