1st Edition
Building Resilient Organizations through Change, Chance, and Complexity
A must-read in the wake of COVID-19, this book unpacks the nature of resilient organizations and how they prepare for unpredictable, complex, and profound change.
Organizations that do not adapt and evolve die. To date, however, it has not been at all clear how to build a resilient organization. That puts us all in the unenviable position of trying to ready our organizations for an increasingly uncertain future without the proper guidance to do it. This book introduces 14 elements of resilience that consistently emerge in organizations that have thrived amid adversity and volatility. Resilience is not about determination, grit, cybersecurity, or teams of resilient individuals; resilience, it turns out, is often confused with robustness. Readers will discover how resilient organizations build and employ a distinctive combination of crews, capital, culture, and leadership—and, crucially—how to adapt these combinations for their own organization.
Senior business leaders, consultants, entrepreneurs, students, and professionals will appreciate this book’s practical, approachable, and engaging guidance, including insights by leaders from Health Care for the Homeless, The Ohio State University, NBCUniversal, retail stores, and more.
Introduction: Fumbling for Resilience 1. An Introduction to Crews 2. The Nature of Crews 3. Entrepreneurs and Intrapreneurs 4. Contrarians and Red Teams 5. The Recurrence of Crews 6. An Introduction to Capital 7. Resource Capital 8. Relationship Capital 9. Information Capital 10. Capital Combined 11. Transition to an Interlude 12. The Cynefin® Sense-Making Framework 13. Antifragile 14. An Introduction to a Culture of Experimentation 15. A Reality-Seeking Culture 16. A Safe-to-Fail Culture of Experimentation 17. A Culture of Dissimilar Individuals 18. An Introduction to Exponential Leadership 19. Situational Leaders 20. Purposeful Leaders 21. Loss-Aware Leaders 22. Empowering Leaders 23. Caring Leaders 24. Conclusion: The Resilient Organization and the Chief Resilience Officer 25. Epilogue: What Is Organizational Resilience?
Biography
David Lindstedt splits his time between business continuity and resilience consulting, project portfolio management, and research. He founded his own company, established an industry standard, leads an international think tank, and serves on the editorial board for the Journal of Business Continuity and Emergency Planning. He consults with Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 companies and nonprofit organizations. He has published dozens of articles, both general and scholarly. He regularly presents at continuity and risk management conferences, is a frequent guest on podcasts, and occasionally lectures in university courses on preparedness and project management.
