Time is our currency

“If I Had More Time, I Would Have Written a Shorter Letter” is oft cited – and the range of citations is interesting in itself. Today, I share a somewhat rambling reflection of being one week out from Beta testing a “Minimum Viable Product” I believe to be already good, and which will become, a terrific tool to support businesses rebooting out of the current crisis.

The “Weekend Fin” this morning showed that mainstream considerations are now clearly focused on how and when to “get back”.

A dilemma faced by all of us is that this is not a “standard” business disruption. It is a “crisis” – and as noted in the International Crisis Management Standard, “crises through a combination of their novelty, inherent uncertainty and potential scale and duration of impact, are rarely resolvable through the application of predefined procedures and plans. They demand a flexible, creative, strategic and sustained response…..”

Risk-based approaches which emphasise the importance of “establishing context” are useful. Unfortunately, “context” has become a buzzword – and buzzwords become irksome and lose traction. This is unfortunate because “meaning making” or “sense-making” – again, use whichever jargon or buzzword you like – is fundamental. Indeed, critical. It is critical to both “get right” and keep refining.

Revisiting and reviewing your corporate “purpose” – and redefining or validating the objectives you need to pursue should help to set you back “on course”. It may not be your old course but it will be a course away from both unseen rocks and ominous icebergs.

Once your objectives are clarified, it then becomes a question of “how best” to achieve them. Will you continue to rely as much as you used to on off-shore providers? What is your preferred “resource configuration”? How can you manage the capabilities of your business in ways that are agile?

These are among the questions and the opportunities we seek to support with the upcoming realease of our “Agile Business Continuity Planning” Software as a Service (SaaS).

Adapted from a concept sketched by Dr Carl A. Gibson

The adapted (Plan-Do-Check-Act) diagram above reflects the iterative and cyclic relationships between dynamic decision making and the execution of action plans – key processes and outcomes supported by the tool.

1. Before Impact steps focus on reducing the susceptibility of resources.

2. After impact steps focus on addressing consequenes of impact.

Screenshot of part of AgileBCP (Demo) Reports Page

Whether our approach adds sufficient value whereby reports support good decision making – (because we do think informed decisions are generally better decisions) – will be explored next week by some terrific Beta Testers. Testers committed to giving us “negative feedback where and as required”.
I look forward to it! Stay tuned.