One cannot talk about being a resilient organisation if you are not geared up to cope with your changing internal and external organisational environment.
The only constant we face is the constant of change.
Change comes in various guises which can be classified as:
Political
Economic
Social
Technological
Legal
Environmental
These change headings cover all the topics that impact on an organisational risk register and therefore the operational resilience of an organisation as well.
This would unclude: pandemics, climate change and technological security and certainty.
The relationship is very close and if you have problems arguing for the resilience agenda in your organisation you can always dress it up in the cloak of change management.
In reality if you don't do change management very well you are unlikely to do organisational resilience veryvwell!
Do you manage change effectively in your organisation?
How can we tackle this effectively?
We need to try and predict the major changes we will face in the short, medium and long term and gear ourselves to tackling them?
So what can we do?
Horizon scanning is an established technique which will assist both the change management and operational resilience agendas.
This must be done in a systematic and organised manner.
Does your organisation do it effectively or if at all?
It is important that your budgetary process takes horizon scanning into account but it is not just a financial process. Everyone needs to have an input and in my experience it is often the most quiet and reserved people who offer the most penetrative perspectives on change and operational resilience!
All views of change count here even if they might initially appear silly and unconventional.
They shouldn't be discounted just for that reason and in many cases something which initially appears unlikely can become reality and we are all bearing the consequences of that right now!
Effective change is a function of effective leadership and commitment from those people that change will affect.
So we need to know:
How it will affect individuals and the organisation?
What the change process might be?
How we can build commitment to change in our organisation?
Not easy tasks to do.
In some ways arguing for improving operational resilience might be easier because you are trying to preserve a position or at least trying to make sure things don't get worse both for your organisation and your colleagues.
There are two main types of change; strategic and operational. The former refers to the long term vision and scope of the organisation whilst the latter refers to daily issues like; systems, processes and procesures which may need to change.
Both elements are also critical for operational resilience.
We need to look at how we think the future might be and try to reach that future in proper measured steps. Proper Action planning is critical here.
This could mean moving from our present state to a transitional state and then reaching a desired state. This process will always be iterative and will never conclude. Just like our resilience journey.
A tao journey if ever there was one!
We need to identify the main changes we must aspire to and how we can get there.
If we put people in new roles with new definitions they are more likely to change. Hence ascribing shadow operational resilience roles to individuals as in my previous blog!
People in the organisation need to see the reason and benefits of change to become committed to achieving it.
Good action planning, strong and visionary leadership is required and the organisation must be open to change and is itself defined as an organisation willing to learn and embrace change.
Are you that organisation?
Too often in mission statements a commitment to achieving change is described and even lauded but the reality is different. Many change management projects fail because people in the organisation are not convinced of any benefits that might accrue to them both individually or in group terms.
In essence the change is driven top down with little or no commitment from the staff.
This is the main reason why many change nanagement programmes fail.
In trying to deliver improved operational resilience we can learn much from the change management agenda in that we must convince our own staff that greater operational resilience will aim to protect the organisation from inherent risk and uncertainty.
In many ways it should be easier to gain staff commitment to the operational resilience agenda in your organisation because of those very reasons!
That's why we should go for achieving greater operational resilience whilst learning the lessons of effective change management.
The two disciplines are very close to each other!
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