Music to my ears....

Dr. Marc Siegel, the Commissioner heading the ASIS International Global Standards Initiative, responds to a recent Continuity Central article.

Leslie Whittet’s recent article on Continuity Central entitled ‘Some thoughts on resilience’ was music to my ears. Leslie provides the most eloquent description of the new ANSI American National Standard for Organizational Resilience (ANSI/ASIS.SPC.1:2009) that I have read to date. The analogy in the article explains why the melodic symphony of an organizational resilience management system standard results in a beautiful enhancement of resilience performance.

Like Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, a management system involves a great many instruments and players. Like an orchestra, everyone in the organization has a role to play in the management system. Everyone must be committed, capable, and aware of their individual roles as well as their role in the organization as a whole. A management system is about instilling a culture of resilience in organization so everyone knows and practices their roles to achieve an optimal performance. Also like an orchestra, management leadership, active involvement, and commitment are essential for the success of the performance.

So it is with the new Organizational Resilience Management System Standard (ANSI/ASIS.SPC.1:2009). In a well tuned management system, the component parts of a system can best be understood in the context of relationships with each other, rather than in isolation. The organizational resilience management system examines the linkages and interactions between the elements that compose the entirety of the system. Going back to the classical music analogy, the successful implementation of the organizational resilience management system is only present in the integrated performance of the component parts. Every implementation is a unique performance, re-interpreted and tailored by the needs and requirements of each individual organization and its audience (its stakeholders). In a management system standard there is no ‘one size fits all’ or ‘tool box’ approach, only the collective harmonization of a culture throughout the organization to enhance resilience by performing in concert.

How else is the new Organizational Resilience Management System Standard like a well played symphony? Contrary to the noise created by an independent soloist, the Standard views the convergence of disciplines needed to management the risks of disruptive events. For organizations to cost-effectively manage risk they must develop balanced strategies to adaptively, proactively and reactively address the minimization of both the likelihood and consequences of disruptive events. Therefore, the management system provides a cross-disciplinary and comprehensive management systems approach for prevention, protection, preparedness, response, mitigation, continuity, and recovery for disruptive incidents resulting in an emergency, crisis, or disaster.

Resilience has been defined by ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) as the “adaptive capacity of an organization in a complex and changing environment”. Like great music, the ANSI/ASIS.SPC.1 Organizational Resilience Management System Standard recognizes that organizations exist in complex and ever changing environments. Therefore, the management system standard is a dynamic process adapting to the needs of the organization and its stakeholders, as well as the context in which the organization operates. The iterative approach and continual improvement nature of a management system is about creative interpretation to achieve the most cost-effective and harmonious implementation strategy supporting the objectives of the organization.

About the author:
Dr. Marc Siegel is the Commissioner heading the ASIS International Global Standards Initiative. He represents ASIS International at the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and at regional and national standards forums. He works with ASIS International and national standards bodies on five continents to develop international and national risk management, resilience, security, preparedness, and continuity standards as well as provides training on their implementation. He is a RABQSA International certified Security Management Systems - Business Improvement Lead Auditor, as well as a certified Trainer and Skills Assessor for the ISO 28000 – Security in the Supply Chain Lead Auditor Certification Program. www.asisonline.org

•Date: 28th July 2010 • Region: World •Type: Article •Topic: BC general
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