A Case for Strategizing L&D with a Penchant for Resilience

The quest that drives this research is whether Strategic Learning & Development can build Organizational Resilience. Our Business Research indicates that Resilience can no longer be a secondary measure of organizational objectives. Instead, Resilience must emerge as a primary strategic initiative that builds differentiating competence for consolidating a marquee position in the markets in the long run. This research article will benefit Business Leaders, CXOs, CHROs, Academicians, Entrepreneurs, and Resilience Researchers. We start by stating that focusing on Growth may not result in Resilience; however, focusing on Resilience indeed results in Growth. People's capabilities are prerequisites to Organizational Resilience.

We recognize that not all Learning & Development activities would result in Business Resilience. Business Leaders need to prioritize learning with critical mindful awareness of the environmental factors. An understanding that the next "Perfect Storm" could impact with unpredictable velocity & duration anytime is the essence of Critical Thinking for Resilience. This awareness changes the entire approach to the "Learning Organization's" design. Leaders no longer focus on horizontal & vertical development only; The L&D objective transcends to a new dimension of integrating people's vertical and horizontal development to ensure Dynamic Resilience.

Research shows that only one-third of large organizations could manage the absorption & recovery post the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Small and medium-scale enterprises were the worst affected, with many closing operations. Thus, L&D for Resilience is a serious thought that needs mindful foresight and implementation. Unfortunately, not many organizations orient their interventions to build Resilience, though we do see a positive correlation between strategic L&D with Resilience. The point we emphasize is that strategically planned learning initiatives for Resilience can bolster the robustness of the Organization to withstand the shocks of all types of Black Swan Events. For this to happen, Leadership conversations on Resilience become very critical. The starting point, therefore, is the fundamental agreement and acceptance of the concept of Resilience at the crucial leadership level in every business enterprise.

Resilience from an L&D perspective can be defined as "perpetual preparedness to deal with the perfect storms through an early warning system in conjunction with organizational slack resources to absorb the shock, and inherent developed capabilities for agile recovery based on governance practices that enable adaptive capitalization of opportunities created by the black swan effect for superior growth" (Niket Karajagi 2022). This definition highlights that compromise of governance practices owing to a lack of resilience capabilities accentuates the noise in the system. This accentuated noise further amplifies and perishes the business prospects due to practices of instant gratification for short-term yields compromising long-run robustness.

The above figure represents the fundamental model of Resilience. The point to be noted in this model is that should the recovery be managed effectively and with agility, the positive shift of business orbit is guaranteed. Thus the fundamental approach to building people's capabilities is to allow for early Recovery and Growth through adaptive performance to the ever-changing business environmental factors. This approach can thus enable organizations to consolidate marquee positions in the market quickly. This approach also becomes the pivotal thought of Learning Practices for Resilience.

It becomes imperative for L&D professionals to plan their strategic initiatives based on the insights of the above framework. It has to be noted that building Resilience is an ongoing and never-ending activity. Each Organization will have its unique approach & solution; our empirical evidence. A planning process based on a sensitive radar system that engages with the ecosystem is most necessary. L&D professionals would need a scientific approach to engage with business and be watchful of environmental changes. Predictive analytics is the key. Since turbulence is a low probability & high impact phenomenon, it is challenging to predict accurately. However, a mechanism addressing current stresses across the Business Value Chain would cushion the shock. Robust control systems with an early warning mechanism must feed to Learning Processes for Resilience is what we emphasize in our research.

Conversely, if stresses are not addressed, the impact of the shock can paralyze the operations completely. Furthermore, these stresses tend to accentuate when turbulence impacts. The remedy, therefore, is de-risk as much as possible through learning interventions that are RoI based. Research shows that diversity of experience & knowledge can be channelized for solution designs that can ensure absorption, recovery, and adaptation. Thus initiating learning strategies based on findings of sensitive radar systems serving as early warning mechanisms provides for an effective action plan. Thus learning initiatives must operate in a "now" mode that contains the noise across the Supply Chain Networks in real-time with critical urgency. This is a fundamental paradigm shift for most L&D strategies. The idea is continually accentuating the required capacities & capabilities and doing away with obsolete behaviors and capabilities.

Our empirical pieces of evidence based on live Industry projects shows that Appreciative Inquiry is an ideal tool for accentuating the good. Appreciative Inquiry also helps bring changes to what is not working and determine action points and projects that ensure continual adaptation to the ever-changing business dynamics. Our research on Resilience and Appreciative Inquiry has helped derive qualitative data for analysis and to determine actionable projects that can be put to practice in collaborative ways. Net Promoter Score provides a quantitative supportive insight into Agility and Resilience as a byproduct of this change process tool. We see that Appreciative Inquiry promotes Critical Thinking in the advance planning process for preparedness.

Once the Turbulence impacts, it needs to be absorbed. This is possible when organizations are financially secure and have the critical slack resources, technology, and good governance practices. In this research article, we will focus on the variable of people's capability alone. Assuming that people have been using their strategic capabilities to contain stresses in a continual mode, the ability to absorb the shock is facilitated in advance through the L&D strategic initiatives. Thus early recovery process can be initiated instantly if the ability to absorb the shock exists.

