British Standard on Operational Resilience - Do we need a Public Benefit Version of This?

It is understood that the British Standards Institute is looking at revising its standard on operational resilience.

That is a good thing but there is a danger that it will focus solely on the tribulations of the private sector.

There seems to be a view that the role of both sectors is the same.

It is not.

In this particular blog I will examine how such a standard can be modified to take into account the public and public benefit sector.

It is vital to do so.

In so many discussions I have had on operational resilience in organisations, the interests of the private sector have been regarded as paramount and our interests have been treated as secondary.

There has been a big debate about financial resilience with other sectors being very neglected.

They can't be

This is a blog about public resilience and that is what I intend to address.

Resilience means an organisation can anticipate, plan, prepare and respond to shocks, changes and disruptions which it will be likely to be exposed to.

These can come in various guises which will form part of the risk analysis and risk register of the organisation.

The changes can be broadly characterised as follows:

1. Significant events with immediate dignificant consequences.

2. Significant events with more long term significant consequences

3. Less significant events with lighter immediate consequences

4. Less significant events with lighter long term consequences.

Points 1 and 2 are significant here for our deliberations.

Change can be intense over a very short time period with huge consequences in the short to medium term or change can be more nuanced and indeed more creeping with huge consequences in the longer term.

In a previous blog about the risk register we have spoken about the probability of the occurrence of a risk and its impact on the organisation and indeed wider society.

We must also look at the timing dimension as well.

How long will it take for that risk to fully unfold and when will its consequences hit the organisation and wider society?

These must also bey key elements in determining our organisational strategy on resilience.

For us the impact cannot be measured only on the organisation itself but on wider society as well.

That's what we mean regarding public resilience. It is not just about us or our organisation!

That cannot really be stressed enough.

It is a wider economic analysis rather than just a narrow financial one.

Resilience is a relative concept, one can only be more resilient than before, but never absolutely resilient!

In the public benefit sector we are always on a journey to better resilience.

We should be resilient for the benefit of our community and our own organisation.

We need to be adaptive and learn quickly and that means being able to change quickly to meet new circumstances.

Scanning your horizon and being situationally aware is crucial.

In our sector we must have good governance which means being accountable to ourselves and our community, fostering excellent culture, leadership and community contacts.

We must know what we are supposed to deliver both for society and for our organisation and we must strive for it.

We must identify our successes, failures and near misses and learn from them and where possible put them right

This means being willing and able to learn to strengthen the adaptive capacity of the organisation in terms of:

Risk and asset management

Reputation

Stakeholder collaboration

Horizon scanning

Fraud

Health and Safety

Financial control

Audit

Change management

Physical and information security

Supply chain challenges

Human resources

Society and Community

Leadership, management and culture

People - both within and outside the organisation

Services offered and delivered

All these items and more, need to come together to help determine the operational resilience of our organisation.

Any weaknesses will impact on our operational resilience

I believe there is a need to deliver a resilience standard for the public and not for profit sector, specifically addressing our particular needs.

I am hoping to deliver some self assessment checklists drawing on work by Resilient Organisations New Zealand, BSI and other similar organisations.

Please travel with me on my journey of greater organisational resilience for you all!

Hopefully it will be a journey worth travelling in but there is much still to do.