Why Not Focus on Community Continuity and Continuous Resilience By Stephen Jordan

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ISD Background

By Stephen Jordan

I had an interesting conversation today with a senior corporate executive. As we wrapped up, she said something that made me realize we really need to clarify that the Institute for Sustainable Development is trying to break through with new concepts that the current frame of talking about community shocks and stresses doesn’t take into account:

“It’s a shame you focus so much on disasters.”

At ISD, we actually don’t.

Our mission is grounded in the opposite idea: communities shouldn’t have to endure a disaster to get the resources, attention, or leadership they need to become stronger.

What we focus on is community continuity—reducing the harm from future disruptions and strengthening resilience every single day.

Businesses already understand this. They don’t build “Business Emergency Plans.”They build Business Continuity Plans because interruptions cost money, customers, and competitiveness. Continuity is practical. It’s strategic. It’s how organizations stay viable.

Communities deserve the same logic.

Moving Away From Focusing on Responding to Sudden Shocks to Addressing the Stresses Beneath Them

Too often, we treat disasters as isolated events—wildfires, floods, hurricanes, pandemics—when in reality they are sudden shocks that expose deeper, ongoing stresses:

aging infrastructure
brittle housing systems
fragile local economies
limited access to capital
social and health vulnerabilities
governance bottlenecks
outdated rules and planning assumptions

At ISD, we don’t just look at the dramatic moment of impact.We look at what the shock reveals.We look at the conditions that made the disaster as destructive as it was.

And then we ask the real question:

Why aren’t we working on reducing those stresses continuously?

The Kid Soccer Problem: Chasing the Ball Instead of Covering the Field

Every time a disaster strikes, there’s a tendency for the press and community leaders to act like how little kids play soccer —everyone bunches up and chases the ball.

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