Can good culture help you manage a crisis?

Across the country, organisations are being compelled to change and adapt. It's those with a clear strategy for working through uncertainty that are surviving, and, in many cases, turning a crisis into an opportunity to prosper. 

Any organisation, big or small, can easily build resilience to handle the unexpected, from minor disruptions right through to major events like global pandemics. 

But how best to build business resilience will be different for different businesses, says the joint managing directors of Resilient Organisations, Charlotte Brown and Tracy Hatton. 

Established in the early 2000s, Christchurch-based Resilient Organisations uses research based on real-world experiences and expert consulting to help businesses manage risk and prepare for crises so they can thrive in any environment. 

Initially funded through a government grant, the organisation was founded by internationally renowned resilience expert Erica Seville who was interested in researching how people got through crises. One week after she began, a tornado hit the town of Greymouth on the West Coast, and Erica spoke to a business owner who had just lost half their building. 

Despite having done little preparation for a crisis and without any business continuity or emergency response plans, the company managed to get through with little disruption. Erica discovered the reason for their success lay in their culture – staff were unified in their purpose to get the company back up and running as quickly as possible, operating under tarpaulins so they were able to fill an international order for an important client that week.

Culture the secret to resilience 

Tracy says the sort of business culture displayed by the West Coast business is key to the ability to survive a crisis and it is often rooted in how an organisation treats its employees. 

"It doesn't really matter whether you're talking about a major power company or a local cafe – the fundamentals are the same. The resilience of the business is built on how well the employees are treated – whether they're empowered, listened to and engaged. 

"A local cafe will have a small team, and it's easy to  make sure everyone is engaged and part of the team. It's harder for a large organisation like a power company because business culture can get complicated in a big organisation. Culture comes from leadership, not just at the top, but also leadership in the middle."

According to Resilient Organisations, good culture is about getting everyone on the same page and moving in the same direction. But good culture requires more than token efforts. 

"It's not simply about having a wellbeing programme," says Charlotte. "Paying for in-house yoga classes or allowing people to have walking meetings will not make up for the negative effects of expecting people to work late at night or denying flexible working hours for parents juggling childcare. These things are detrimental to staff wellbeing and give employees mixed messages."

Businesses people love

Resilient businesses are typically ones that have cultivated strong networks and relationships, both internally and externally. 

Charlotte uses the example of Canterbury DHB, where staff protested outside its corporate office in August after budget cuts saw a number of senior executives resign from their jobs. 

"Staff were protesting to keep their leaders. Leaders that can create that level of support from staff will, during a crisis, benefit from a strong and committed team that will go the extra mile."

She says resilient leaders are those who are open to learning, lead by example and adopt good ideas, regardless of where or who they come from. 

"Good leaders deliberately bring in diverse skills and perspectives from across and outside the organisation to solve problems. They take ideas not just from senior managers but from anyone – even new recruits who can provide fresh perspectives."

Plan for resilience before you need it

To futureproof your business, the first step is to anticipate the potential disruptions your business could face and work out how you would deal with them. 

Disruptions could be anything – a flash flood that damages your building and offices, a cyber attack that puts your customer data into the wrong hands, an earthquake that shuts down a city for several days or weeks or, as we're seeing now, a global pandemic that results in a lockdown. 

Charlottes says your plans need to be the right size for your business. For some this could be just having your emergency contacts available and data backups in place. For others, this could include taking out insurance, strengthening your building or creating protocols for emergencies. 

These plans should be adaptable, allowing your business to react to any crisis – even the ones you haven't foreseen. Plans should also be regularly updated, accounting for changes to your business as well the external environment. 

Tracy says there's nothing like a crisis to focus the mind on the need for resilience, and COVID-19 is a great case example. 

Adaptability was seen everywhere as businesses scrambled to find new ways to operate. Cafes used long pizza paddles to safely deliver flat whites to customers. Bookshops offered kerbside pickups. Gin distilleries and beer breweries started producing hand sanitiser, and gyms began offering virtual classes via Zoom. The pandemic proved resilience is possible and that forward planning is invaluable. 

While many organisations have done well and adapted quickly, Charlotte says that simply coping is not the same as being resilient. 

"Being stoic, absorbing the impact and getting through is one thing. Being able to get up, face the crisis head on and look for new opportunities is something else together," she says. 

But whatever the plan, it needs to keep the health of your people front and centre. 

"Long, drawn-out disruptions can be really hard on staff no matter how much planning you have in place, so where possible, you should allow people to have downtime, although this can be tough for small businesses. You always need fresh people at the front pushing the organisation forward," Charlotte says. 

Tracy says the exhaustion people are facing this year is similar to how Cantabrians felt after the Christchurch earthquakes. 

"There was a high turnover of employees in the region, especially at the more senior levels with daunting workloads and heightened adrenaline levels, so people just burned out. I fear there's a lot of that across New Zealand right now," she says. 

Resilience in recession

Due to COVID-19, New Zealand is entering the worst recession it has seen since 1987, with GDP shrinking 12.2% between April and June. 

Charlotte says this will understandably put many businesses in survival mode but believes there are many more disruptive events to come – trends such as climate change, technology changes, an ageing population and water crises on the horizon so preparing is as important as ever. 

Tracy adds, "We know a lot of organisations are going through severe pain and their reaction is to cut jobs, but the thing that's missing is how to retain the skills, knowledge and capabilities of those people. 

"Asking a whole lot of people to go to half-time instead of cutting half your people is a more resilient solution because it retains the ability for an organisation to ramp up when the situation improves."

Resilient Organisations provides free resources for small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that can help guide staff through resilience preparation. The also offer bespoke training to larger organisations. Visit Resilient Organisations for more information.