… resilience is an outcome

In the previous post I laid out some aspects and dimensions of the concept of resilience as I have come to understand it. There are a couple more ideas I want to add to that collection, and some that deserve to be explored in more detail. These will be the subjects of a series of posts in coming weeks.

Recognise that resilience is an outcome, not an output.

This is important because it should influence both the way in which we organise to deliver and the way we measure progress along the way.

An outcome is not the product delivered by a process – that is an output. An outcome is the change that is effected by the output(s) delivered – or in our case here the impact of a number of aggregated, inter-related outputs.

Outputs, and the Inputs to the process that produces the outputs, are readily measurable. Outcomes on the other hand may not be so readily measurable and are more likely to be assessed in the medium and long-term – or perhaps only in a time of crisis.

We need to be measuring both what we deliver, and the impact those deliverables are making. We should not simply assume that the delivery is contributing to the outcome.

It is not enough to have 100 BC plans written (nor even tested). These are outputs. Do these outputs contribute to your outcome of being more resilient – and how do they contribute?

An outcome focus will also enable us to stop the creation of outputs that are no longer contributing to our desired outcome.

We need to measure outputs in the short-term and outcomes in the medium to long-term.

A focus on outcomes will also require that a synergistic, cross-silo approach to delivery be adopted. As I argued in the previous post, no single discipline or organisational unit, can achieve this on their own. A collaborative approach is required to deliver the outcome, with each discipline and unit contributing the relevant outputs.

Clearly an outcome like this does not get delivered by accident. The vision and context of resilience for the organisation needs to be designed and the respective contributions of the various disciplines and units identified.  These groups need to come together into an orchestrated series of activity and projects, designed to build and improve resilience. A ‘Resilience Programme’.

Resilience is a Programme, not a Project. It should be managed as such.

Projects deliver outputs – we need a comprehensive programme to build and maintain resilience.