Disasters Happen
In a world gone mad, disasters are more probable than possible. When they occur, non-profit organizations (including public, civil societies, membership, charity, faith-based, mission-oriented, and others) often suffer more than their for-profit counterparts. They not only have to manage risks to their own operations but also continue providing services to those they serve. They require greater resilience against both man-made and natural disasters.
Non-profit organizations play a crucial role in disaster relief. Aligned with their expertise and capacities, they maintain well-established networks and resources that can be quickly mobilized. They typically deliver immediate relief, coordinate with local authorities, and focus on sustainable rehabilitation and support in specific areas. Their reactions vary depending on the uniqueness and demands of each event. While nearly customized services may be packaged, delivery essentially depends on the unfolding situation.
Resilience in Organizations
Resilience refers to an organization's ability to anticipate, prepare for, respond to, adapt to, recover from, and ultimately thrive amidst sudden disruptive events. These events can include economic downturns, natural disasters, technological disruptions, talent shortages, supply chain disruptions, cyberattacks, terrorism, disturbances, or catastrophes. From an OD perspective, resilience involves developing a robust framework that enables an organization to withstand shocks, adapt to incremental changes and sudden disruptions, and emerge stronger and more sustainable. This concept is crucial in today's rapidly evolving business environment, where organizations frequently encounter diverse challenges. To be resilient, non-profit organizations should have the capabilities to anticipate disasters and risks, prepare strategies and practices, respond quickly, fine-tune actions, and learn to turn disruptions into opportunities for sustainable, inclusive growth.
Assessing Resilience
Experts agree that organizations can learn and build resilient abilities over time. To assess current and past resilience efforts, OD practitioners can examine resilience initiatives, challenges, risks, and provisions for continuity planning.
Resilience Initiatives
Assessing the instances and indicators of resilience involves considering key interconnected factors that are vital for the organization's overall health, robustness, adaptability (in the face of adversity), and sustainability. Resilient organizations don't just react to crises but actively learn from them and strive for continual improvement. Here are some essential elements to evaluate:
Identity and Vision. Clarity and inspiring mission, values, history and unique contribution enhances resilience.
Effective Governance and Adaptable Leadership. Good governance maintains alignment with vision and principles, while adaptable leaders coach teams to imbibe new behaviors and practices to sustain resilience.
Distributed Control with Centralized Coordination. Dispersed decision-making authority while maintaining unified direction enhances resilience.
Investment in Talent, Culture and Capability Building. Building resilience through effective integration and adaptation of operations, teams, and leaders attracts top talent.
Agility and Adaptability. Systems mindset fosters flexibility, data-driven decision-making and rapid adaptation enhances the organization’s ability to cope with challenges.
Psychological Safety and Self-Sufficiency of Teams. Empowering teams enhances resilience by providing safe environment for innovations and problem solving, ownership and autonomy.
Recovery through Opportunity. Proactive stance on challenges turned into growth opportunities drive resilience.
Renewal and Unique Super Power. Continuous renewal maintains resilience. Leveraging unique assets enhances resilience and differentiation.
Challenges and Risks
Comb through the SOFT challenges with an eye on risks involved. Risks may be described with respect to: (a) direction (say, positive, negative, neutral), likelihood (or probabilities of occurrence) and magnitude. Look for the challenges and risks in:
Strategies. Every NPO faces strategic challenges directly linked to their influence on their beneficiaries. Impact is the main currency, serving as the most effective means of engaging with society, including sponsors, donors, beneficiaries, volunteers, stakeholders and communities. So, they prioritize ways of measuring and managing their impact.
Operations. Revolve around the internal structures, systems and processes. Many struggle to adapt these structures and systems to evolving conditions, resulting in inefficiency that eventually degrades organization performance and services delivery.
Funding. The most prevalent and conspicuous issues. Achieving funding diversification and building resilience are practical strategies for sustainable solutions. Additionally, optimizing the use of financial resources presents an opportunity to address funding challenges effectively.
Technology. Another significant hurdle. Non-profits have organic shortcomings in data collection, analysis, utilization, and management. For many, integrating new technologies to enhance service quality and impact is a major obstacle. Moreover, technology has emerged as the primary communication channel, with social media being the most popular and efficient means of engagement.
Provisions for Continuity Planning
Proactive measures to minimize the impact and likelihood of multifaceted risks include comprehensive disaster preparedness plans, robust infrastructure development, effective communication systems for early warning, and community education on emergency response. Investing in insurance coverage and contingency funds provides financial resilience, while collaborative efforts among government agencies, peer organizations, and local communities enhance response capabilities.
Continuous monitoring, evaluation, and adaptation of risk management plans are vital for staying resilient. Continuity planning involves identifying critical processes, resources, and dependencies, devising measures to mitigate risks, and maintaining operations through emergency response protocols, alternate work sites, communication systems, staff training, testing procedures, and plan updates. By prioritizing resilience and adaptability, organizations can minimize downtime, preserve reputation, and safeguard against financial losses during disruptions.
NOTES
ICOR has a five-dimension high level framework for assessing organization resilience for download. These are: (a) Leadership and Strategy, (b) Culture and Organizational Behavior, (c) Organizational Infrastructure, (d) Preparedness and Managing Risk, and (e) Continual Improvement and Innovation.
On completion of the diagnosis, Gartner VP Caroline Walsh discusses what building resilient organizations actually means, especially for HR leaders, in the short- and long-term. You can also download the How to Build a Resilient Organization eBook.
COURSES FOR OD PRACTITIONERS
1. AI for Academics. This 3-day hands-on webinar is for educators, administrators, advocates, professors, researchers, trainers, facilitators and teachers (pursuing masters and PhD). It explores the convergence of AI with OD and education. Some topics: AI Under the Hood, AI and Training, AI in the Classroom, AI Apps, AI Roadmap, Ethics and Best Practices. AI will impact instruction, academic integrity, research methods, content creation, student support, school administration, and learning system organization. March 6, 7, and 11, 2024 from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM via Zoom. E-mail or call: Cynthia Cruz at cecruz@saidi.edu.ph or 8-5545373.
2. 4th Data Analytics for MSMEs. 3 Saturdays (March 9 to 23) In-Person hands-on at the University of the Philippines Institute for Small Scale Universities (UPISSI) REGISTER NOW. REACH US AT: University of the Philippines Institute for Small-Scale Industries Room 401, Fourth Floor, E. Virata Hall, E. Jacinto Street, UP Campus, Diliman Quezon City, Philippines 1101 Trunk Line: 8981-8500 loc. 4054 or connect to our Facebook site.
3. ODLab24 will happen on July 4 to 5 in Bacolod City. Save the date. Watch for more announcements in this space.
4. Webinar on Transformative Leaders: Lead to Learn by Legacy 17, 5-7 May 2024, Lund, Sweden. SAVE THE DATES! Visit: LinkedIn OR Facebook.