What is your word of the year?

‘Brain Rot’ has been officially announced as the Oxford Dictionaries word of the year describing the impact of spending hours scrolling mindlessly on Instagram reels and TikTok. Anyone who has constant battles with their children on the amount of ‘screen time’ allowed will completely understand why it has been selected. But what word that you have heard most often in meetings and events?

For me, it is ‘Resilience’. In a year that has been shaken by extreme weather events, political upheaval and global conflict more people in all walks of life have realised that the fabric of society is under-threat and that they need to build more social, environmental and financial resilience into every aspect of their work.

The food sector is one where the need for resilience is acutely apparent. This week I heard from four of the UK’s leading food retailers that resilience is the top of their agenda. Extreme weather is starting to hit food supplies and increase costs. This situation is likely to worsen, the recent floods in Spain will be felt in the UK as it supplies 25% of our fruit imports and 8% of vegetable imports. This variability in supply is being exacerbated by global conflict and the potential for the introduction of more protectionist trade policies.

At the same discussion, farmers talked about their need for resilience. Extreme weather has resulted in their second worst harvest on record. Heavy rainfall has led to greater soil erosion, flooded many crops and changed the usual growing seasons. This has hit their well-being causing increased levels of stress for a sector that already has a high risk of mental illness and suicide.

The desire for resilience can lead to positive action. I have been highly motivated hearing from countless community initiatives driven by people frustrated by the wider agenda and determined to take back control where they can. These hidden heroes are delivering real change in their locality helping their community cope with a rapidly changing word.

The environmental sector specialises in creating words, such as sustainability, that are widely misunderstood and open to wilful misinterpretation. Whilst ‘resilience’ is not used in regular conversations few can argue with how it is defined which is: ‘The ability to withstand or quickly bounce-back from difficulties. As we head into a deeply uncertain 2025, we are all going to need to show greater resilience and perhaps it can be the defining approach for organisational strategies.