Weaving resilience: Collaboration as the fabric of transformational adaptation

This thought leadership piece draws on Regen Labs’ research for the NSW Government to explore how connection, trust and shared purpose enable communities and businesses to move from reactive resilience to regenerative transformation. It highlights five forms of ‘soft infrastructure’ that help regions coordinate action and sustain momentum, and shows why investing in relationships is as essential to climate adaptation as investing in roads, energy or data networks.

‘If we see a need, we just get on and do it. That speed, care and willingness to act is what keeps community resilience alive.’
Gaye White, Deputy Chair, WinZero (Southern Highlands)

Fragmented: Why we’re stuck

New South Wales is living through overlapping disruptions, climate shocks and cascading disasters, rising costs, housing stress, workforce shortages and eroding trust in institutions.

Traditional adaptation strategies often focus on defence, seawalls, levees and hazard modelling. These are necessary. They protect against known risks. But what if we could not just equip communities and businesses to navigate the complex, unpredictable realities of a changing climate and economy, but to thrive in these conditions?

Investment in physical infrastructure such as roads, energy grids and data systems is easy to see, measure and promote. Meanwhile, investment in the social systems that connect people, ideas and institutions – and enable local knowledge to circulate – is insufficient, less visible and difficult to measure. Yet, it is these social systems that determine whether communities adapt effectively or remain reactive.

Local enterprises – especially those pioneering business models that deliver positive social, economic and environmental impact – often shoulder an outsized responsibility for resilience. They effectively internalise the costs of restoration and regeneration.

Their work is essential, but largely unsupported. This often leads to burnout, financial strain and isolation. These place-based businesses tend to have limited access to major economic opportunities such as renewable energy programs, innovation hubs and government procurement.

Across all levels – local enterprises and community groups (micro), councils and regional alliances (meso) and state agencies (macro) – a familiar pattern emerges.

Regen Labs’ recent research for the NSW Government found significant energy, creativity and commitment, but also siloed effort, fragmented communication, duplicated initiatives and disjointed decision-making. Support systems are patchy, and top-down processes can stifle business-led innovation.

In short, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and the community organisations they collaborate with are willing to lead, but often lack the policy alignment, finance and connective infrastructure to turn good ideas into viable action.

With these challenges of fragmentation, the question is: how do we get unstuck?

‘One of the most widely acknowledged opportunities for growing resilience, recognised across South East NSW by residents, businesses, community groups, service agencies and organisations, as well as government representatives, is the need for improved connection, collaboration and coordination. These things are not necessarily easy or time efficient, but they are valuable and necessary.’
The South East NSW Resilience Blueprint 

Gaye White from WinZero presenting at the Southern Highlands Homegrown Economy workshop

Gaye White of WinZero at the Southern Highlands Homegrown Economy Workshop

Connected: How we get unstuck

Transformational adaptation depends on soft infrastructure, the civic and social systems that enable collaboration. Sociologist Eric Klinenberg (2018) calls this social infrastructure: the places and organisations that shape how people interact and build trust.

Research on social capital by Daniel Aldrich and Michelle Meyer (2015) shows that networks and relationships predict recovery from disasters better than the level of physical aid a community receives.

In other words, resilience grows where people are connected.

Investing in a connected system with collaborative capacity means resourcing the processes, people and spaces that build trust and coordination across scales. Over time, these connective systems evolve to reflect more distributed and adaptive models of governance, what Nobel laureate Elinor Ostrom (2010) described as polycentric governance: many connected nodes, each exercising local agency while coordinating for the common good.

For businesses, councils and governments, this means treating collaboration as both a capability and a system condition. Trust and cooperation must become part of the way the system works, not just an aspiration.

Transformational adaptation happens when collaboration becomes cultural, embedded in how we plan, decide and invest. So, let’s look at best practice to understand how to make this happen.

Enabling: The five infrastructures for business adaptation

Regen Labs’ research for the NSW Government on business transformation, and that undertaken on behalf of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (2025) on place-based regeneration, points to five enabling infrastructures that are essential for business and economic transformation. These are:

Convened spaces
Hubs, centres, labs and mapping workshops where people and ideas meet, and trust can be built through dialogue and shared problem-solving. These spaces allow communities to practice collaboration and translate it into coordinated action.
Examples: The University of Wollongong’s iAccelerate that supports commercialisation of green economy technologies through enterprises, students and community groups; Regen Labs co-hosted Opportunity Mapping workshop in the Southern Highlands.
Connectors
Individuals and organisations that bridge silos, host conversations, share knowledge and join the dots between levels of the system. Regional transformation often relies on a small number of self-funded connectors. Without recognition and support, these catalysts burn out, leaving communities without conveners to maintain momentum.
Examples: WinZero (Southern Highlands), a volunteer-led connector that has piloted a community Virtual Energy Network; Northern Rivers Food Coalition, convening region-wide food system actors across seven local government areas, involving business, government, universities and non-profit organisations.

