Resilient Organisations Innovate! Break out session challenged and inspired by the Organisational Resilience standard (BS65000) and the BSI white paper with the same title which discusses how organizational resilience can strengthen companies in today’s increasingly complex and ever-changing (business) world. This session takes us on a journey of organizing innovation on three levels: the innovation ecosystem, the organisations within it, and the team- and individual level. Balancing operational effectiveness (today’s new products and services) and strategic flexibility (tomorrows’ innovation) requires resilient structuring and resilient staff. It’s an act of balancing on all levels, especially in Corona times which simultaneously may hamper and inspire (quantum leap) innovations. Important lessons from literature, among others’ Weicks famous analysis of the Man Gulch fire disaster and psychologist Bonanno on the human capacity to thrive after extremely aversive events, give insights for innovative work behaviour and organizational challenges for innovation and business development in the safety chain.

1. RESILIENCE
AND INNOVATION
RESILIENT ORGANIZATIONS INNOVATE
PETRA C. DE WEERD-NEDERHOF
p.c.deweerd@utwente.nl
NEDS 2020, 19 November

2. VEERKRACHT

4. INNOVATION
JOURNEY
“- a highly complex, uncertain
and probabilistic process of
collective action”
Van de Ven 1989

5. 12 March
2019
Individual Resilience for Innovation: does context matter 5
The Innovation Journey
(Visscher & de Weerd-Nederhof, 2006)
[t]he innovation journey concept has been introduced by Van de Ven
et al. (1989) to capture the complexities, contingencies and
uncertainties of new product and process development processes.
Innovation processes are seen as expeditions into unexplored areas,
which are “highly ambiguous and often uncontrollable and unique to
its travelers” (Van de Ven et al., 1989, p. 21). People do not proceed
in these expeditions in a predictable, stage-wise manner, nor do they
proceed randomly. It is a process of trial-and-error, learning-by-doing
and open-ended experimentation. (…)
To succeed, a talent for “bricolage”— the ability to improvise with the
resources at hand — is crucial, since the possibilities for careful
planning are limited in these uncertain areas (Visscher and Rip,
2003).

6. ORGANISATIONAL
CONFIGURATIONS
Organising Innovation for
Strategic Flexibility requires
the pro-active balancing of
multiple innovation
performance requirements.
De Weerd-Nederhof 2009

8. TEAM AND
INDIVIDUAL
CHARACTERISTICS
“Underlying psychological
characteristics such as
personality attributes might be
better predictors of team
performance”
De Visser et al 2014

9. Exploration
• Exploration is rooted in variance-increasing activities
(Smith & Tushman, 2005)
• Exploration is associated with experimentation,
improvisation and creativity (Flynn and Chatman,
2001; Rivkin and Siggelkow, 2003; Van de Ven et al.,
2009) and organic structures (Ancona et al. 2001,
Brown and Eisenhardt, 1997; Lewin et al. 1999)
• Intuitive team thinking is effective in ambiguous,
unstructured, autonomous environments free from
rules and regulations (Kirton, 1976; Cools et al., 2009;
Armstrong and Priola, 2001)

10. Exploitation
• Exploitation is rooted in variance-decreasing activities,
builds on organizations’ past routines (Smith and
Tushman, 2005)
• Exploitation is associated with efficiency, focus and
standardization (Flynn and Chatman, 2001; Rivkin and
Siggelkow, 2003; Van de Ven et al., 1999) and with
mechanistic structures and routinization (Ancona et al.
2001, Brown and Eisenhardt 1997, Lewin et al. 1999)
• Analytical team thinking is effective when the nature of
the work environment is relatively well-structured and
mechanistic (Priola et al., 2004)

15. RE-SEARCH = ME-
SEARCH
I believe we do best when we
engage in research that is
deeply meaningful to us.
Wiklund, 2016

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2019
Individual Resilience for Innovation: does context matter 17
How Resilience Works (Coutu – 2002 HBR blog)
“Most of the resilience theories I encountered in my research (…)
overlap in three ways. Resilient people, they posit, possess three
characteristics: a staunch acceptance of reality; a deep belief, often
buttressed by strongly held values, that life is meaningful; and an
uncanny ability to improvise. You can bounce back from hardship
with just one or two of these qualities, but you will only be truly
resilient with all three. These three characteristics hold true for
resilient organizations as well.”
She also states that resilience is “merely the skill and the capacity to
be robust under conditions of enormous stress and change” and
among others explains that resilient organizations are stuffed with
bricoleurs.

