Defining Resilience - part 2 to "Resilience - what is it really?"

In my first blog post back in May 2012, I defined resilience as the capability, capacity and will to succeed by anticipating risk and reorientating for survival and advantage in the face of adversity both seen and unseen, known and unknown.

 Exploring this definition we can further break it down as follows:

 ‘The capability to succeed - Having in place the right people, systems, tools, processes and functions to meet the persistent challenges of adversity (seen and unseen, known and unknown). These capabilities must include effective programs for risk management, business continuity management, emergency management, security risk management and organisational development. Capability must be focused on the required business outcomes, including the resilience of the organisation and the supply chain. 

The capacity to succeed - Being able to use our capabilities and will to create, or expand and use our available space to achieve our required (and desired effects). This capacity includes making room for flexible and adaptive response using the available resources and capabilities in the face of unexpected disruption and turbulence. Capacity is further optimised by using the space to persistently scan for and understand risks (both current and emerging) regardless of the shocks, turbulence or disruptions that are about to occur, have occurred or are occurring. Risk intelligence will help maximise that space. Capacity is further characterised by finding the ‘sweet spot’ between a lean capability and crisis capacity. This ‘sweet spot’ is achieved through risk intelligence, adaptive planning and ultimately, good business decisions.

 The will to succeed – having the leaders, staff and stakeholders who understand both the environment and the objectives and who are agile and responsive in the face of change and unprecedented adversity. The will to succeed manifests in a way that organically promotes synergistic effort and results (aligned with the objectives) between the leadership and staff in the organisation, supply chain and sphere of operations and influence. This will to succeed must be embedded in the organisation’s culture and leadership. The will to succeed is characterised by an intrinsic understanding of the mission, vision and values of the organisation and its leaders. Trust must be pervasive otherwise the will to succeed will be under-nourished, diminish the will to succeed, reduce the effectiveness of our capabilities and force a reactive response.

 In many ways capacity, capability and will make up a resilience triangle where if any one of these three components are missing, the organisation's level of resilience will be deficient. Resilience is critical to business success. There are many definitiions around resilience but I hope this adds to the discussion.