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This resilience thing…

Organisational Resilience

Trevor Leverington 26 February 2009

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Outline of session

How this came aboutTISN Resilience Community of Interest

History and workshopsConcepts about resilience and the 2008 workshopPractical considerationsInformation resourcesDiscussionClose and networking

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Disclaimer

The opinions and perceptions expressed here are my own and do not reflect any agency or government position or policy

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TISN structure

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TISN - Resilience Community of Interest

Why and WhatHistory from critical infrastructure providersBroader concept of organisational resilience

Emergence of TISN Resilience Community of Interest to promote organisational resilienceWorkshop in December 2007 to help critical infrastructure owners and operators better understand what is meant by ‘resilience’ and ‘resilient organisations’Supported by AG Critical Infrastructure Protection Branch and EMA

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2007 Workshop and outcomes

54 participants from infrastructure, industry , government, universitiesWebsiteOutcomes ReportResources

Executive Guide and assessment toollinks and readings

Working to further develop concept, framework and tools

http://www.tisn.gov.au/www/tisn/tisn.nsf/Page/AbouttheTISN_Resi lienceCommunityofInterest

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Report and Assessment Tool

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2008 Workshop58 participants over three days from government agencies (emergency services, community services, family and child services, central policy, health) NGOs, banking, infrastructure, consulting, retail, transport, universities, specialists in risk management, emergency management , governance, and BCMAims:

Establish processes for developing organisational resilienceTo develop Part-One of the “Australian Organisational Resilience Handbook”Creating for the first time an innovative toolkit to be used by organisations in understanding and enhancing their resilience

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2008 Workshop

Exploring and defining 16 characteristics displayed by resilient originations - largely identified through study of literature, reports and experienceTesting these attributes against 4 case studies to identify which were absent and contributed to failuresIdentifying mechanisms to take the concepts to executive management (master classes)Insights into crisis management

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So what are some concepts behind resilience?

Resilience is a capability to minimise the adverse impacts of unexpected disruptions (turbulence) on the organisation and ability “bounce back”Flexible ability and agility to deal with sudden changeResilience is about anticipating, managing, and responding to sudden changeAbility to continue to meet key organisational objectives when faced with major challenges of all typesMany meanings and nuances around make it confusing and an almost meaningless concept…unless a context is established first

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Different contexts of resilience

Meta societal/ Global

Societal

Government

Organisational

Community

Individual

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Resilience 1Demonstrated by:

Anticipating and understanding emerging threats and opportunitiesUnderstanding the impacts of threats (and uncertainty) on the business, supply chain, community in which they operate and employeesDeveloping and maintaining supportive partnerships with stakeholdersResponding and recovering from disruptions/turbulence as a unified whole-of-organisation teamAdapting to disruptions and reacting flexibly to restore routine functioningForeseeing developing threats

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Resilience 2

Resilience is:an holistic approach to assist organisations survive turbulent times by eliminating the silos of risk, emergency and business continuity managementa combination of organisational culture, attitude, process and frameworkabout the protection of people, assets and brands through planning, risk analysis, risk mitigation, crisis response and continuity of business operations and technology

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Resilience 3

Resilience requires more than reactive responses; it reaches beyond proactive preparation. Resilient systems, enterprises, and individuals put into place the culture, training, and processes to manage foreseeable and unexpected change with adaptability, agility and resourcefulness.

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Workshop process 1 Organisational attributes & structures

agilityawarenesschangecommunicationintegrationinterdependenciesleadershipvalues

facilitiesInformation & knowledgeinterrelationshipsprocessresourcesstrategy & policytechnology

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Workshop process 2

Attributes & structures discussed and defined/described in group activity then discussed in plenaryMuch disagreement as well as agreement

Recognised as good management practices –enthusiasm from many!Nothing new here – seasoned managers!What tha…#$%&*! – community and social delegates!

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Workshop process 3

Detailed case studies examined against attributes and structures:

ENRONHIHKings Cross Station FireBradford City Football Club Stadium Fire

And the answer is?

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Workshop process 4Corporate and human disaster occurred because of multiple failures in culture, process and structure and is easy to pick in hindsight:

Multiple and ongoing failures eventually combined to produce a cascading and devastating sequence of eventsContributing events/errors/behaviours/omissions were not perceivedOrganisations and individuals look for evidence that confirms their view of things rather than remaining open to and analysing evidence challenging their view

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No consensus

True believers… these attributes must be developed and present to ensure resilience!

Leadership and culture are keyENRON and HIH had great leaders and cultures

Non believers… nothing new here… ABEF concepts re-badged, good governance, ERM

More than good leadership and culture

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My practical difficulties

What do I tell the CEO tomorrow?How do we implement it from tomorrow?When will the organisation benefit?How do we build on and improve what we currently have to work with?What exactly do we have to work with?History shows very difficult to get cultural change in large organisations… it’s just very hard.

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So what do I do?

First I need a simple model:Inherent resilience = that which is present in organisation, community, individualDeveloped or actively created resilience

Structural/formal = systems, processes, resources, governanceCultural/informal = behavioural, experience, learning

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A simple model – not perfect!

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So what do I do?

Identify the areas in which to work in “creating resilience”:

“Joining up” BCM, EM, RM, ERM, ITDR, security, human resources and thus improving resilience through structural processesLearning about and discussing concept of resilience at senior levelsTISN and ABEF assessment tool as guidanceEngage senior management as resilience is a strategic policy / strategy decision and is driven from topInform yourself – read and discuss

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Challenges remain

resilience is a culture or attitude not a process or framework - what you do is what you areunderstanding your supply chain, operating environment and to be situationally awareintegrating the various functions and areas of planning that contribute to resilienceunderstanding resilience may be a common goal but there are different approaches to getting thereresilience requires communication, collaboration, cooperationresilience is a concept that needs to be defined and exist throughout an organisationresilience is currently a strategic idea and we need to identify and develop the thinking and skills to drive it

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Summary

No organisation can anticipate every challenge and although money and resources play their part, thinking about how to face the challenges of the unexpected is the basis of good resilience planning.Business continuity and risk management help prevent what can be prevented and protect what can be protected.Organisational resilience enables organisations to cope with what cannot be foreseen, prevented or protected.

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Some resources

http://www.tisn.gov.au/www/tisn/tisn.nsf/Page/AbouttheTISN_ResilienceCo mmunityofInterest

TISN

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Some resources

http://www.egov.vic.gov.au/index.php?env=-inlink/detail:m1035-1-1-8-s- 0:l-10667-1-1--

Agile Government

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Some resources

http://www.resorgs.org.nz/resobjects.shtml

Resilient Organisations

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Some resources

http://www.compete.org/publications/detail/634/prepare/

Compete.org

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Presented by

Trevor LeveringtonDirector Disaster Preparedness

Technology and Development DivisionQueensland Department of Public WorksLocation: Level 6, 80A George Street, BrisbaneMail: GPO Box 2457, Brisbane QLD 4001, AustraliaT: (7) 3405 5052 (Qnet 55052) | F: (7) 3225 2985M: 0409 490 133E: trevor.leverington@publicworks.qld.gov.au