Resilience is a popular concept, but for many organizations, it remains vague: what does it really mean, and how can you develop it? In the recent article “How to develop resilience? A case study of the City of Antwerp”, Juan Manuel Domínguez-Ortega, Hugo Marynissen and Bart Bruelemans offer valuable clarity on the topic.

Never has so much been spoken, researched, and written about “resilience” as in recent years. We use it in our daily communications; scientists study the phenomenon, politicians regard it as important, and even large institutions such as the World Health Organization or the European Commission regularly debate the subject with international experts. Businesses are also highly concerned with resilience. They
constantly monitor the situation and seek a balance between safety, sustainability, ecological footprint, social impact, waste reduction, and similar factors. Sometimes, these efforts arise from (inter)national regulations, while other times, they are driven by market expectations, including those of customers, suppliers, and shareholders. However, they are often guided by business leaders who believe in their
company’s social responsibility.

All these efforts for stable, responsible, and sustainable business practices are closely monitored and reported. As the saying goes, to measure is to know. However, many people’s logic or conjectures often lack clarity about what is being meant or measured, or how to interpret the empirical data or results. Often, these empirical data may lack a ‘causal’ model or, worse, only refer to correlations. As a result, many business leaders find themselves somewhat at a loss for words. Which measurement results (indicators) demonstrate more or less resilience? Which factors genuinely contribute to resilience? Moreover, are we measuring them accurately? Or can we only evaluate whether we were resilient enough as an organization after experiencing a serious incident or crisis? The result is that many managers and business leaders are increasingly aware of the need to be better prepared for unexpected shocks. However, they remain puzzled about the concept of resilience. On one hand, they understand the need for resilience, but on the other, they don’t know how to implement or improve it.

In recent years, we have also been intrigued by what resilience truly means, what elements it includes, and how to visualize an organization’s resilience level. Our research pointed out that resilience is not about checking boxes; it’s about what you do and how you align around that at an executive level. We developed a tool that visualizes executive team members’ perceptions of their level of resilience, a methodology for discussing the results, and a holistic way of discussing the critical processes in the organization that need to be strengthened. Ultimately, it is a matter of being more resilient today than the day before.

In this paper, Domínguez-Ortega, Marynissen and Bruelemans demonstrate through a case study how an organization’s level of resilience can be visualized, discussed, and improved.