Resilience Alignment!

"The task of leadership is to create an alignment of strengths so strong that it makes the system's weaknesses irrelevant".

Peter Drucker.

While I'm somewhat dismayed at the increasing number of LinkedIn posts that feature pictures, quotes and other associated "memes", a recent one quoting management specialist Peter Drucker resinated as it reminded me of resilience. I was particularly drawn to the word "alignment" as this is one of the fundamental principles that resilience relies upon as it seeks to draw together both disciplines and attributes. 

Alignment, however, takes time and suitable partners should be chosen by priority and importance, rather than simply bundled together by accident or agenda. As resilience continues to find it's place, it has no stronger allies than in the two fundamental areas of risk management and crisis management. There is growing support for resilience to be seen as a partner to both disciplines, with consensus leaning heavily towards resilience contributing to an organisations overall risk management. 

Likewise, crisis management, realistically seen as the counter element to "disruption", stands as the public face of our industry. Major crises have dominated headlines in recent years, from Sony to VW, both organisations and to some extent the general public have come to understand the basic principles of crisis management and crisis communication. Utilising these established lines of defence, by leveraging off both capability and recognition will assist resilience in it's own journey forward.

Another important consideration, given that resilience should be implemented at a strategic level, rather than operational, is that both risk management and crisis management already exist within that realm. An organisations, Chief Risk Officer (CRO), is firmly entrenched within the "C- Suite", able to connect and liaise with both senior leadership and board level executives. A resilience champion at this level would contribute to awareness and embracement like no other. 

As Lao Tzu, oft quoted "A journey of a thousand miles, begins with a single step", reminds us that every destination takes time and that incremental steps are what makes a journey. As resilience professionals we can continue to strive ahead with a singular mindset of forceful adoption, or we can utilise a principle of resilience itself, alignment, to assist us in furthering our agendas around recognition and implementation.