Page 94 - The Resilient Organization

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Strategic resilience is a capability to take serendipitous, opportune action.
It is reminiscent of Karl Weick’s (2000) assertion that “reliability is a
dynamic non-event”—constant attention is required to prevent a disaster or
an accident. The difficulty of building strategic resilience is that we do not
know where the next turn of events will come from; therefore, writing an
emergency action plan is not sufficient.
Resilience capability is not a specific enemy. It is not a specific manage-
ment function. It is not a defined task. It is not a hierarchy of responsibility.
It is not business development. It is not a growth strategy. It is unlikely to
be found in any formal documents or rules. Instead, it is what the CEO of
a very successful U.S. company described: “If I knew where the next chal-
lenge will come from, I would be able to defend against it. But it is the chal-
lenge I cannot anticipate, that we need grassroots resilience capability for.”
Perhaps a tempting way to define strategic resilience is to follow Potter
Stewart’s statement about defining pornography, made when he was an
associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court: “I know it when I see it.” It is
obvious in retrospect. But the question is, how to build such capability
before you need it, while you still have time to develop it—beyond staying
alert, taking a different route home every day (avoiding routine), commu-
nicating with people who are farther away in your network (for lucky
serendipity), and “expecting the unexpected.” Building an arch when it is
not (yet) pouring.
Through a number of case studies, in this part I set forth key building
blocks for making organizations as resilient as possible. These building
blocks include organizational intelligence, resourcing, robustness (or
design), and adaptiveness. The embedded case studies illustrate these fac-
tors in action. Finally, I discuss resilience as inner strength—something the
Finns call sisu—that is at the core of any kind of resilient effort or culture.
We begin, however, with the consideration of leadership.

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