Designing for Resilience: Principles for Building Organizational Adaptability

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Abstract: Organizational disruptions from events like the COVID-19 pandemic have demonstrated the importance of resilience - an organization's ability to anticipate risks, maintain core functions during crises, and adapt successfully. This article outlines eight design principles that research indicates can help build resilience into an organization's structures, systems, culture and operations. Drawing from literature in fields like organizational development, crisis leadership and strategic management, the principles focus on distributing leadership and information sharing; promoting flexible, modular designs; ensuring redundancy of critical resources; cultivating a learning culture; maintaining flexible funding and resources; conducting scenario planning and training; fostering strategic partnerships; and taking an adaptive approach to goals. The principles are grounded in academic research but presented through the lens of a practitioner's consulting experience. The article also discusses practical strategies for applying the resilience design framework to assess risks, strengthen crisis response capabilities, and nurture continuous organizational learning and adaptation.

As a strategic management consultant and professor focusing on change and transformation, one of the key capabilities I emphasize with my clients is organizational resilience. The events of the past two years have clearly demonstrated the need for businesses and other institutions to be adaptable in the face of unforeseen challenges. While disruptions will always occur, resilience refers to an organization's ability to anticipate risks, maintain core functions, and rebound successfully.

Today I draw from research in the fields of organizational development, crisis leadership, and strategic management to propose eight design principles that can help build resilience into an organization's structures, systems, culture and operations. These principles are grounded in both academic literature and reflections from over a decade of consulting experience working with organizations across various industries to navigate change and uncertainty. The goal of this article is to provide practical guidance that leaders in both public and private sectors can apply to strengthen their ability to respond and adapt to disruptions of all kinds.

Design Principle 1: Distributed Leadership and Shared Situational Awareness

A core aspect of resilience is the ability to sense threats early and respond quickly. Research shows that centralized, top-down leadership can hamper this (Mitarai et al., 2020). Distributing leadership roles and responsibilities across levels can help capture diverse information and perspectives (Curnin & Tanner, 2019). Frequent, open communication also builds shared "situational awareness" of risks and weak signals (Boin et al., 2017). This was evident when an automaker I worked with rapidly shifted production by empowering plant managers and frontline teams to problem-solve changes based on real-time constraints.

Design Principle 2: Flexible Operational Processes and Structures

Organizational structures and processes need flexibility to adapt under stress and allow for reinvention (Wieland & Wallenberg, 2013). Overly rigid bureaucracy hinders nimble responses (Boin et al., 2017). The pandemic showed how healthcare systems with flatter, modular structures coped better than those tied to single facilities (Cosgrove et al., 2020). In consulting for a retail co-op, we recommended shifting from specialized silos to cross-functional pods that could shift priorities weekly to changing demands. This agility served members well during supply chain issues.

Design Principle 3: Redundant and Dispersed Critical Resources

Ensuring redundancy of critical infrastructure, supply chains, skills, and talent builds resilience against single points of failure (Carvalho et al., 2012). A utility client faced fewer outages by establishing microgrids rather than relying on centralized power plants alone. Dispersing some assets cross-location or virtually also mitigates risks like natural disasters impacting a single site (Wieland & Wallenberg, 2013). After Hurricane Sandy, hospitals sharing staff via telehealth saw fewer delays in care.

Design Principle 4: Learning Culture that Values Adaptation

A culture that treats crises and disruptions as opportunities for improvement, rather than blame, is key to resilience (Lee et al., 2013). When failures occur, focus should be on systemic root causes rather than individuals (Boin & van Eeten, 2013). Promoting psychological safety allows people to surface problems and experiment with solutions (Edmondson, 2019). This was exemplified in how a mid-sized manufacturer evolved quality processes after the 2008 recession by openly discussing lessons across functions.

Design Principle 5: Flexible Resources and Funding

Earmarking flexible funds, reserves and temporary roles allows resources to shift strategically during disruptions (Wildavsky, 1988). The ability to "buy down" risks through short-term contracts or reserves was cited as invaluable to many clients during COVID-19 (Moe & Pathranarakul, 2006). Advanced flexibility can come through revolving lines of credit or holding equity stakes allowing asset shifts between companies (Carvalho et al., 2012). For a technology firm, maintaining a talent pool of contractors proved critical to pivoting projects on tight timelines.

Design Principle 6: Crisis Simulation and Training

Regularly testing organizational resilience through simulations, exercises and war-gaming of worst-case scenarios builds adaptive muscle memory (Boin et al., 2017). It exposes single points of failure while building cross-unit collaboration skills (Mendonca et al., 2001). Realistic scenarios help equip diverse teams for cascading, unpredictable consequences not foreseeable through assumption-based planning alone (Boin & van Eeten, 2013). Our simulations with a biotech company to practice pandemic responses paid off as they had fewer internal crises to navigate initially in COVID-19.

