Want to thrive in a crisis? Develop adaptive resilience
By Dr Maxine Jaffit
What makes some organisations survive a crisis? Not only survive but thrive and become even better?
My 30-year career as a global leadership and culture consultant has allowed me to work with many organisations, and I believe the key to adaptation and thriving is developing adaptive resilience.
In a volatile and uncertain world, organisations must be able to pivot and adapt rapidly to keep up with an ever-changing business landscape.
Building adaptive resilience is a strategic decision that requires challenging established organisational norms, processes, and practices, which may be obstacles to adaptive resilience development.
The economic imperative to build organisations that are resilient and able to adapt during crises became particularly evident during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Contemporary approaches to organisational resilience predominantly emphasise strategic and operational interventions, including resilience training programs, leadership development initiatives, and risk mitigation strategies, as well as the reallocation of resources.
While these interventions hold merit, they have not adequately conceptualised organisational resilience as an evolving process of adaptive development through collective engagement.
Adaptive resilience moves beyond tactical or short-term action that can be implemented immediately.
It is about creating a culture of adaptability where everyone is able to step up to meet the demands of changing circumstances.
The reason is that as the frequency of volatility and crisis occurs, organisations find themselves in a position of greater vulnerability, and adaptive resilience development offers possibilities for continued sustainability and even growth.
What is Adaptive Resilience?
Adaptive resilience refers to an organisation’s ability to transform dynamically. It is conceptualised as a dynamic, socially constructed process of developing positive organisational adaptation and growth triggered by a disruptive crisis event.
It consists of three intertwined microprocesses: shared sensemaking, collective problem solving and strong relational capital.
Together, these microprocesses enable responsiveness built on speedy prioritisation and action, which are essential in times of crisis.
The implementation of action reveals important information and dynamics that become apparent as collectives engage in reflection and learning.
Insight gained from this learning reshapes future action enabling ongoing change and adaptation.
The process is an evolving one, predicated on collective problem solving and shared sense making, and underpinned by relational capital.
Adaptive resilience is instilled within a business as part of the organisational culture even before a crisis event is triggered.
It is built on a foundation of relationships and connections amongst colleagues that evolves over time fostering positive adaptation.
Formal and informal connecting processes act as an “in-built muscle”, which kicks into gear automatically when a crisis hits.
These processes allow people to bounce ideas off each other without being concerned about stepping over territorial or power lines.
The ideas are what matter, not the hierarchical structures. Companies that wish to pivot in times of crisis need to work to equip themselves with inclusive cultures where the voices of many are heard.
It requires an organisation to embrace diversity of thought and inclusivity to ensure that all voices are brought into the conversation to achieve collective problem solving.
As such, adaptive resilience is a dynamic process that evolves from strong social ties within the organisation, which help develop positive ways for the entire organisational team to change and grow when the business environment is negatively altered.
Like-mindedness does not build adaptive resilience
An organisation’s predisposition to adaptive resilience starts with its leadership team. It must be one that enables an environment for collective problem-solving; leaders who do not see their role as having to have all the answers, but rather those who enable and galvanise the collective to allow for a different kind of problem solving.
The role of leadership should be one of providing co-creative spaces where relational capital can be developed and where shared leadership processes take place in cross functional and across hierarchical structures.
Adaptive resilience is found in organisations that have a base assumption that diverse thinking enables them to better solve problems and overcome difficult circumstances.
This is because these organisations understand that decision-making amongst a few similar leaders does not bring in the kind of diverse lateral thinking that is required to weather a crisis.
Rather, organisations built around the assumption that collaboration, partnership, networks and diverse thinking enable superior problem-solving have a better capacity to make the shifts and changes that are required to display resilience.
In my experience, during a crisis, organisations often turn to tactical approaches that can be implemented immediately, such as resilience training, leadership development programmes, risk mitigation strategies, and resource allocation.
While these interventions are important, they do not foster organisational resilience.
The good news is that adaptive resilience can be actively developed through adopting the three intertwined microprocesses of shared sensemaking, collective problem solving and strong relational capital.
Practical steps to creating adaptive resilience
- Adapting the way problems are solved: Leadership teams need to examine how they solve problems. Questions to ask include, “Who solves the company’s tractable problems?”, “Is problem-solving delegated out or given to consultants?”, “What processes and mechanisms are employed?”, “Are people brought together to solve issues offering a diversity of viewpoints that may not usually be sought?”
These questions help the company leadership understand how their business solves problems and whether it embraces diversity of thought in its problem-solving strategy.
- Proactive processes: Proactive processes, which are a set of actions taken in anticipation of future events, are especially useful for startups, including understanding the basic assumptions underpinning the company’s culture and whether cultural shifts need to be considered.
Putting a strategy in place from the onset means embedding a culture of inclusivity in the company and ultimately facilitating ongoing adaptive resilience development.
- Challenge processes and practices: Organisations need to challenge any processes and practices which are a barrier to adaptive resilience. They should ideally pay special attention to whether they are constantly turning to tactical solutions, which often do not stand the test of time, to solve complex issues.
- Questioning the organisation’s language: The language of an organisation, which ultimately manifests its culture, must reflect the desire to embrace adaptive resilience. The use of words like ‘us’ and ‘we’ must replace ‘them’ and ‘they’ because inclusion gives a company a far greater chance of adapting in times of crisis.
- Collective processes such as forums/war rooms: These structures are temporary setups where people from across the spectrum of hierarchies and structures can come together to solve problems
These structures are not the same as committees, where the same mental models are used in decision-making.
Temporary structures with decision-making ability allow for great responsiveness in a time of urgency as they do not follow the tried-and-tested rules of some people speaking and others not. All voices are heard in these spaces.
During the Covid 19 crisis, highly bureaucratised organisations successfully created “war rooms” to deal with the crisis.
These structures often offered their first experience of what it meant to solve problems collectively with people across the organisation resulting in fast decision making and action.
Conclusion – connection and collaboration are essential
In businesses where the leadership structure is made up of like-minded people and where there is no diversity of thinking, the system will not hold in a time of crisis.
Organisations, however, that are collective, that practice partnership and collaboration, are more able to pivot and adapt and will have a far better chance of sustaining themselves into the future.
*Dr Maxine Jaffit is a Global Consultant in Leadership and culture, focusing on developing organisational adaptive resilience. She is an Adjunct Faculty member at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) and achieved her PhD through GIBS.
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