The recovery process is the most critical stage in building Resilience. It must be noted that each effectively managed turbulence adds to the overall Organizational Resilience. The recovery stage is driven by developing a Prototype Design of an augmented business model that engages with the macro environment for making the best use of the unfolding opportunities. Our field projects have evidenced that the best option to deploy is that of Design Thinking. Design Thinking facilitates intelligent exploration through the diversity of experiences. This empathy-driven process that solves complex human-centric problems can create tested Prototypes. These Prototypes ensure agile coupling with the changing environment through Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, Test & Scale stages. This non-linear approach to problem solving & innovation helps control the recovery process through intelligent failures. Innovation is an instant route for recovery. However, as L&D evolves the Learning Organization into a Design-Centric Learning Organization, adaptation to a new environment becomes a spontaneous outcome. The Design-Centric approach ensures agile adaptability and long-term strategic capabilities.

The adaptation stage is primarily the adjustment of skills, competencies, behaviors, technology, governance, structures, systems, and processes to the new dynamics of the environment. Resilience thus becomes a dynamic adaptability process when L&D controls internal stresses continually and helps Design models to adapt to new realities. It can be acknowledged at this stage that the role of L&D now transcends to ensuring the successful process of dynamic adaptability through the adaptive performance of the people. Resilience and Design capabilities show a strong positive correlation in our field projects. Also, when Leaders & Managers act as Coaches, adaptability becomes quick and easy.

Google trends show that interest in Business Resilience is increasing. In the Post COVID19 era, CXOs have realized that a fresh approach to business is necessary; Past management paradigms are consistently failing. Also, we have seen Nations respond differently to this Black Swan Effect. The most developed economies have seen turbulent times. Stagflation along with disruption of Supply Chains have taken their toll. India becomes a case in point as regards the study of Resilience. India at 75 becomes a compelling research case for Resilience.

India has been a witness to historical turbulences for ages. Liberalization, Privatization, and Globalization were turning points in its economic history. Progressively moving from protectionist policies to free markets tested Entrepreneurial Grit and Economic Resilience.

India comprises family-owned conglomerates and businesses to a large extent. This is also true for many Nations across the globe. Their agility and adaptability have evolved with the ongoing Indian economic policy transformation. COVID19 also saw agile adjustments by many companies. Not to say, some businesses did perish. However, as a Nation, India has emerged resilient over time. Research on Resilience shows that the more exposure and adaptability to turbulence, the more the capability of Dynamic Resilience. The critical facets that favor India as a Resilient Nation & Business Destination are the natural tendency for Adaptiveness to Stress, Resilience in Crisis Management, Aspirational Entrepreneurial Mindset, Active Digitalization, and evolving Governance systems. Research on Resilience indicates that digitalization and governance have a twin transformation impact.

We see in our field study the agility factor of SMEs and Indian Enterprises shows a high score. However, the scores do vary based on people's capabilities. Agility and people capabilities do not show a strong correlation as a quick fix solution can always be sought. However, entrepreneurial grit combined with people's capability does create strong Resilience. Post-COVID19, India sees a transformed ecosystem tightly coupled and thus an optimism towards Growth as indicated by many International agencies. Data shows that the economic variables are delivering a robust pattern and the pace of Growth is undoubtedly to look forward to. Resilience in Economic System is also because of India's diversity of consumption and industrial offerings, thus balancing the risks of shocks. Our research predicts that Social, Economic, and Business Resilience will become the next key determinant for Foreign Investments, among other factors of the Internationalization of businesses. India does well in these facets and thus emerges as a favored investment country. However, the advent of foreign investments will disrupt existing enterprises.

Thus, we can safely conclude that when the factors of the National Economy show robust support for Growth, organizations must design systems that tightly couple with the economic system and environmental disruptions. However, we live in a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex & Ambiguous world, and thus disruption is a part of the process. Each disruption will call for organizations to evolve their business model designs. Thus, planning, absorption, recovery, and adaptation will be an ongoing phenomenon. Our research provides specific capabilities that L&D teams must develop within their organizations:

1. Critical Thinking
2. Design Thinking
3. Managers and Leaders As Coaches
4. Technology Savvy
5. Research Mindset
6. Global Mindset
7. Emotional Intelligence

We have found the above capabilities emerging as high frequency and intensity requirements in our field studies of Resilience. Using Appreciative Inquiry and Design Thinking for building Dynamic Resilience is a tested solution that can be repeated and reproduced during scenarios of stress and shocks and thus pass the test of scientific scrutiny. The natural role of Learning & Development teams will now be to ensure that people's capabilities are honed to withstand "Perfect Storms" that will impact with high unpredictability and intensity. The areas of focus that emerge consistently in Resilience research are Agility, Flexibility, Technology, and Governance. We end by saying Black Swan Events offer highly profitable opportunities and must be capitalized on urgently. Learning and Development must focus on building Strategic Resilience.

Copyright: Niket Karajagi 2022

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