Canadian Government Executive - Volume 24 - Issue 01

20 / Canadian Government Executive // January/February 2018 Readings Brief L ooking ahead, the number of tec- tonic plates of public policy and the delivery of government ser- vices will continue their churn. Capitalizing on this churn, not just sur- viving it, is going to mean organizations have to take a look at how resilient they are. There are too many unknowns and sudden shifts in the rules to rely on good old planning tools. And, as so much of the current literature and research points out, resilience is not about systems, contin- gency and emergency response tools, but primarily about culture. As Erica Seville, a leading thinker on resilience from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, says: “For example, emergent crisis lead- ership, levels of trust, buy-in and engage- ment of staff, and the ability to overcome silo mentality can be just as influential on an organization’s performance under pres- sure as the robustness of its risk manage- ment processes, continuity planning ar- rangements, etc.” The term resilience seems to be every- where these days. Resilience is a good thing, right? Well, it is also a fad, so let’s try to focus on the useful side and jettison the bumf. Arising from the work of Karl Weick in books such as “Managing the Unexpect- ed: Building Organizational Resilience in an Age Of Uncertainty”, this sensible no- tion has now become a policy and mana- gerial cliché. By Andrew Graham Resi l ience as a St rategic Co Managing Forward: