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Developing a Resilient Organization |
| January ICORrespondence Newsletter |
January 5, 2009 |
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What began in the 1980's as disaster recovery planning and has moved over the past 25 years to be called many things including: contingency planning, emergency management, crisis management, business continuity planning, and enterprise risk management is now being addressed as "Resiliency Planning."
So what is a resilient organization? ICOR defines a resilient organization as one that can achieve its core objectives under all conditions.
ICOR's mission is to help organizations to become resilient by providing information, education and credentialing in the disciplines that support resilience.
ICOR believes that there is no one single answer to being resilient, but that there are standards and best practices already developed that when brought together in the organization can make it more resilient.
We have identified and defined these characteristis as the 10 disciplines in our ICOR University.
- Business Continuity Management
- Crisis Management & Communications
- Technical Infrastructure
- Emergency Management
- Facility Management
- Legal Compliance & Audit
- Organizational Behavior
- Risk Management & Insurance
- Social Resilience
- Supply Chain, Logistics, and Transportation Management
Visit the University pages to learn about those organizations that provide education and credentialing, where you can go for networking - industry chapter groups - and magazines, e-zines, and periodicals where you can learn more about that discipline. Several of the disciplines also include "Experts" who you can contact with specific questions.
ICOR is excited to be part of Norwich University's Master's Program in Business Continuity Management. As part of that program, ICOR has written Seminar 3 entitled, " Developing a Resilient Organization."
This seminar contains 10 lessons that are covered over an 11 week period. This newsletter provides you with a sneak peak of this material.
In addition, ICOR will be launching 10 new e-learning courses in the second quarter of 2009 - one course covering each of the lessons listed below.
- Characteristics of a Resilient Organization
- The Structure of a Resilient Organization
- The Impact of Culture on an Organization's Resilience
- Leaders of Resilient Organizations
- Staying Resilient During a Crisis
- The Role of Issue Management and Crisis Readiness in Organizational Resilience
- The Resilient Workforce
- The Resilient Workplace
- Improving the Resilience of your Supply Chain
- Being Part of a Resilient Community
As you begin the new year with the curent economic challenges - and are asked to do more with less - understand that your organization is more vulnerable than ever before.
This is the time for your organization to invest in training and professional development for its employees. It's also a time to invest in yourself - broaden your knowledge base to ensure that you are invaluable.
Whether it's an ICOR course or a course from one of our educational partners, take a look at your professional development needs and the needs of your organization and get the training you need.
And if you have questions, don't hesitate to call or send an email!
Sincerely,
Lynnda Nelson, President
The International Consortium for Organizational Resilience
866.765.8321 US/Canada +1630.705.0910 International Calls |
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| Characteristics of a Resilient Organization |
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Research shows that organizations that have a clear vision and goals, which are well understood and communicated throughout the organization, find it much easier to approach a crisis situation and manage it in a coordinated way.
In contrast, organizations that struggle with even the day-to-day reconciling of disparate and sometimes even competing strands of the business are observed to have these internal silos emphasized, significantly hampering the organization's ability to pull together in times of crisis.
Discover those characteristics that have been identified as visible in resilient organizations and lacking in those not as resilient. Learn from the latest research in this area being completed by The University of Canterbury in New Zealand: Resilience Management: A Framework for Assessing & Improving the Resilience of Organizations.
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| The Structure of a Resilient Organization |
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"Decentralization has been lying dormant for thousands of years. But the advent of the Internet has unleashed this force, knocking down traditional businesses, altering entire industries, affecting how we relate to each other, and influencing world politics.
The absence of structure, leadership, and formal organization, once considered a weakness, has become a major asset. Seemingly chaotic groups have challenged and defeated established institutions. The rules of the game have changed." (The Starfish and the Spider, page 6)
Take a close look at how the structure of an organization can be its greatest asset or its greatest weakness - evaluating your organization and how to make it more resilient.
ICOR recommends a great book, "The Starfish and the Spider," by Ori Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom. Published in 2006, it is a quick and easy read that once you start it is difficult to put down. |
| The Impact of Culture on an Organization's Resilience |
An organization's culture can be most easily described as "the way we do things around here." Corporate cultures provide identifying characteristics and values for members to appreciate and learn. Culture is difficult to change, yet change is necessary in some instances for survival.
One of the greatest challenges facing a continuity professional is to create a culture that supports organizational resiliency at all levels. The concept of "resilience" can be used to facilitate the identification of the cultural factors within organizations which have a protective effect against the negative impact of organizational change.
