Improving business resilience in the face of a crisis

In an increasingly volatile business environment, the organisations that succeed are those that are resilient but what is organisational resilience and is there a way to build your company’s adaptive capacity? Often when considering resilience, we think of a crisis, but resilience comes from deeper within an organisation’s culture. It depends on an organisation’s leadership, culture, supply network and how it strategically positions itself for change. We have identified some key indicators that can help reveal how resilient an organisation is likely to be in the face of a crisis.

Leadership
Strong crisis leadership to provide good management and decision-making during times of crisis, as well as continuous evaluation of organisational strategies.

Staff engagement
The engagement of staff who understand the link between their own work, the organisation’s resilience, and its long-term success.

Situational awareness
Employees are encouraged to be vigilant about the organisation, its performance, and potential problems, reporting quickly issues to organisational leaders.

Decision making
Workers should have the appropriate authority to make decisions related to their work and authority is clearly delegated to enable a crisis response.

Innovation and creativity
Staff are encouraged to solve new and existing problems, and for utilising innovative and creative approaches to developing solutions.

Effective partnerships
An understanding of the relationships and resources needed from other organisations during a crisis, and planning and management to ensure this access.

Leveraging knowledge
Critical information is stored in a number of formats and locations and staff have access when needed. Roles are shared and staff are trained to fill key roles.

Breaking silos
Minimisation of divisive social, cultural, and behavioural barriers which are most often manifested as communication barriers.

Internal Resources
Management and mobilisation of internal resources to ensure day-to-day operations, as well as providing extra capacity required during a crisis.

Unity of purpose
An organisation-wide awareness of what the priorities would be following a crisis and an understanding of minimum operating requirements.

Proactive Posture
Strategic and behavioural readiness to respond to early warning signals of change in the organisation’s internal and external environment before they escalate.

Planning strategies
Development and evaluation of plans and strategies to manage vulnerabilities in relation to the business environment and its stakeholders.

Stress testing plans
The participation of staff in simulations or scenarios designed to practice response arrangements and validate plans.

Resilience integrates the concepts of risk, crisis management, business continuity planning and organisational leadership providing a platform for developing more robust and agile organisations. To speak to one of our experts, or to learn more about how our incident management platform can help your business in disaster management, contact us at info@locate.global or call +44 (0) 208 057 6402.