Organisational and Individual Resilience

Organisational
Resilience
Preparing our organisations
to thrive
Swinburne

SCIENCE | TECHNOLOGY | INNOVATION | BUSINESS | DESIGN
What does resilience mean?

How does your organisation define or think about resilience?

How does your organisation apply the concept of resilience
in practice (implicitly or explicitly)?
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Resilience defined
An evolutionary
perspective!!

Its not the strongest or the
most intelligent that survive,
it is the most adaptable to
change Charles Darwin

{survival}
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Resilience defined
An alternative definition of resilience:

The amount of change a system can undergo and
essentially retain the same functions, structure and
feedbacks

{bounce back}
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Strategic Resilience defined

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Strategic resilience is not about responding to a one time crisis. It is not about
rebounding from a set back. Its about continuously anticipating and adjusting to
deep, secular trends that can permanently impair the earning power of a core
business. It is about having the capacity to change before the case for change
becomes desperately obvious

Gary Hamel, The Quest for Resilience, HBR 2003
=> the BOUNCE FORWARD
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CEO Perspectives on Organisational
Resilience

From the November 2012 Research Paper 1 CEO Perspectives on
Organisational Resilience developed by the Attorney Generals
Department:

Of over 50 CEOS who were interviewed, 90% described resilience in
terms of survival AND bouncing back. Only 10% described resilience as
shaping the culture, i.e. the opportunity to bounce forward

Of those 10%, all were in industries undergoing significant change and
dealing with substantial complexity

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CEO Perspectives on Organisational
Resilience

Most important attributes of a resilient culture (frequency of
mention by CEOs):
1. Trust
2. Staff committed & engaged
3. Culture of responsibility & accountability
4. Openness
5. Empowerment
6. Responsive to environment
7. Diversity of view

***chicken and egg -> inputs to and outputs of culture
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Resilience arises from a combination of culture and attitude,
process and framework Arup, 2011 (Business Continuity
and Resilience Practice)

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Thinking about maturity models of Resilience
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Decline Survive Bounce back Bounce
forward
Individual
mindset
cynical aware integrated adversity =
opportunity
Group mindset No shared view
on resilience
Risk averse owned at work
group
distributed
Behaviour

compliant efficient effective strategic
Systems compliance Performance
criteria
, feedback
growth
{THIS NEEDS MORE WORK}
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Aspects of a Resilient System
According to the World Economic Forums Global Risks
Report 2013, a Resilience System has three core
components:

Robustness, Redundancy and Resourcefulness
(designed into an organisation, help to assess the resilience
of an organisation)

AND two performance criteria:

Response and Recovery
(describes how an organisation responds to a crisis)
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Robustness
Monitoring systems Health

Modularity - Mechanisms designed to prevent unexpected
shocks in one part of a system from spreading to other parts
of a system

Case study: Lehman Brothers
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Redundancy

Redundancy of critical infrastructure

Diversity of solutions and strategy

Case study: Fairfax and SEEK

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Resourcefulness
Capacity for self organisation

Creativity and innovation the ability to innovate is linked to
the availability of spare resources and the rigidity of
boundaries between disciplines, organizations and social
groups
Case study: Apple and Sony 2000
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Apple vs Sony Market Cap: 2000 - 2010
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Response
Communication

Inclusive participation - thinking diversity

Types of diversity association richness
Recognise the strengths in differences
Working structures
Refreshing perspectives
Psychological safety to be different

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Recovery
Active horizon scanning
- uncovering gaps in existing knowledge
and commissioning research to fill those
gaps

Responsive feedback mechanisms
-Systems to translate new information
from horizon-scanning activities into action

Case study:

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Reconciling different definitions of resilience
Resilience Expert Advisory Group:

An Organisations stage of maturity will determine its
resilience objective. The following are four stages of
resilience maturity they define:

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Decline Survive Bounce back Bounce forward
Ceases operating
after adversity
Exists in a reduced
form after adversity

Regains pre-
adversity position
quickly and
effectively
In adversity it not
only survives but
possibly gains from
the situation
Developing resilience is a process organisations will advance stage by stage
Organisational Maturity OF ORGANISATIONAL
MATURITY
RESULTS
INTERDEPENDENT
GROWTH
INDEPENDENT
Andrew Brown & Alison Cameron 2012
Thrive:
Health of the
whole system
BOUNCE
FORWARD
Adapt: Co-
creating the
organisation;
BOUNCE
BACK/
FORWARD
Value
individual
expertise /
competency
Achievement:
SURVIVAL /
BOUNCE
BACK
Polite: follow
the way things
are done
DECLINE/
SURVIVAL
Command
and control:
get the job
done the way I
want it done
DEPENDENT
COMPLIANCE
CO-EVOLVING
EVOLVING
SYSTEMS
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How do these apply to your organisation?
In your table groups, discuss where your organisation may
be on this maturity grid what does that mean for building
resilience?