18. 18
THE IMPORTANCE OF RESILIENCE FOR HIGH RELIABILITY
ORGANISATIONS
“ANTICIPATE AND ADAPT TO SURPRISES”
• tsunami / hurricane / 9-11 /
fireworks disaster Enschede
“The authors reveal how HROs create a
collective state of mindfulness that produces
an enhanced ability to discover and correct
errors before they escalate into a crisis. A mindful
infrastructure continually
• Tracks small failures
• Resists oversimplification
• Is sensitive to operations
• Maintains capabilities for resilience
• Takes advantage of shifting locations of
expertise”

19. 19
THE MAN GULCH FIRE

21. In Only the Brave, we experience the gripping true story of one of the deadliest
wildfires in US history: the Yarnell Hill blaze that hit in Western Arizona in July
2013. The movie delivers a deeper, nuanced study of the fine art of firefighting -
particularly in open country - than ever seen before. (…) the filmmakers go out of
their way to humbly humanise as many of its characters as possible. Not just the
celebrated members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots - the first rural
firefighting crew in America ever licensed to tackle major-category blazes -
but also their family and friends. By the time the natural disaster of Yarnell Hill is
ramping up, both the risks facing these men and the fears eating away at their
loved ones have been soulfully brought to the fore. (…) the final impact of Only
the Brave courses far deeper than this type of fare usually can. If you are
unfamiliar with what ultimately transpired up there on Yarnell Hill, don’t hunt
around online for any hints. The frightening last act of the movie will become all
the more powerful for those experiencing it ‘in the moment.’
19/11/20 21
ONLY THE BRAVE …
WHEN KEEPING YOUR COOL MAY NOT BE ENOUGH TO BEAT THE HEAT
https://youtu.be/EE_GY6zccqc

22. 22
DE ANALYSES VAN
MCLEAN EN WEICK
Op vijf augustus 1949 om ongeveer vier uur ‘s
middags werden zes- tien brandweermannen
gedropt in een ongerept natuurgebied waar een
paar uur eerder een kleine, beginnende brand werd
gemeld. Het was uitzonderlijk warm die dag in North
Montana (VS). Op basis van de informatie die
coördinator Dodge ontving, zou deze brand een
‘peulenschil’ zijn. Samen met zijn team zou hij
binnen enkele uren weer terug te zijn op de kazerne.
Twee uur later was het drama compleet, want nog
voordat het zes uur was kwamen dertien brandweer-
mannen om in de vlammen. Deze brand werd
geboekstaafd als de Mann Gulch Fire. Bij dit drama
werden veel vraagtekens gezet. Hoe kwam het dat
deze ervaren brandweermannen de situatie zo
ernstig hebben onder- schat? Hoe kwam het dat
dertien brandweerlieden, die anderen wilden helpen,
zelf het leven lieten? Sterker nog, hoe is het
mogelijk dat drie leden van het team, de door een
harde wind aangewakkerde vlammen, wisten te
overleven? Na een gedetailleerde analyse kwam
onderzoeker McLean (1992) tot de conclusie dat
vier elementen ontbraken bij het bestrijden van deze
brand improvisatie, een zekere wijsheid van han-
delen, een respectvolle samenwerking en
communicatie.
Weick (1993) toonde naar aanleiding van dit drama aan hoe
geprotocolleerde acties en betekenisverlening onder
moeilijke en onverwachte omstandigheden volledig kunnen
imploderen, hoe men onder die omstandigheden verkeerde
keuzes maakt, die in dit geval tot de dood hebben geleid van
dertien brandweermannen. Tevens merkte hij op dat tijdens
deze ramp en dikwijls ook andere rampen opmerkelijk weinig
of slecht werd gecommuniceerd. De analyse wordt door
Weick (I993) niet alleen in een sociaal psychologisch, maar
ook in een organisatorisch licht geplaatst. Leidinggevenden
kunnen uit dit soort situaties lering trekken. Een belangrijke
les is dat de leiding medewerkers de ruimte moet geven om
zelf verantwoordelijkheid te nemen, zonder prestatiedwang
en vaststaande protocollen, maar wel met een duidelijk doel.
Ook Weick benadrukte hier weer de noodzaak van
effectieve duiding en betekenisverlening (sense-making:
Weick, 1993) van de situatie, van kunnen improviseren,
het opbrengen van wederzijds respect en bovenal van
communicatie.

