{"id":162,"date":"2022-03-01T20:44:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-01T20:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prudens.mk\/?p=162"},"modified":"2025-10-08T15:31:20","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T15:31:20","slug":"learning-for-change-how-to-make-your-organization-resilient","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prudens.mk\/en\/learning-for-change-how-to-make-your-organization-resilient\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning for Change: How to Make Your Organization Resilient"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The revolution of knowledge and change is happening today<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The rapid development of a string of new technologies in the last decade signaled the start of the fourth industrial revolution. In 2020, the International Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) assessed that with the onset of the fourth industrial revolution, by 2030 one one-third of the jobs in the world (which makes 1 billion jobs) will be completely or partially transformed under the impact of new technologies. This means that the current workforce should get ready to produce value through technological processes that would move the boundaries between physical, digital, and biological. This trend will affect all industries and all corners of the world. The World Economic Forum deepened this analysis and turned this historic turnaround in the nature of work into an initiative called the Reskilling Revolution. Among other indicators, this analysis assumes that by 2025, on average, 44% of the work tasks at every job will be done differently, mostly under the impact of digitalization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2021, in its regular Global Human Capital Trends report, the Deloitte consulting company published \u0430 research showing that as many as 72% of executive directors of businesses from around the world confirmed that the future of their company will mostly depend on the ability of their employees to \u201cadapt, upskill and take on new work roles\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many companies in the private sector are quickly making drastic changes in their strategic orientation in order to benefit from the opportunities opened up by new technologies. The companies\u2019 ability to deal with the changes and adapt to the new demands is considered the new dimension of success \u2013 organizational resilience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Resilience Is the Management of Opposing Needs<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Organizational resilience (elasticity) is defined as the ability of an organization to anticipate, prepare for, respond and adapt to incremental change and sudden disruptions to survive and prosper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is not one single successful recipe for resilience. The activities will largely depend on the business model, the level of digitalization, the business\u2019s core competence, and mostly, the competence of the staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea behind achieving resilience can be split into two opposing strategies: defense \u201cto prevent a problem\u201d and progress \u201cto make something better\u201d. In a different dimension, resilience requires managing the opposites, ensuring consistency on one hand and flexibility to apply novelties on the other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Historically, the defense strategies and ensuring consistency were dominant and applied in all successful businesses. These strategies can be seen in the systems of preventive control: standardization, risk management, and safety systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, the best strategy to ensure resilience is a combination of defense and progression in order to provide consistency and flexibility at the same time. The resilience of your company is constantly managing and meeting the opposing needs of your business, which requires you to think in paradoxes, as defined in an academic study by the Cranfield School of Management<\/a>. While thinking about the future of their companies, in managers\u2019 heads there is a constant fight between the opposite needs to ensure stability and innovation, to retain current and conquer new markets, improve current products, and create new products, etc. All of this at the same time. And quickly. And without great expenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where is the potential for change in your organization?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

If your company has a typical development, it probably wouldn\u2019t be difficult for you to identify the resources that ensure stability and consistency. It would be a greater challenge to provide flexible and innovative practices that would mean your business is in step with the future. What you need most now for resilience is the potential for change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Changes in your organization do not occur in isolation or in the manager\u2019s office. They occur through changes in each person, in each job. Ideally, all people in your organization contribute to its resilience by successfully managing the opposing needs of their jobs. To be able to do this, your employees need a whole set of competences \u2013 they should be masters in what you do now and should constantly know what you can do next to survive and progress. Whatever your business model, it cannot be sustainable without adequate people. The essence of the business is in the heads and hands of the employees; they create the greatest value, and your organization\u2019s resilience depends on them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou can take my factories, burn up my buildings, but give me my people, and I\u2019ll build the business right back again.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Henry Ford<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most valuable employees in your organization are those who learn and make changes<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The knowledge and skills of your employees lose their importance and relevance each day. The changing conditions on the market require you to constantly change your practices, products, and services, and the way you work. Digitalization is the best example of this. If your company is more than 10 years old, reflect back on the list of jobs in the beginning and compare it with the one today. Some of your employees are working on processes that did not exist then, while in five years\u2019 time they will work on processes that today we are not yet clear will be necessary for us to keep our competitive advantage. Whether we sink or swim in the uncertain and arbitrary future will depend on the attitude toward learning and the ability of the people in your organization to accept and implement change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only Learning Organizations Are Resilient<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Change is inevitably linked to learning. If tomorrow I need to do something differently than today, I have to learn how to do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learning is a solution for many challenges in your business. First, new knowledge is necessary for developing processes. Second, the opportunity for personal development and learning is one of the strongest motivators for attracting and retaining employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you haven\u2019t done this already, you should start today and introduce practices of massive, individual, or group learning. Make your company a learning organization. Start with several steps:<\/p>\n\n\n\n