Responsiveness
6/5/2023
- Responsiveness can be defined as such: the quality of ease by which something or someone is able to preserve its value or usefulness in response to pressure, volatility, and/or other vicissitudes of life.
- Responsiveness is the opposite of fragility. (Fragility can be defined as the quality of difficulty by which something or someone can preserve its value or usefulness in the face of pressure, volatility, etc.)
- Responsiveness is not the same as resilience. Resilience relates to how easy it is for something to resist pressure, volatility, and/or vicissitudes of life. Being easily able to resist change, something that is resilient often stays in or returns to the same state it was before. Responsiveness is not about resisting change or volatility; it is about adapting to it. It changes without losing its value.
- We can consider something responsive by how well it is able to control the game. Consider a relationship. A fragile partner in a relationship is one that easily abandons the relationship under pressure – i.e. when things are no longer fun. A resilient partner will stick it through in the relationship, despite pressure. They are present and supportive. There may be some tension or arguing, but deep down they will maintain the same feelings of love and care. A responsive partner will easily maintain their value, their usefulness, in the face of pressure. They’ll respond to new needs in the relationship with little resistance; indeed, in their tendency to be responsive, they may have already anticipated these needs.
- Obviously, resilience is not a bad quality to have. It keeps you in the game, but it doesn’t necessarily give you control of the game. Control of the game depends on how responsive you are to change.