The adaptive cycle is a conceptual model intended to expose the degree to which a complex system, such as an ecosystem or nervous system are resilient to change.

The Adaptive Cycle consists of four distinct phases.

1. Collapse or a breakdown triggers a change

2. Reorganisation produces a breakthrough

3. Growth or exploitation happens 

4. Conservation of practices and resources returns

A loop of connections shows the relationships between the four phases. For example, when the normal flow of change processes loses their adaptive qualities they become rigid and break down. This breakdown releases resources that can then be used to support new opportunities as they are reorganised and redesigned.

This leads to a growth phase where resources and new actions are conserved and consolidated. This leads yet again to rigidity as relationships become less adaptable and so the cycle continues into a new cycle of breakdown and breakthrough.

The adaptive cycle is represented by Biggs et al. (2010).

The opportunities for innovation are greater in the conservation phase as the new structures are conserved for future application. The collapse when it comes can be catastrophic yet also create a climate for renewal and regeneration. These interventions can increase resilience in the system.

The challenge is to find a balance between sustainability, adaptive capacity and resistance to transformation. 

The Adaptive Cycle Model alerts researchers and policymakers to meet society’s goals of sustainability ignoring the internal and external shocks that can change local structures and functions. There are dangers in losing capital or locking in conservation strategies that could prevent the release of energy or energise the sytem for reorganization.  The cycle helps apply important ideas such as marginal return on investment. 

The model offers insights into the accumulation of resources or capital within the structure of systems, with insights about the increasing complexity that results from ecological succession or social problem-solving. 

The adaptive cycle includes a growth phase, leading to a conservation phase.  Disturbance and stress, whether internal or external, can lead to a release phase, and if the resource base available to the system is not depleted by the disturbance, a reorganisation phase can set the stage for a subsequent growth phase

Resource loss can establish a new system with a different structure on the impoverished resource base, while social and institutional arrangements that “lock in” the mechanisms of conservation can prevent the system from taking advantage of the inevitable release of energy.

Reference

THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE The Biological Roots of Human Understanding by Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela

BIOLOGY REVISIONED by Willis W. Harman, PhD & Elisabet Sahtouris, Ph.D. North Atlantic Books, U.S. 1998

REGENERATIVE LEADERSHIP by Giles Hutchins and Laura Storm. Wordzworth Publishing  2019

INDIRECT WORK by Carol Sanford. Interoctave 2022

ADAPTIVE ACTION Leveraging Uncertainty in your Organisation by Glenda Eoyang & Royce Holladay. Stanford Press 2013

COACHING TO THE HUMAN SOUL – VOLS (1 & 2  by Alan Sieler 2003 Newfield Australia

INTELLIGENCE IN NATURE An Inquiry into Knowledge by Jeremy Nerby. Tarcher 2006