Enabling Behaviors that Increase Resilience

By ICOR:

In a world where the only constant is change, embracing a culture of collaboration and inclusion is essential for businesses to grow and thrive. Collaboration – and it is a skill that can be learned and honed – is an enabler of true teamwork across an organization resulting in a more inclusive environment.

Read this blog to learn more about how collaboration and inclusion increases engagement from all interested parties, enabling more cohesion and synergy with teams working together towards a common purpose or goal, along with a joint vision for building resilience.

Why Collaboration and Inclusion?
Most often, you see Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) as behaviors grouped together. In this blog, we focus on collaboration and inclusion through the lens of organizational resilience.

While DEI is very important, ICOR is most interested in the relationship between an organization’s resilience capabilities and the enabling behaviors of collaboration and inclusion. The July 2022 ICOR webinar and blog seven in this series will focus on the behaviors of diversity and integration.

Collaborative and Inclusive Organizations

Enabling Behaviors
The following are examples of how an organization demonstrates collaboration and inclusion:

1. The organization seeks collaboration with and engagement of its interested parties to enable working together towards a common purpose or goal.
2. A shared ownership or joint vision to build resilience is an outcome of a collaborative and inclusive environment.
3. The organization conducts broad consultation and engagement activities with interested parties, creating cohesion, strengthening social contracts and empowering people to participate.
4. All parts of the organization agree on a vision for the organization’s future and are aware of the shock and stresses it faces and their respective and complementary roles in protecting and developing the organization into the future.
5. Addressing the shocks or stresses faced by one department, location, or line of business in isolation of others is an anathema to the notion of resilience.
6. Inclusion is demonstrated by the organization when it distributes benefits and impacts justly and equitably across the organization; reducing stresses and disproportionately poor outcomes.
7. The organization provides a high quality of life for all its employees, building cohesion, and empowering its people to play an active role in their future.

Organizational Capabilities & Attributes
ICOR’s Organizational Resilience Capability Assessment (ORCA) identifies capabilities and attributes of more resilient organizations. The following capabilities and attributes demonstrate what organizations should do in order to be more collaborative and inclusive.

Shared Vision & Unity of Purpose (Inclusive)
The organization articulates its vision, purpose and core values to all interested parties to provide strategic direction, coherence and clarity in all decision-making. There exists a collective identity which unites all employees around the organization’s overarching purpose.

Understanding & Influencing Context (Collaborative)
The organization maintains strong relationships with interested parties and fosters cooperation at all levels. Employees feel connected to others at work. There are opportunities for employees to get to know one another and to develop interpersonal relationships across the organization.

A Culture Supportive of Organizational Resilience (Inclusive & Collaborative)
The organization is a safe place for collaboration and connected ways of working. It implements targeted interventions to enhance feelings of inclusion for their employees.

Shared Information & Knowledge (Collaborative)
The organization maintains strong relationships with interested parties and fosters cooperation at all levels. The organization’s people offer to help others resulting in improved relationships across teams and creating a more efficient workflow that benefits the entire organization. Coordinating with others helps people to learn from each other.

All employees are provided with equal access to information, opportunities, and relationships they need to be successful.

Coordination & Alignment of Systems (Collaborative)
The organization actively engages in cross-organizational collaboration and teamwork rather than working in silos. The organization enhances communication, coordination, and cooperation between its systems to build a coherent approach.

What is Collaboration in the Workplace?
Collaboration Defined: the action of working with someone to produce or create something. The skill of collaboration enables individuals to work together to achieve a defined and common business purpose.

Employee collaboration occurs when two or more people work together, sharing knowledge while helping one another work more efficiently while improving professionally. Good workplace collaboration leads to healthy employee relationships and creates a positive workplace culture.

Continue reading this blog at ICOR.