Entering into the unexpected: Managing resilience in extreme situation

Abstract : This article introduces the concept of the extreme situation, which is tightly linked to the concept of resilience and more specifically, entry into resilience. The latter is defined as the moment when an individual (or group) gradually resumes normal business following a period of immobility due to a shock of unprecedented brutality. The classical approach is the well-known concept of sensemaking drawn from the work of Karl Weick. Nevertheless, this historical perspective merits a fresh look that incorporates new sources of hitherto untapped data and/ or a review of existing material. The accident at Fukushima Dai Ichi serves as a demonstration for this new interpretation.