Organisational Resilience
Organisational Resilience, therefore, is the ability of an organisation to anticipate, prepare for, respond and adapt to change, in order to survive and prosper.
Real Resilience is the harmonious integration of all business functions to enable proactive decision-making.
If you think about your organisation, during the last six to eighteen months, have you experienced any of the following?
- High and fast growth
- High-stress levels in employees
- Worrying levels of employee absence or presenteeism
- An overwhelming number of initiatives
- New ways of working and/or pivoting the business focus
- Neurodiverse employees that need different types of support
- Unhelpful organisational culture; e.g. blame culture, silos, lack of communication
Basically, any one of the above could be a sign that you need to look at the resilience of the organisation and its employees. Fast growth does not lend itself to structure. Lack of structure leads to lack of productivity and higher stress levels.
The pace of change is accelerating.
This means that organisations need to be able to adapt quickly to changing circumstances. The environment in which organisations operate is becoming more complex. This means that organisations, and their employees, need to be able to deal with increased complexity and uncertainty. That requires Real Resilience.
The consequences of disruption
The interconnectedness of the world means that the consequences of a disruption in one part of the world can be felt in other parts of the world very quickly. Organisations are more reliant on others for their success. The supply chain is now global and organisations are often reliant on others for key inputs. As a matter of fact, this means that when a disruption occurs, organisations are often less able to rely on their own resources to recover.
Organisational resilience is therefore a critical capability for operating in today’s world. It is essential for companies to anticipate, prepare for, and empathise with employee needs in a way that keeps pace with growth.
Real Resilience is achieved through a combination of people, processes, and technology. Moreover, people are your most valuable resource, the biggest lever for your success as a business. Processes need to be in place to ensure that the organisation can continue to function. Technology provides the tools and systems needed to support people and processes.
Real Resilience is a journey, not a destination. It is an ongoing process that needs to be constantly reviewed and updated in order to be effective.
Basically, there is no one size fits all to achieving organisational resilience. The first step is the Resilience Audit. Your audit report will define your journey.