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Building capability for the bounce forward

Safe fail experiments

Thinking diversity

Scenarios

Broader networks

Balancing simplicity and complexity
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while 80% of what happens to us in life maybe outside our control, its what we do with
the 20% in our control that determines whether the 80% disables us or enables us

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Safe fail tests
First bullets, then cannon balls
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Thinking Diversity
Recognise the strengths in differences
Types of diversity association richness
Working structures
Refreshing perspectives
Psychological safety to be different
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Broader Networks
Establishes relationships, mutual aid arrangements and
regulatory partnerships
Understands an organisations community
interconnectedness and its vulnerabilities across all aspects
of supply chains and distribution networks, and
Promotes open communication and mitigation of internal
and external silos.

Case Study: Nokia and the Philips Albuquerque Fire
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Balancing simplicity and complexity
Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler -
Einstein
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complexity
simplicity
Example - HBR article: Two routes to resilience
Simplicity -> complexity -> elegance
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Some final thoughts
Building organisational resilience:

A stage by stage process
Self, team, organisation
Strong external lens; change, networks, patterns
Five Rs robustness, redundancy, resourcefulness,
response and recovery
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References
Collins, Jim, (2011) Great By Choice, Random House Business Books
Hamel, Gary and Valikangas, Liisa, (2003), The Quest for Resilience,
HBR
Kay, Robert, CEO perspectives on organisational resilience (2012) ,
Attorney Generals Department
McAslan, Alistair, (2010), Organisational Resilience,
Understanding the Concept and its Application, Torrens Resilience
Institute
Resilience Expert Advisory Group (REAG) (2012), Organisational
Resilience, Attorney Generals Department
Snowden, Dave & Boone, Mary, A Leaders Framework for Decision
Making , HBR
World Economic Forum, (2013) Global Risks Report

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Bouncing back
Individual resilience
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SCIENCE | TECHNOLOGY | INNOVATION | BUSINESS | DESIGN 28
Psychological resilience
is an individual's
tendency to cope
with stress and adversity.
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SHU CHI

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Physiology changes
Blood pressure and heart rate
increases, blood clots faster
Blood gets diverted from
stomach to muscles and brain
Muscles tense
Breathe more quickly
Sugar gets released into blood
stream
Behavioural changes
Automatic behaviour eg fearful
expression, leap out of the way
Reflexes sharpen
Pupils dilate & field of vision
narrows
Thinking changes
Negative - the snake will
attack
Narrow thinking focused on
the snake
Fright, fight
or flight
One hot summers day
One hot summer day
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Sympathetic
nervous system
Fright, fight or flight
Parasympathetic
nervous system
Rest, zest and digest
Calming response
Relaxation response
Pause and reflect
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B
l
o
o
d

P
r
e
s
s
u
r
e

Vulnerable to stress
Normal response
Stress is a normal response
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B
a
d

m
o
o
d

Stress vulnerable people take longer
to recover from stress because they
have lower levels of the calming response
Psychophysiology, July 2006
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Parasympathetic
The modern jungle
Sympathetic
Parasympathetic
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How resilient are you?
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Its not working
This feels
uncomfortable
What were you thinking?
Negative thoughts decrease the calming response
I wish they
would shut up
Psychophysiology, June 2006
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How to manage negative thoughts???
Stop it
Forget it (distraction)
Change it (positive thinking)
Accept it

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Dont think about a pink elephant
Suppress a thought and it
rebounds more strongly
eg Stop thinking negatively

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FOCUS
Focusing on something
unusual distracts the brain
from negative thoughts
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Why isnt
this true?

What is an
alternative
explanation?

Change it
Im bad at
this
Im good
at this

Im just
learning

!
Positive thinking is more useful if it is
constructive and realistic
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Accept it
More effective than
reframing
Whats going
wrong?
Thoughts
come and go
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Higher levels of calming response

Resilience
Health
Recovery from
depression
Executive memory
Emotional intelligence
Better relationships
Self regulation

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Increasing the calming response
Exercise
Sleep
Nutrition
Meditation
Biofeedback
Positive emotions
Bouncing forward
Individual resilience
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Which positive emotions?
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http://www.unc.edu/peplab/publications/Fredrickson_AmPsych_2001.pdf
Broaden and Build
Only with
high HRV
Bouncing forward
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Which emotions matter at work?
Gallup Q12 Question Cust-
omer
$ Product-
ivity
Turn-
over
Overall satisfaction X X X
Do I know what is expected of me at work? X X X X
Do I have the materials and equipment to do my work right? x X
At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every
day?
X X X
In the last 7 days I have received recognition or praise for good
work?
X X X
Does my supervisor or someone at work seem to care about me
as a person?
X X X X
Is there someone at work who encourages my development? X X
At work, do my opinions seem to count? X X
Does the mission/purpose of my company make me feel like my
work is important?
X
Are my co workers committed to quality? X X
Do I have a best friend at work? X X
In the past 6 months I have talked with someone about my
progress?
X X
At work, I have had opportunities to learn and grow X
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Worth remembering
The calming response is a foundation of
resilience
Some fundamentals eg sleep, exercise,
nutrition, meditation, relationships, self efficacy
Explore what activates low energy positive
emotions (everyone is different)
Individual Resilience
Questions?

Organisational and Individual Resilience

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