RESILIENT COMPANY DEVELOPMENT

"Organizational resilience is the ability of an organization to cushion and adapt in a changing environment in order to achieve, survive and thrive. More resilient organizations can anticipate and respond to risks and opportunities - due to sudden or gradual changes in the internal and external context". [2] ] Resilience is not a new concept, nor is the current corona crisis the first major challenge for organizations - but what it shows is once again the need for organizations to be robust.

The Corona crisis is only exemplary, once again highlighting the urgency of repositioning organizations steadfastly and strategically. The balance of power shifts in favor of the employees, leadership becomes more agile and flexible, the question of meaning is not answered according to the top-down principle, instead all groups must be involved. The question of meaning can and must be discussed openly.

The Zukunftsinstitut presents six lifestyles of employees that can help to overcome such a crisis: The Forward Mover, the Golden Mentor, the Party Hopper, the Modern Nomad, the Digital Creative and the Sense Careerist. [1] What distinguishes them? Flexibility, self-realization, no fear of the unknown and curiosity. It is often those who in pre-Corona times did not like to commit themselves to companies in the long term, whose ideas were often rejected as absurd and unrealistic. They are the ones who quickly get bored in their conventional everyday work, who are bubbling over with new ideas or at least know how to implement them. But they are also those who, with a calm mind, critical awareness, reflection and skills from past crisis situations, know how to keep calm in a restless environment. Social bonding, health and self-realization are close to their hearts, they think and act holistically, are not thrown off course by the crisis. They are willing to rethink things, they know how to contribute to leading the company out of the crisis with prudence as well as with adaptation and responsibility.

Here it is important to admit to oneself as a manager that the crisis cannot be overcome with a top-down strategy. By involving the most diverse characters, as listed here as examples, optimal strategy approaches and ideas can be collectively implemented. It is not enough to develop short-term crisis management strategies that are always looking for analogies to the past. A long-term, strategic resilience must go beyond what has been known up to now, question which events, employees and concepts are needed to be among those who are on the side of those who have made it at the end of a crisis.

Development processes are necessary to make a company robust and crisis-resistant. These can be transferred into a superordinate model of organizational performance. Based on a common vision of the future within an organization, four core processes can be categorized: Shaping the future and living visions, creating values and satisfying needs, learning and optimizing the organization, working together and developing individuals. Each of these dimensions is assigned to further service areas. The first of the four core processes includes keywords such as strategy, leadership and purpose, while in the context of satisfying needs, the focus is on stakeholder interests and process optimization. Within organizational development, it is important to act innovatively and with foresight, to learn from the past and to collectively increase the resilience of the company through teamwork.

In times of upheaval, resilience is often underestimated, which once again underlines the importance of robustness and flexibility of organizational structures. Getting there does not require abrupt reorientation and repositioning, but rather insight and acceptance of the circumstances. In the next step, conclusions are drawn from this insight for one's own actions, the development and the future of the organization. In this step, consideration of the circumstances is just as important as communication with and involvement of the employees. Only together can stability be created and the company be set up for the future.