Organisational risk and resilience resources

For those taking stock of damage to their businesses, our free downloadable booklet “Striving Through” has some practical advice to help get through.

We wish you all the best for this holiday season. Check our some of our key highlights from 2022.

Watch a recent presentation by Tracy Hatton talking about organisational resilience, what it is, why it is important, and the small steps that over time can build a robust organisation ready to survive any crisis and thrive in a world of uncertainty.

The latest issue of BRANZ’s Build magazine focuses on the resilience of people, businesses, communities, and buildings, with several ResOrgs projects featured.

We recently gave this presentation on 10 key lessons we’ve learned about supporting businesses and organisations to navigate through crisis recovery.

Many organisations have successfully navigated an incredibly challenging few years. But there is a big difference between surviving and thriving. With reports of burnout rapidly rising, many organisations have recognised the wellbeing challenges of their employees and invested in wellbeing initiatives. While this is laudable, organisations often overlook the key causes of burnout.

Charlotte Brown has been working with an international group of researchers to systematically compare the lessons we’ve learned over the past few decades of natural hazard research on business recovery with lessons emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic.

NZ Red Cross have created this pocket book of wisdom from over 100 recovery leaders who share the messages they wish they’d had.

Over the past 2 years, we have been facilitating incident response debriefs, capturing organisations’ lessons learned from their covid response. Here are some of our insights from these sessions.

MBIE has released some much needed guidance on using seismic risk assessments for occupancy decisions. The guide provides support for interpretation of seismic assessments, in particular %NBS, and helps users to understand how this relates to life safety risk.

Our paper summarising how human behaviour has influenced the implementation and interpretation of the Building (Earthquake-prone buildings Amendment) Act 2016 is now published in the Journal of Civil Engineering and Environmental Systems.

Explore how different communities view different buildings; how important they are and how quickly they would ideally like to see them return to functionality after a major earthquake.

Sesimic resilience is competing against a range of other demands in our built environment. In our recent EQC funded, NZSEE Resilient Buildings Project we explored the importance of seismic resilience relative to other building performance objectives.

To know how to effectively regulate and incentivise risk reduction, we need to understand what spurs people into action and what stops them.

Communities have many competing priorities – of which seismic resilience is just one. Understanding a community’s risk tolerance is helpful when planning and prioritising risk mitigation.

Our current engineering standards focus on the structural response to an earthquake. For most buildings there is little consideration of whether a building can function after a significant earthquake or how long it might take to recover, if damaged.

When your organization is in the midst of crisis, here are some prompts to use as touchstone to ensure you are on track

Building adaptive resilience in organisations is a long-term process. This booklet outlines the stages in the process, starting with clarifying how resilient your organisation is today, and then moves through a series of activities that foster greater resilience.

Our organisational resilience benchmarking tool provides a comprehensive report of an organisation’s resilience strengths and weaknesses by measuring and benchmarking against other organisations.

A tool to measure an employee’s resilience based on a self-assessment of their work attitudes.

A tool to quickly assess your organisation’s resilience.

Resilient Organisations’ Executive Director, Erica Seville has written this practical and highly readable guide to building resilience in your organisation.

Download a questionnaire to quickly assess your organisation’s resilience.

When your organization is in the midst of crisis, use these prompts as a regular touchstone to reflect if you are delivering the leadership needed to get your organization through.

When your organization is in the midst of crisis it is important to demonstrate that you care. And not just with words, but also with actions and initiatives to support people as they negotiate the stressful situations that crises inevitably present.

The relationships your organization has fostered over time are a significant asset during times of crisis – be sure to utilize them.

When your organization is in the midst of crisis, use these prompts as a regular touchstone to maintain your situation awareness.

When your organization is in the midst of a crisis, use these prompts as a regular touchstone to ensure you are thinking creatively enough about ways to address challenges.

Is keeping people safe (life safety) the only thing we require of our buildings following a major earthquake? Our current building code focuses on preserving life and making sure critical emergency response facilities are operational. But participants in our study indicated that while life safety remains the most important focus, having a building stock that can enable social and economic recovery is an increasing priority.

Currently in New Zealand we require buildings with post earthquake functions (like hospitals), and large buildings (like stadiums) to be built stronger than others. But is that in line with current societal expectations? We explored this question with participants in our recent EQC funded, NZSEE Resilient Buildings Project.

A research report, ‘Societal expectations for seismic performance of buildings’, has just been released. The report is about what New Zealanders think about buildings’ performance in the event of earthquakes. The research was commissioned by the NZ Society for Earthquake Engineering (NZSEE), funded by EQC, and we carried it with the University of Auckland.

We are really thrilled this project has been recognised in the RiskNZ Awards, winning both the Risk Initiative of the Year and Stronger Together in Partnership awards.

