The Resilience Imperative
This week, McKinsey & Company released an interesting article regarding the resilience imperative.
It supports much of what I have been banging on about for some time now. But it also raises concerns for me.
As the authors rightly say “2020 was a wake-up call. To thrive in the coming decade, companies must develop resilience - the ability to withstand unpredictable threat or change and then to emerge stronger.”
The resilience imperative
Why do we need resilience?
The world is undergoing increasingly rapid, unpredictable, and unprecedented change.
But the big factor is that catastrophic events will grow more frequent but less predictable.
The next big disruption is right around the corner but you will not see it coming. You just have to be able to anticipate it and be ready to respond to it.
The exhibit from the article shows know disruption is becoming more frequent and more severe.
The digital revolution has increased data availability, connectedness and the speed of decision making.
As well as being a positive outcome, it also has potential for large-scale failure and security breaches. The increased speed of change increases the speed at which an organisations brand and reputation can change in the eyes of its customers and employees.
Six resilience dimensions
The article proposes that resilience requires a balanced focus on six dimensions. This is where our thinking departs.
McKinsey cites the dimensions as:
Financial - a strong solid capital position
Operational - robust production capacity
Technological - strong, secure and flexible infrastructure
Organisational - diverse and talented workforce
Reputational - align values with actions and word
Business-model - models that can adapt to significant change
Organisational resilience
I have a couple of issues with the article which may be addressed as the authors dive deeper into the subject over the coming months. However, in the meantime these are my thoughts.
Definition
This is the definition of organisational resilience from the article.
Resilient firms foster a diverse workforce in which everyone feels included and can perform at their best. They deliberately recruit the best talent, develop that talent equitably, upskill or reskill employees flexibly and fast, implement strong people processes that are free of bias, and maintain robust succession plans throughout the organization. Culture and desired behaviors are mutually reinforcing, supported by thoughtfully developed rules and standards to which adherence is enforced, while also promoting fast and agile decision making.
Resilient organisations are more than just diverse, inclusive, talented with positive reinforcement of desired behaviours. They are more than just flexible and agile, fast and free of bias.
Truly resilient organisations ensure every employee can be resilient in the face of constant and uncertain change. They provide them with the support, resources, tools and services to build and maintain their resilience.
The concerns, stresses, and anxiety that can be caused by volatile and unprecedented change will result in employee fatigue and burnout if not addressed.
The causes need to be addressed as well as the effects.
An organisation that is resilient has removed the stigma of mental health in the workplace; provided psychological safety; has leaders who lead with empathy and show their own vulnerability; and builds, maintains and sustains a program for employee wellbeing that is robust, holistic and contextual.
Organisations who invest in point solutions and believe that people can yoga their way out of burnout are not only wasting money but putting the survival of the organisation at risk.
Emerging from this pandemic will not reduce the stresses and anxieties of employees but only serve to increase them. Resilience is an imperative now not tomorrow.
Balance
My second issue is that without true organisational resilience you cannot have the other dimensions. The article states that you need a balance across all six dimensions.
I believe that the organisational resilience underpins and supports all of the other dimensions.
If you look after the people, the rest will take care of themselves.
Engaged, motivation, inspired and high performing employees will take care of the finances, operations, technology, reputation and business models.
Robust, holistic and contextual
As I mentioned earlier, resilient organisations have a robust, holistic and contextual program for employee wellbeing.
The program is robust being subject to continual improvement based on feedback, research and data analytics.
It is holistic and addresses every aspect of employee wellbeing. It enables leaders to identify signs of low resilience and take the appropriate action.
It is contextual and provides support and resources for the challenge or obstacle an employee is being faced with at any given time. Stress and anxiety caused by the inability to resolve a problem will not be alleviated by a gym subscription. The resources needed are problem solving skills, collaboration and effective communication.