Design Principle 7: Strategic Partnerships and Ecosystem Connections

No organization is truly self-sufficient, so building webs of external relationships enhances resilience (Solomon et al., 2016). Strategic alliances allow resource-sharing, skills transfer and mutual aid that proved invaluable for some businesses during supply shocks (Carvalho et al., 2012). Government-community coordination also boosted crisis responses in many sectors (Kapucu et al., 2010). A healthcare network kept facilities running by leveraging regional staffing agreements forged pre-pandemic between competitors.

Design Principle 8: Adaptive Strategic Direction and Goals

While maintaining a clear strategic north star is important for navigating uncertainty, goals and priorities may need revising given changed conditions (Hacklin et al., 2018). Resilient strategies embed options to pivot or abandon initiatives if disruptions occur (Wieland & Wallenberg, 2013). They also pursue capabilities like agility and adaptability explicitly as ends in themselves (Hamel & Valikangas, 2003). For example, emphasizing core offerings versus adjacent innovations allowed a retailer to conserve cashflow yet still pursue new omni-channel strategies post-COVID-19.

Applying Resilience Principles in Practice

While no organization can foresee every risk, the above design principles can help embed resilience systematically into operations, culture and strategic mindset. Their applications will necessarily vary by sector and context. However, some common strategies emerge from our work with clients:

• Conducting resilience assessments to audit structures, partnerships and resources against potential disruptions

• Empowering cross-functional teams to develop crisis response plans and regularly test diverse scenarios

• Building reserve funds, credit access, workforce pooling and supply chain alternatives for critical needs

• Fostering cultures where people feel psychological safety to surface early risks and experiment

• Maintaining modular, adaptable roadmaps with options to accelerate/delay initiatives as conditions change

• Forging strategic networks with competitors, suppliers, communities for mutual aid in disruptions

• Critically examining single points of failure across the value chain to diversify vulnerabilities

• Defining resilience itself as an overarching strategic priority alongside other objectives

Conclusion

The level of disruption we have experienced in recent years makes organizational resilience more important than ever. By proactively designing the eight principles discussed here into core operations, culture and strategic mindsets, leaders can strengthen their ability to sense risks early, maintain mission-critical functions, and successfully adapt as conditions evolve. While disruptions will always occur, following this framework can help organizations withstand uncertainty and emerge stronger. Overall, resilience should be a continuous process of building adaptive capabilities—not a single state of being crisis-proof. The journey ahead involves ongoing commitment to practices that nurture an organization's flexibility, redundancy and capacity for organizational learning under stress.

References

• Boin, A., & van Eeten, M. J. G. (2013). The resilient organization. Public Management Review, 15(3), 429–445. https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2013.769856

• Boin, A., Kuhn, R., & McConnell, A. (2017). Leadership in times of crisis. International Studies Review, 19(1), 31–43. https://doi.org/10.1093/isr/viw033

• Carvalho, H., Barata, J., & Francisco, R. (2012).Resilience in organizations: Literature review and model proposal. Revista de Gestão e Secretariado - GeSe, 3(3), 112–151. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rie.2012.07.005

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• Hamel, G., & Valikangas, L. (2003). The quest for resilience. Harvard Business Review, 81(9), 52-65. https://hbr.org/2003/09/the-quest-for-resilience

• Kapucu, N., Arslan, T., & Demiroz, F. (2010). Collaborative emergency management and national emergency management network. Disaster Prevention and Management: An International Journal, 19(4), 452-468. https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/09653561011070376/full/html

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• Mitarai, F., Dodds, P. S., Kas, A. M., & Donner, R. V. (2020). The impact of topology and hierarchical organization on leadership succession and organizational resilience. Journal of The Royal Society Interface, 17(162), 20200067. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2020.0067

• Moe, T. L., & Pathranarakul, P. (2006). An integrated approach to natural disaster management: Public project management and its critical success factors. Disaster Prevention and Management: An International Journal, 15(3), 396-413. https://doi.org/10.1108/09653560610669882

• Solomon, E., Huang, P., & Manippa, V. (2016). Tourism crisis management: Enhancing organisational resilience and reducing vulnerabilities in the tourism sector. OECD Tourism Papers, 2016(01). https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/docserver/5jlslcwldx6l-en.pdf?expires=1654654776&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=29ED96E12D21F15BDEDB9B3F65EE6B86

• Wildavsky, A. (1988). Searching for safety. Transaction Publishers.

• Wieland, A., & Wallenburg, C. M. (2013). The influence of relational competencies on supply chain resilience: a relational view. International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, 43(4), 300-320. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPDLM-08-2012-0243

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Jonathan H. Westover, PhD is Chief Academic & Learning Officer (HCI Academy); Chair/Professor, Organizational Leadership (UVU); OD Consultant (Human Capital Innovations). Read Jonathan Westover's executive profile here.

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Suggested Citation: Westover, J. H. (2024). Designing for Resilience: Principles for Building Organizational Adaptability. Human Capital Leadership Review, 14(1). doi.org/10.70175/hclreview.2020.14.1.8