In this blog we are concerned with the resilience of non profit and public sector organisations in the first instance. 5hatbis public resilience!
The BSI resilience report is primarily concerned with the orivate sector but we can add lessons and conclusions to our own public resilience agenda.
First of all resilience is not just financial it revolves around different headings as the BSI expresses below, namely;
Leadership
- Vision and Purpose
-Reputation
- Finance
- Resource Management
People
- Culture
- Community
Training
Process
-Governance
- service Continuity
- Supply chain issues
- knowledge and information
Products and Services
- Horizon scanning
- innovation
- Adaptive capacity
All these elements added together measure the resilience of an organisation not just the financial challenges.
The aforementioned areas of operational resilience can be expressed more formally in the diagram below;
Although finance is always held up as a totem of resilience these other areas are of equal importance especially in the public and not for profit sector.
The Grenfell Tower disaster did not happen solely because a local authority didn't have adequate reserves or was cash strapped it also failed in resilience terms because of poor leadership, management and process as well.
Let's not forget that!
Other messages of the BSI report that we need to take on board are as follows;
Community engagement and adaptive capacity have become more important for organisations. The ability to horizon scan, flex and change have become critical also.
Organisations which are relatively newer have greater agility to change than organisations which are older by morethan 50 years. Brand new organisations on the other hand experience difficulty in finding their feet in terms of operational resilience.
Compared to 2019, 44% of UK respondents saw their financial position as worse now.
In rhe same vein optimism about the ability to bounce back post disruption took a similar reduction.
The impact of Covid 19 on organisations manifested itself in the following areas;
1.Work environment and productivity.
2. Loss of service users
3. Decline in revenue and funding
4. Staffing redundancies and furlough
5. Amending service delivery processes
6. Supply chain and production problems.
Do these issues directly resonate with you?
How can you deal with them?
Our organisations need to address the following phases to move forward;
Survive
Stabilise
Rebuild
Thrive
According to interviews undertaken in this survey the key element in rebuilding organisational resilience was client and community focus followed by employee well being and collaboration.
Does your organisation practice these?
Organisations need to be responsible in what they do. Good leadership and management in organisational resilience is crucial here!
The organisation must be adaptive to cope with the new normal and what the future might bring. Hence, continuous horizon scanning and improvement are key here.
The BSI report is related to the private sector but there are lessons for the public and not for profit sector as well.
Resilience is a very rounded issue.
We should not forget that!!
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