Understand the importance of organizational culture in managing every day events and in particular in managing crises by looking at how to analyze the culture of the organization and work within its structure to create a more resilient organization.
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| Leaders of Resilient Organizations |
Resilience begins with enterprise leadership setting the priorities, allocating the resources and making the commitment to establish organizational resilience throughout the organization. Managing a crisis is a difficult task, and organizations must change the way they lead in order to be more aware of potential crises. Understanding the elements of leadership in times of crisis may help better explain more than any set of crisis plans why some organizations survive crises better than others and clarify how organizations can endure future crises. While planning is important, leadership in a time of crisis, particularly in the immediate aftermath, may trump any preparation. Read about the leadership qualities that have been shown to support the development of a resilient organization in the research paper published by the University of Virginia's Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, " Leadership in Turbulent Times: Competencies for Thriving Amidst Crisis." |
| Staying Resilient During a Crisis |
A crisis does or has the potential to disrupt or affect an entire organization. Looking at the causal relationships among public relations expense, reputation and revenue, research has found that there is a valid and reliable relationship between a company's expenditures on public relations and its reputation.
"Crises are now being judged not only by financial and ethical standards, but by whether the company handled its crisis effectively in the eyes of Wall Street, Madison Avenue, the plaintiff's bar and 24 hour a day cable news." (Eric Dezenhall in Damage Control, page 8)
Focus on the role of crisis management and reputation management by looking at modern case studies of organizations who have done it well - and at some who have not done it as well by reading Damage Control by Eric Dezenhall. A well known author of both fiction and non-fiction, Dezenhall provides insight that will get you re-thinking your crisis management plan. |
| The Role of Issue Management & Crisis Readiness |
In the late 1980s, Anne Reilly proposed a "crisis readiness" construct, defining it as "the readiness to cope with the uncertainty and change engendered by a crisis." Oliver Schmidt introduces the role of issues management, "The process by which internal and external issues that have the potential to significantly impact organizational performance are identified, prioritized, analyzed and resolved with the goal of preventing crises and seizing opportunities." The focus here is the role of crisis readiness and issues management and its importance in developing a resilient organization. THere are two suggested readings, " Predicting Organizational Crisis Readiness" and " Issue Management." |
| The Resilient Workforce |
The bedrock of organizational resilience is the organization's workforce. People who are properly selected, motivated, equipped and led will overcome almost any obstacle or disruption.
To harness people's incredible ability to lead and respond during trying circumstances requires a systematic strategy for people selection and people support.
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| The Resilient Workplace |
To have a resilient workplace requires a highly distributed and connected environment. It is essential as well to undertake a comprehensive assessment of workplace security and safety. Fortunately, not only is the resilient organization operationally superior, it can improve the bottom line as well. The resilient organization is the template for organizational competitiveness and survival in the 21st century. It is an organizational framework that will enable the enterprise to respond and flourish in an environment of hyper-change. Learn more by visiting this website, http://nonprofitrisk.org/tools/workplace-safety/public-sector/wsp-ps.htm to view The Workplace Safety Toolkit. To learn more about the importance of a highly distributed and connected workplace environment, see the article published by Gartner entitled, "The Five Principles of Organizational Resilience." |
| Improving the Resilience of your Supply Chain |
Threats to your supply chain and therefore to your organization abound - their likelihood and consequences heightened by long, global supply chains, ever-shrinking product cycles, and volatile and unpredictable market cycles. It is important to take a systems view of your organization, recognizing that there are multiple interdependencies within and between different organizations that influence their ability to respond and recover. This means that effective resilience management for any one organization must look beyond that single organization and consider the resilience of other organizations upon which it depends. The emerging field of supply chain risk management is potentially of great value in managing operational disruptions. Take a close look at the latest research on how organizations can and should build resilient organizations by improving the resilience of their supply chains. Read the research from Cranfield University in the UK entitled, " Creating Resilient Supply Chains: A Practical Guide" and "Building Resilient Supply Chains" by published by MIT. |
| Being Part of a Resilient Community |
Resilience is not something that can be achieved by any one organization or infrastructure system acting in isolation. Organizations are required to work together toward system resilience in order to build resilient communities.
The organization must look at its role in the community and how to deliver its goods and services under any conditions.
Delve into best practice recommendations for analyzing the role of your organization in each community it resides and review examples of best practices of public / private partnerships working toward community resilience.
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If you would like to submit an article or presentation for a future ICORrespondence Newsletter submit it to Lynnda@theicor.org.
Sincerely,
Lynnda Nelson, President
The International Consortium for Organizational Resilience | |
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