Building a Crisis Resilient Organization
Crisis is unexpected and generally a sudden incident. It disrupts the normalcy of work, organizational flow and system processes. According to Marshall Goldsmith, every situational crisis is accompanied by an ethical, PR, legal, communications, and/or operations crisis®. Business continuity plans help to restore the company’s operations but does not prepare leaders to manage workplace violence, dissatisfied employees, and ethical breaches by middle and top management. Organizations should thus gear-up to build a crisis-resilient workplace than a crisis-free organization.
To manage crisis, trust is crucial. Every crisis raises questions about the morality, values and purpose of the organization and the people in it. People want to know who they could trust during difficult times. Leaders play a critical role to define the context, provide hope and energy and show the direction.
The 4 pillars that helps to build a crisis-resilient organization are Trust, Hope, Honesty (Transparency) and Support.
In the age where volatility encompasses organizations, having a mindset, skills and training to deal with crisis situations becomes a must-have both for individuals to wade through the situation by taking thoughtful decisions and for organizations to bounce back and regain stability. Preparing to deal with crisis prepares to build a crisis resilient organization.
