Human resilience strategies: the reflective phase
This article explores the final phase of the human resilience strategy. This is the stage that most often gets missed out but which is a vital component of the overall strategy. The article is the last in a series of articles looking at human resource aspects of business continuity management. If you have not done so you are advised to read the previous articles first: “The loss of the stable state means that our society and all of its institutions are in continuous processes of transformation. We cannot expect new stable states that will endure for our own lifetimes. We must learn to understand, guide, influence and manage these transformations. We must make the capacity for undertaking them integral to ourselves and to our institutions. We must, in other words, become adept at learning. We must become able not only to transform our institutions, in response to changing situations and requirements; we must invent and develop institutions which are ‘learning systems’, that is to say, systems capable of bringing about their own continuing transformation.”(Schon (1973) (i) Much has been written on the importance of reflective practice for organisational resilience and never has it been more important for business continuity. Continuity issues in all their complexities arrive in many forms from big crisis events such as terrorist bombings to more global issues such as the credit crunch, shortages in energy sources and the inevitable redundancies that result. However the common ground of all these areas is that they constitute a ‘loss of the stable state’ to an organisation. Why bother spending the time to reflect? The basic premise for our work is in line with Joseph LeDoux, professor at the Center for Neural Science at New York University, who states that “…stress shifts us into a mode of operation in which we react to danger rather than think about it” (ii). Once the incident has passed, the tendency can be to just want to get back to normal and carry on as usual and there is health in this. However, if there is no reflective period to assimilate experiences, then a fundamental opportunity is lost to creatively find meaning, integrate learning and become more adaptable. What stops people? “…Because many professionals are almost always successful at what they do, they rarely experience failure. And because they have rarely failed, they have never learned how to learn from failure. So whenever their single-loop learning strategies go wrong, they become defensive, screen out criticism, and put the ‘blame’ on anyone and everyone but themselves. In short, their ability to learn shuts down precisely at the moment they need it the most.” (iii) Fear is the main factor that creates the tendency to ‘blame’ people, this is particularly true following incidents where there have been fatalities, as key personnel may be subject to legal proceedings and therefore face potential loss of livelihood and threat to their identity. In these circumstances the act of reflecting on lessons learned in a non-threatening way may be alien in many organisations. Creating reflexive practices requires facilitators or managers who are highly skilled communicators able to create a ‘learning’ culture rather than a ‘blame and shame’ one. Who should be involved? It may be that an outside resource is appropriate to gather information, or a team of people from different areas of the organisation. A level of trust needs to be established in order to gain a full picture. It is important that the people tasked with gathering this information are given adequate support and gravitas to arrange meetings, ask for time to carry this out and book outside venues if thought important. Setting up this process and following it through is time consuming and requires a great deal of co-ordination. Once started it does need to be carried right through to the end so as not to become simply a ‘paper exercise’ and to avoid the resultant cynicism that this engenders. When? The timing of your reflective phase is important and the following can be helpful to take into account: * People may still be processing reactions so timing is important; How? It is important to pay attention to where in the process you are and ensure that your interventions are appropriate. For example: * Create clear transparency around confidentiality parameters; What? A well designed process will have clear aims and objectives. The following questions provide a starting point of areas for focus: * What did we do well? Moving forward To ensure that the strategy is a meaningful one, it is vital to communicate with all involved how the lessons learned are being taken forward to the proactive stage such as: * How you have made appropriate changes to policies and procedures; Example case study An organisation whose employees were involved in an incident attracting high interest from the public and the media over a period of time. A review of the human factors support provided during the incident was undertaken in order to: * provide feedback to the highest level in the organization; We were asked as external consultants with some knowledge of the organisation to work with in-house staff responders, who were able to underline the importance of the process and the contribution that people could make to this. A questionnaire was compiled focusing on areas that the organisation wanted more information about. This was used as a focus for meetings, however, there was also flexibility for individual feedback on other areas that were of concern. Issues of confidentiality were outlined as well as the process and timeframe. Groups and individuals were identified to contribute to this process and a series of meetings was formally set up with the help of staff responders and managers. The process consisted of face to face meetings with key stakeholders including staff and families of those involved. We also conducted group meetings with organisational professionals involved in human factor support such as, HR teams, occupational health professionals, managers, coordinators with special responsibilities. Staff responders were also interviewed about their role, training and the support that had been given. This process took place over a period of weeks and then information was gathered. Global research was conducted on best practice in compatible organisations and similar incidents. This informed some of the suggestions put forward and gaps in the service were identified. The end result of the reflection was taken forward in a number of ways, this included some changes in operational procedures, training and utilisation of human resources not previously identified. Importantly the organisation received good feedback about parts of the response that had worked well and the process validated the overall strategy and plans that had been implemented. An important outcome was to identify a qualified individual who would be responsible for strategy of human factor responses and could co-ordinate all parts of the process, ensuring good communication and response. Other examples of development were: * Reinstatement of first aid courses for employees; Outcome Staff appreciated the opportunity to talk about their experience and also to acknowledge what had been done well. Not all parts of the process were smooth, some in-house professionals initially felt threatened by the process and needed reassurance and support around this, however, eventually they were able to look creatively at their structure and work collaboratively to identify simple in-house solutions to gaps. It is generally now felt that this process will benefit the organisation on many levels and that there is a sense of being better prepared for future incidents and of providing ‘best practice’ in this area. Conclusion This part of the model is vital in creating a dynamic, informed and excellent response to business continuity related human factors. It is important to understand that this aspect easily gets overlooked. The longing to put the past behind and concentrate on new challenges, alongside the time and cost that it takes to conduct this well, means that many organisations stumble at this point. Staff do not always welcome reflection, interpreting it as criticism and so the organisational culture can be challenged. However, when carried through, this reflective practice helps makes organisations excellent. “And the end of all our exploring Authors: As a psychotherapist and occupational therapist, Siobhán McGee and Emerald-jane Turner, share over 30 years experience working with people and have brought their knowledge of the physiological understanding of trauma into many business sectors and organisational settings including working with financial institutions, fire services personnel and providing support and guidance following 7th July bombings. Siobhán and Emerald-jane work for Human Resilience Ltd. The focus of Human Resilience is to help organisations understand the processes of traumatic stress and create a number of in-house strategies for providing support and emotional first aid to their staff in order to ensure a supportive recovery environment and therefore reduce the need for longer term support such as counselling. http://www.humanresilience.com/ Contact the authors: © Copyright all rights reserved Human Resilience 2008
•Date: 9th May 2008• Region: UK/World •Type: Article •Topic: BC general |
