In complex systems, learning often stops where organisational charts end. One community discovers something vital, but the insight stays local. Feedback bridges move that knowledge where it's needed: across different groups, regions and levels of decision-making and action.
Bridging starts with relationships. Regular catchups, cross-community workshops and peer exchanges let people compare notes, surface assumptions and notice repeating patterns and differences. The conversations matter as much as the content. They transform isolated experiences into collective intelligence. This might be when a community that's worked out how to check on vulnerable residents during heat waves shares reliable methods or when people who've coordinated evacuations talk through what helped and what didn't.
Diverse evidence strengthens these bridges. Statistics show scale and trend: how many people were involved, which approaches worked best, where participation was strongest. Stories reveal texture and meaning: what people actually needed, which plans worked under pressure, where assumptions broke down. Combining both helps people see what numbers alone can't convey. Brief reflection notes, accessible shared files and conversations that stick keep learning visible and portable.
Capture insights soon after events while they're fresh, feed them into planning cycles and close the loop by reporting what changed as a result. Over time, this habit reduces repetition, increases trust and fosters improvement.
Something to chew on:
Where does learning get stuck in your network and what feedback bridge could help it travel further?
Resilience Bites offers weekly insights from the Australian Resilience Centre, drawn from decades of work alongside communities across Australia and internationally. Each Bite explores an aspect of resilience and closes with a reflective question to chew on.
Across the series we'll explore themes that shape resilience in practice, including place, patterns, networks, leadership, learning, feedbacks, thresholds and the deeper work of change.
This series is for people working in communities, landscapes, systems and change. It will help you learn key resilience concepts, apply them in practice and build our collective capacity to create resilient futures.
To learn more about the Australian Resilience Centre and explore our work and services, please visit https://www.ausresilience.com.au/
To read published Bites, please visit https://resiliencebites.ausresilience.com.au/
