Organisational Resilience-Ascribing shadow resilience roles to staff well before a crisis looms

In previous blogs I have spoken about how important it is for an individual to contribute to the organisational stance of being resilient.

We have spoken about the need for individuals to be optimistic and to believe they can act in a way that can change things for the better. This involves believing that banishing pessimism and surmounting disappointment are very useful traits of individual character!

As an individual person we must strive for this but we must ensure that this transfers into an organisational context as well.

An individual cannot be resilient without the organisation being resilient as well. Both must go together!

We must ensure that an organisation possesses the will, structures and processes to be resilient. It is not solely down to the Individual employee!

Does your organisation act like this?

We cannot divorce the two.

I have spoken earlier about the organisation being prepared to tap into risk registers at the local and national level and to formulate action plans to tackle those risks.

It may be that no immediate benefit is seen from those actions but we must view this as a preparation or indeed a stress test for what might come down the line that we are likely to meet.

Be it a pandemic or climate change, planning is never wasted although often the immediate benefits of it are unclear.

When rapid change happens and it will happen and you are unprepared, the organisational costs will be considerable as is the threat to the very existence of the organisation.

If you have not prepared properly there is a chance you will be classed as negligent and that is a danger for you as a manager and leader.

There is much present talk that the effects of the current covid pandemic were unavoidable.

That is not true! They just weren't properly trialled before! We could and should have done better.

People say resilience planners are doom mongers but I say they are realists waiting for the future to begin and to be prepared for it!

Any lack of preparedness can be terminal for what we do.

We need to do this not only in financial and budgetary planning but in strategic planning terms as well. Both elements must combine to work towards the resilience of an organisation!

If I were to honestly ask you whether you are capable to cope with dynamic risk and change what would you honestly say?

1.We are geared up to do this?

2. We can do it partially?

3. We can do it minimally?

4. We are unprepared to cope?

Where are you on this spectrum?

What are you aiming for?

Organisationally are you ready for risk and change?

Can you really answer these questions honestly and truthfully?

Because if you can't you will probably be in serious trouble!

What many resilience advisors propose is that key players and indeed everyone in organisations have shadow resilience roles as well as their own principal roles.

Such an approach would ensure that when a crisis strikes we could adopt our shadow resilience roles and respond to any such crisis in a positive manner.

Have we got these shadow resilience roles?

I don't believe we have but we should have!

Can someone double as a CEO and a Chief Resilience officer?

Is it.possible that say a chief accountant can also double as a resilience programme costing officer?

I believe they can and they must!

Often when a crisis strikes it is too late to start ascribing these roles!

We need to define shadow resilience roles and do those things now!

Before it's too late!!!

Please don't get caught out and think ahead!

If we know what we need to do in advance we will do it better.

5here is no doubt in that!