Rapid Responsiveness for Organizational Resilience
Part 4 of 6 of the Organizational Resilience Blog Series
Our framework is based on academic research and in-house interviews with leaders across a wide range of industries (e.g., tech, medical, non-profit) conducted by LifeLabs Learning's Impact Lead Joie Lim, M.S., who is developing specialized expertise in Organizational Resilience.
Most of us are familiar with the survival of the fittest phenomenon—those who adapt to their environment will survive, and those who don’t will… well, you get the point.
In the fourth part of this blog series, we discuss the third pillar of organizational resilience, rapid responsiveness.
Resilient organizations change their processes, systems, and policies to match internal or external demands, producing more positive outcomes and reducing negative outcomes.
There are three levels of rapid responsiveness in organizations:
Environmental and economic: Resilient organizations proactively supply solutions to new environmental demands to take advantage of economic changes.
Systemic: Resilient organizations change their systems (e.g., workflows, performance management, etc.) to adequately respond to the changing needs of the employees or the environment.
Individual: Resilient organizations fulfill their employees’ needs quickly so team members have what they require to succeed at the level the company strives for, not the base level expectation.
So, how can companies ensure they respond rapidly across all three levels? They should have external and internal feedback loops to collect data to inform change and then reliably notify employees of these changes.
Environmental and Economic Rapid Responsiveness
When the economy starts to shift due to political, environmental, or cultural events, who in the organization is responsible for diagnosing the near- and long-term needs of its customer base?
Resilient organizations have identified teams and systems in place to anticipate their customers' needs when the external environment changes.
This process allows them to assess the gap between their current services and what services might be needed to meet the changing demands of their customer base. Those individuals or systems then relay that information to the necessary stakeholders to decide how to respond.
➡️ Example: At LifeLabs Learning, our product team continuously assesses the market's needs to identify what skills are necessary today (and tomorrow). At the beginning of the 2020 pandemic, it was clear employees needed more tools to cope with stress, adapt to changes quickly, and thrive despite uncertainty. This challenging time was when we developed our Adaptivity & Resilience Lab, one of our top-five single-booked workshops since 2022.
Systemic Rapid Responsiveness
Just like the needs of the environment are constantly evolving, so are the needs of employees. New generations are entering the workforce, and employers may realize the way they’ve been measuring performance, retaining top talent, or attracting new leads isn't working anymore.
Internal feedback loops are essential for assessing employees' current needs. This feedback could look like:
HubSpot dashboards that illuminate performance trends for marketing and sales teams.
A performance review system that evaluates individual performance insights on a monthly basis.
Monthly or quarterly CAMPS surveys to pulse employee engagement for leaders, managers and People teams.
Many companies don’t have consistent enough feedback loops. For example, annual performance reviews only happen once a year, inhibiting a rapid response to anything needing attention between one review and the next.
Resilient organizations implement more feedback loops to consistently diagnose the needs of their employees, customers, and stakeholders.
Transparent, Predictable Communication to Individuals
One of the five main brain cravings for employee engagement is certainty—individuals need at least some sense of certainty about what is expected of them, what changes to anticipate, and what the general state of the organization is.
Certainty does not mean needing to have every answer to every question—it means knowing when to expect new information and knowing the information provided is trustworthy.
Resilient organizations communicate transparently and consistently with their employees during times of uncertainty so that people know when and how to expect information.
➡️ Example 1: LifeLabs Learning has a weekly employee newsletter, the “What’s Up,” with all of the information employees need for the week/quarter/month. A short video from an org leader gives a brief overview of the state of the business and the most important action items for employees to note, which also helps increase face time with the most culturally influential people.
➡️ Example 2: LifeLabs Learning’s CEO, Priscila Bala, hosts AMA (Ask Me Anything) meetings to allow employees to ask questions and share feedback, particularly during times of change or uncertainty. This internal feedback loop provides a space for direct communication between leadership and employees, and fosters connection, trust, and psychological safety—all things that build resilience!
Rapid responsiveness refers to how a company responds to both its external and internal environment's needs. Companies that do this well are able to ride the wave of uncertainty while keeping their employees informed and engaged.
Next up, in Part 5, we’ll talk about the fourth pillar of organizational resilience: high autonomy.
>> Want to speak to a LifeLabs Learning consultant about bringing resiliency skills to your organization? Schedule a free 30-minute L&D consultation call here!
