Actually it has been over for a couple of days, but I have just gotten around to writing about it.
This was by first visit to the World Conference on Disaster Management. It is probably the best event in this field that I have been to – I would certainly want to go again next year, finances permitting.
The blend of Emergency Management, Business Continuity, Disaster Recovery and general thought leadership in the field is something I have not seen at another conference. These guys have been going for 20 years for a reason, and that is quality.
Day 3 had no concurrent sessions, only plenary sessions. Two sessions on Crisis Management, one on the threat of Terrorism and a Panel Discussion on emerging trends. This format is by nature less interactive, but the panel session certainly tried to achieve some degree of dialogue with the audience.
I came away with a renewed conviction that this concept of resilience needs to be pursued. It has also re-enforced by own ideas and direction of thinking on this subject.
The idea of a new discipline of Resilience or Resiliency Management is misguided. To a large extent it is the various frameworks, standards, certifications and systems of compliance associated to “X” Management that create the need for the new thinking in the first place
Building and maintaining resilience in our organisations will require the application of both Art and Science – in the appropriate balance. You cannot produce a standard or a prescriptive approach to this Art.
Being resilient is also only likely to have meaning in context – and that context may be different for each organisation. To this end building and maintaining resilience is not a repeatable process. It is perhaps a wicked problem, and not in the scope of the discipline of management to solve.
WCDM is coming to Sydney on 11&12 October 2010.
Hope to see you there, or perhaps next year in Toronto.
Are you interested in the concept of resilience if it not a simple and easy to implement package?
Are modern organisation only interested in standardisation and ‘KISS”?
References
World Conference on Disaster Management, Australia
My BCI Presentation that first talks about the Art/Science balance
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