23. 23
LESSONS FROM KARL WEICK
AND HIS ANALYSIS OF THE MAN GULCH FIRE (AMONG OTHERS)
• sensemaking, improvisation, communication
• collective mind (team building)!
• Organising; Structuring; Balancing

24. 12 March
2019
Individual Resilience for Innovation: does context matter 24
Weick (1993) and Bonanno (2004) on Resilience
Weick (1993) in his seminal paper on the Man Gulch disaster
moves from a discussion of what went wrong at that escape fire, to
a discussion of what makes organizations more resilient by
discussing sources of resilience. He stresses the importance of
balancing and flexible structuring of organisations, temporary
systems, structuration, intergroup dynamics and teambuilding.
Insights which could and should be related to the innovation
journey insights as mentioned before.
In this, managing employee strengths - Weick also mentions the
importance of improvisation and bricolage - and dynamically
organizing is crucial. We already know from Bonanno (2004) not to
underestimate the human capacity to thrive after aversive events:
is individual resilience also key to innovation?

25. Datum:
aanpassen
Titel van de presentatie: aanpassen via Invoegen/Koptekst en
voettekst
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26. Datum:
aanpassen
Titel van de presentatie: aanpassen via Invoegen/Koptekst en
voettekst
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27. 12 March
2019
Individual Resilience for Innovation: does context matter 27
How Resilience Works (Coutu – 2002 HBR blog)
“Most of the resilience theories I encountered in my research (…)
overlap in three ways. Resilient people, they posit, possess three
characteristics: a staunch acceptance of reality; a deep belief, often
buttressed by strongly held values, that life is meaningful; and an
uncanny ability to improvise. You can bounce back from hardship
with just one or two of these qualities, but you will only be truly
resilient with all three. These three characteristics hold true for
resilient organizations as well.”
She also states that resilience is “merely the skill and the capacity to
be robust under conditions of enormous stress and change” and
among others explains that resilient organizations are stuffed with
bricoleurs … which according to the innovation journey insights are
also key for innovation

28. RESILIENCE AND
(ORGANIZING
FOR) INNOVATION
Truly resilient businesses
innovate, creating new
products and markets,
always staying one step
ahead of competitors
BSI White paper

29. BSI distills the
requirements
for OR into 3
essential
elements:
product
excellence,
process
reliability and
people
behaviour

30. MANAGING RESILIENCE:
A RESEARCH AGENDA
(Van de Vegt et al 2015)
• Individual and social
resilience
• Coordination within and
across organisations
• Network resilience
(supply chain!)
• Governance and Tri-
sector collaboration
ONLY IF BUSINESS IS RESILIENT CAN SOCIETY BE RESILIENT

32. 32
Antecedents of COVID19 induced rumination
(Caniels, Nikolova, Hatak, Kuijpers, de Weerd-Nederhof,
forthcoming)
Specially, we examined how negative and positive events prior to the
pandemic outbreak influence individual’s coping capacity with regard to
COVID-19 (i.e., the extent to which individuals ruminate about the
pandemic).
We tested our model on data collected among Dutch employees at three
points in time (T1=302; T2=199; T3=171) - two prior to the pandemic and
one at the onset of the outbreak. Results showed that positive events
increased self-efficacy which in turn reduced COVID-19 ruminative thoughts.
Contrary to the expectation of primacy of the effects of negative events, we
found no significant impact of negative events on individuals’ pandemic-
related rumination.

34. (MANAGING) RESILIENCE
AND (ORGANISING FOR)
INNOVATION
Which challenges
do we encounter /
can we tackle in
the Defense and Security
supply chain / eco systems/
individual organisations
and at team
and individual level
…
Contact me to see if we can jointly explore further! P.C.DEWEERD@UTWENTE.NL
https://petradwn.wordpress.com
info sessions 10/12/20