My Evolving Strategy
Mark Armour, cABCF
Changing how resilience, business continuity and organizational preparedness are practiced and perceived
Lately, I’ve been thinking about strategy and mission within the context of my own work. Now is as good a time as any to look back at what I’ve been doing for the past 10 years and how it has evolved.
I’ve been on a mission for the past 10 years. That mission is to revolutionize the preparedness professions of business continuity and organizational resilience. During that time my mission has remained consistent. The strategy I employ to accomplish that mission, however, has changed considerably over time.
Until recently, I never gave much thought to my strategy. I merely did what made the most sense at the time. Point and pray might be the appropriate definition (which is how I’ve heard the strategy of driving in the Dallas area described). Things have evolved since my early days of trying to drive change. Not only have I learned more and become more expert at the approach to preparedness that I promote but the profession itself has progressed. I believe the growth of the field, coupled with the entrance of new voices and perspectives, has created a more welcoming environment for those challenging common beliefs within our discipline.
My early attempts at critiquing our practices were very subtle. The very idea that I was questioning what was accepted practice at the time was lost on nearly everyone who read my work – which was, perhaps thankfully, very few. Over time, and encouraged by bolder voices than my own, I began to speak more forcefully about the issues I saw with our practices. Eventually, the time came to offer solutions rather than continually pointing out problems. From that, and my eventual connection with several like-minded individuals, Adaptive Business Continuity was born.
Adaptive is an approach that radically re-imagines how we practice in this space. Fully grasping that fundamental change is slow-going. There existed a period during which I promoted a practice which I did not fully understand myself. It took me years to completely change my thinking and embrace the means by which I now execute my work. I did it, but it was not easy. Adaptive is extraordinarily challenging. It is not simply a matter of committing to memory a series of steps to be executed. It means completely re-writing your interpretation of how preparedness is best achieved then building a new mode of operation from that fresh perspective. More challenging is that it requires constant re-evaluation and experimentation by the practitioner. What works in one situation may not be well suited to another.
Being ignorant of this fact, and eager to see monumental shifts in practice, I took bold positions and argued vociferously for my own point of view. The results, admittedly, were mixed. In hindsight, I realize that I often came across as smug and arrogant. I’m sure I made my share of enemies. But the online fireworks generated a lot of buzz and interest. Despite having turned off many, I have managed to amass a steadily growing number of people who are more than willing to entertain differing points of view.
Which leads to my current strategy for accomplishing this mission of mine. My first rule of thumb is to be generous with my time and attention while eliminating all judgment. As Michael Brooks famously said “By kind to people, by ruthless with systems”. Some people still take my attacks on traditional business continuity methods personally but I cannot help that. What I can do is be patient and seek, always, to understand where someone’s reticence may be coming from. In cases where someone is being deliberately antagonistic, I simply refuse to engage. Once you accept that you cannot reach everybody it becomes important to distinguish between those who are worth your time and those who will only waste it.
My current strategy is merely to keep it simple. Where I used to spend a lot of time trying to explain Adaptive principles, I now avoid any references to Adaptive at all. Instead, I focus on three areas where I believe our profession is most in need of change. Those areas are:
1.????? Our own discipline’s strategy[1]: it is too often assumed that the approach to improved preparedness is settled science. There is no evidence this is the case[2] and I take every opportunity to point it out.
2.????? Our focus on plans. My approach here is to change our language and, as a consequence, our thinking so that we speak about capabilities and not about plans.
3.????? Resilience as a “state” to be achieved[3]: this is another area where I believe simple modifications to our language can go a long way towards changing our behavior.
I don’t think my current strategy would be as successful today were it not for my initial efforts to make myself a public nuisance within the business continuity community. I did turn some people off but I got a lot of attention as a result. This has enabled me to reach a wider audience. Some people still associate me with my old strategy and will choose to dismiss everything I write. C’est la vie. I’m gambling on the idea that their support is not critical to the mission. Someday, perhaps, I’ll devise a strategy to reach them.
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