‘There are three community volunteers who make most of the action happen in the Southern Highlands. But we’re all retired. We’re trying to get more young people involved so we can rest!’
WinZero volunteer

Shared strategy
Alignment of vision, values, principles, actions and meaningful metrics. Shared frameworks help different actors pull in the same direction and measure progress in ways that reflect local priorities. This echoes the Collective Impact model developed by John Kania and Mark Kramer (2011), with a shared agenda and activities, backbone support and agreed measures.
Examples: Mount Alexander Shire Council’s Council Plan 2025–2029, developed through deep community collaboration; Imagine Northern Rivers workshops led by Carmen Stewart, It Takes a Town, mapping themes for a safe, inclusive and regenerative future across seven local government areas to inform adaptation efforts.
Funding
Long-term, flexible investment is critical to grow the collaborative infrastructures themselves, not just the projects they support. Building networks and trust takes time, and funding cycles need to reflect this reality.
Example: Our Town is an 11-year, $15 million mental health initiative funded by the Fay Fuller Foundation and shaped with regional communities, The Australian Centre for Social Innovation (TACSI) and Clear Horizons. The program helps South Australian towns to develop community-based mental health and wellbeing responses and scale effective practice into regional policy.
Place identity
A clear sense of place helps collaboration stick. People commit when they care about where they live and see how local action connects to wider systems, from town to region to state. Polycentric approaches work best when anchored in a shared sense of home, and practically, what’s in or out of scope.
Example: Castlemaine Institute in Victoria is progressing a range of initiatives including its own currency, new governance approaches, urban regeneration and long term partnerships with the local council.

When these five enablers are in place, isolated initiatives begin to operate as an adaptive system. Communities learn faster, share resources more efficiently and attract investment that aligns with local aspirations.

Without them, adaptation remains a patchwork of disconnected projects.

Investing: Building the collaborative capacity of NSW

Sustained investment in collaboration is one of the most effective ways to support regional adaptation. These five moves provide a practical framework for government, funders and regional leaders:

Fund the connectors
Resource community catalysts, regional backbones and networks to build trust and coordination across business, government, education and civil society. Support them to measure and communicate the value they generate.
Example: The Foundation for Rural & Regional Renewal (FRRR) and the Snow Foundation funded Community Connect South Shoalhaven, a volunteer-driven organisation dedicated to connecting, supporting and empowering local community groups and volunteers. The funding strengthened the organisation and its capacity to serve the community.
Create shared spaces
Embed cross-sector convening in regional life through recurring processes such as Opportunity Mapping, citizen assemblies, bioregional centres, innovation hubs and digital exchanges.
Example: The National Circularity Centre in Bega, scheduled to open in 2026 to link industry, community and research to drive regional innovation.
Align strategy
Co-create shared visions and principles in your community or region as a multi-stakeholder process and use this to guide priorities and actions across agencies and regions. Metrics can incentivise local spend, jobs safeguarded and regenerative outcomes.
Example: Waverley Council and Regen Sydney (2025) created a model of new civic infrastructure, building on the theory of Doughnut Economics, that bridges community, council and private-sector stakeholders to develop actions meaningful for the community – from documentary screenings and panel discussions at the civic innovation hub at the Boot Factory.
Build community financial infrastructure
Establish community foundations or benefit-sharing funds so value circulates locally and supports long-term transitions.
Examples: Cobargo Community Development Corporation Inc harnessed funding post-bushfire for re-building Cobargo as a community-controlled network of assets and cooperatives; Northern Rivers Community Foundation channels local capital toward systemic solutions for community benefit.
Reward collaboration
Integrate partnership criteria into procurement and grants, rewarding organisations that deliver shared social and environmental value.
Example: Wollongong City Council’s Indigenous Business Expo, a joint initiative with Illawarra Indigenous Business Network in its third year and now delivered by Sacred Country Consulting, fosters inclusive procurement.

Collaboration is adaptive infrastructure. When we maintain it deliberately, communities and businesses can navigate change with confidence and creativity.

Transforming: From resilience to regeneration

Adaptation is, without doubt, about coping with disruption. But it is also about re-designing how value flows through communities so that both people and nature can thrive.

Collaboration infrastructure – the networks, governance and relationships that link people, capital and knowledge to place – can enable economies that regenerate rather than deplete. It reconnects finance to local purpose, business to community and the environment, and government to citizens.

By investing in collaboration, NSW can move beyond resilience toward regeneration, with economies that restore ecosystems, strengthen culture and community, and create shared prosperity.

When we build the infrastructure of connection, every adaptation project becomes part of a living system, resilient by design.

Building collaborative capacity: Lessons from a NSW pilot

In September 2025, more than 50 people from the Southern Highlands – cooperatives, farmers, councillors, entrepreneurs, funders and representatives from community groups – came together for an Opportunity Mapping workshop. Co-hosted by Regen Labs, WinZero, RegenAction and local government representatives, the workshop asked a simple question: What could our homegrown economy look like if we worked together?

By the end of the day, more than 20 catalytic initiatives had been identified across food systems, renewable energy, circular economy, community finance, land stewardship and cultural ventures. Many already existed but were disconnected.

The workshop revealed latent capacity. The ingredients for a resilient regional economy were already present; they simply needed connection and recognition.

Image credit: John Swainston

Workshop participants sitting at a table sharing opportunities at the Southern Highlands Homegrown Economy work

What made it work

Readiness – anchor organisations like WinZero and existing networks of growers created fertile ground.
Framing – ‘Highlands Homegrown Economy’ resonated more widely than ‘regenerative economy’, making it inclusive across sectors.
Shared ownership – a facilitation team representing council, business and community built legitimacy and distributed the workload.
Human touches – local food, creative mapping and a Polaroid wall fostered belonging and participation.

Why it matters

Opportunity Mapping demonstrates that structured convening can build momentum and shared ownership for a regenerative economy – one that reflects community aspirations and creates local wealth. It is a low-cost, replicable approach that strengthens social infrastructure and builds the conditions for transformational adaptation.

If you’d like to learn how to host your own Opportunity Mapping workshop, you can access a step-by-step playbook here.