5 Starting Points for a Resilient Organisational Culture
Today we work in increasingly turbulent and fast-changing markets. To succeed in this volatile and complex environment, organizations need to be more adaptive and agile, especially during crisis situations. One of the major setbacks for organizations that fail to do so is the increased level of stress within the workforce. It can lead to reduced employee performance, productivity, morale, and strain workplace relationships.
Furthermore, building organizational resilience is important because it demonstrates the ability to sustain competitive advantage over time. This is achieved by simultaneously driving excellent performance and effective innovation. By doing this, organizations will also show the adaptability of their business goals to turbulent changes in the market.
A resilient organization is able to:
Create and adapt structures – It has a precise, timely, and rebound decision-making process that allows the organization to operate with dispersed, but at the same time independent, physical and digital operation systems when confronting challenges.
Provide safety – Resilience helps organizations to manage and mitigate risks on a continuous basis in the midst of a change.
Manage the emotional effects – Undergoing continuous transformation and change is a perfect vector for high anxiety and stress levels in the workforce. By embedding resilience in the culture and demonstrating commitment to management at leadership level, organizations can ensure the health and stability of their employees.
Foster a diverse and empowered workforce – Once more, thanks to a strong leadership and resilient culture, organizations have the power to establish a well-connected, collaborative and creative workforce that works together to develop competitiveness and prosperity.
Learn, develop, and grow – A resilient organisation invests in both physical and digital infrastructures in order to make them more adaptive, elastic, and flexible in the long-run.
How you can leverage your digital workplace to build a resilient organisational culture:
1. Effective leadership
One of the most important factors driving organizational culture is strong leadership. Resilient cultures begin with engaged leaders that understand and support employees. A lack of senior leadership support creates risks of a disengaged workforce and therefore weak company culture.
2. Transparency and communication
After obtaining the support from leaders, your organization should make sure that it promotes transparency and of course apply it to all internal communications. Resilient cultures understand that communication is a powerful tool to drive behavior in the organization and it creates open conversations around ethics and values.
3. Safe and secure work communities
The workplace can be a stressful and overwhelming place, especially when undergoing changes or disturbances. Employees are taught to separate work from personal lives, and to check their feelings at the door. However, taking a closer look at remote workers for instance, the thin line between family and work grows even thinner. Instead of encouraging employees to keep to themselves, build a more social and safe work environment.
4. Innovation in knowledge management
Resilience is driven by performance and adoption. But how do we reach high-performance rates when we fail to adapt to innovations? Knowledge management is a very important pillar when building resilience, but organizations often fail to successfully integrate innovations. Results are difficult to measure, and organizations prefer to concentrate their efforts towards more tangible elements. But when the time for change comes, a crack in the foundations can block the whole transformation process.
5. Complexity and accountability
A typical challenge that tests organizations’ resilience almost every day is globalization, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Today many businesses operate across multiple time zones, geographies, and departments. To run effectively at this level of organizational complexity, it is necessary to increase cooperation and information sharing, while establishing shared responsibilities across the whole team.
To build a resilient culture takes time, but the rewards for any company are extensive. Results may not come as swiftly as the next challenge, but you should not forget that the most important thing is to learn how to adapt to any situation. And only then you can truly become a resilient and sustainable organization.
Reference:
https://www.lumapps.com/blog/corporate-culture/5-starting-points-for-a-resilient-organizational-culture/