There is a mantra in emergency management that recovery starts in response. But what does that mean as we continue our response to COVID-19? It’s time that organisations really start thinking about what recovery looks like from this very long event.

On 22nd February every year we remember the tragic earthquake that struck the city of Christchurch, New Zealand and all those lives lost, individuals, communities and business directly and indirectly affected. We also reflect on how far our understanding of disaster recovery has come. We’re resharing the ten key lessons we have learnt through research and working with organisations to build their resilience.

Our paper “Is health and safety legislation an effective tool for disaster risk reduction? A case study from New Zealand” is now published in the International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction

This booklet presents a framework to help your organisation adapt, survive, and thrive in turbulent environments.

Insurance is only useful if the policy delivers what you need and when you need it. This short guide will help you select the right policy, learn how to prepare to use it, and make a claim.

This is an industry-specific guide to improving potable water resilience with recommendations to help key players in the water sector understand what they can do differently to improve resilience.

Disruption and adversity are the harsh facts of life for businesses. This booklet shows you simple steps you can take to help your business get through and build your organisation’s resilience.

Organisations caring for the wellbeing of their staff are more likely to survive, and to recover faster from disaster. This booklet shows you how to plan and support your staff through a crisis.

NGOs are crucial in supporting those most in need, but you can’t help others unless you can help yourself – this guide will help you understand and improve your resilience.

A short guide to help prepare a crisis leadership team before an event and improve effectiveness during an event.

In the midst of a crisis? This booklet will help you respond, recovery, and thrive and provides quick, practical advice to help navigate the three stages of the recovery journey.

Good Business continuity planning helps reduce the impacts of a crisis. To get the most out of your plans you need to be making them adaptive – here are some key tips on how to build your organisation’s adaptive capacity.

Recovery may take longer than you initially expect. Help your organisation through this period by being ready to adapt, change decisions, and keep moving forward, even with incomplete information.

Crises often change the business environment – be ready to adapt to this new environment so you can take advantage of this unique opportunity.

Crises and disruption generate uncertainty. Keeping your staff updated should be your first priority/ It is also important to establish two-way communication with suppliers and customers.

Explore different ways to support your staff. By taking care of them you help your organisation recover.

Building relationships with other organisations during a crisis helps recovery.

A disruption in your supply or logistics chain can severely disrupt your business’s ability meet your customer’s needs.

Look after your leaders – it helps your organisation recovery and thrive.

Our EQC funded project investigating whether the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 (HSWA) has a role in how New Zealand organisations manage earthquake risk was also presented at the virtual 2021 Te Hiranga Ru QuakeCoRE Annual Meeting.

Do you have to make complex risk management decisions?

Decision making frameworks are a key tool to help bring transparency, consistency and robustness to decision making processes.

Check our some of our initial findings we prresented in the QuakeCoRE Annual Meeting Poster Session last week.

As we approach the 5th anniversary of the Kaikoura earthquake on 14 November it is a good time to reflect on how well prepared you really are for the next disruptive event. If you’re unsure where to start and want to quickly assess your organisation’s preparedness, have a look at Resilient Organisations’ rapid assessment tool.

We recently welcomed Cameron Eade to our team as a Consulting Analyst. In this post he shares a bit about his background and life outside of work

Are your Business Continuity plans fit for purpose?
Our accumulated wisdom on building adaptive business continuity plans is now published in the Journal of Business Continuity and Emergency Planning.

Check out our latest publication for practical tips on how to inject adaptiveness into continuity planning processes or get in touch if you want to know more.

Do you want to understand the resilience capacity of your community? Or measure progress as you implement resilience initiatives?
The New Zealand Resilience Index (NZRI), developed for and by New Zealanders is here to help. NZRI can help support your decision-making and prioritise your investments in community resilience.

As we progress through the latest phase of the current COVID-19 crisis, some businesses are upping their activity, whilst others are still entirely non-operational. Every bit of activity helps restore our sense of normal. But we are still a long way from the end of this disruption. Here are some things to keep doing to help your business recovery well.

Recovery from the COVID-19 crisis is proving to be a long game, as we continue adjusting and re-building for a new normal and beyond.
In this post we share five things worth keeping in mind as you respond to the current crisis that may help your long-term recovery.

While it may seem too soon to think about this crisis ending, it is never too early to start planning your debriefing process.

We have created this handy 1-pager to get you started on your debriefing process, making sure you are more resilient to the next crisis.

We are thrilled to announce that Richard Ball has won the Business Continuity Institute’s Asia Pacific awards Continuity and Resilience Newcomer award for 2021.

Richard was awarded for his enthusiastic approach to the discipline, passion for the industry and innovative ideas on how to implement and embed good practice in business continuity and resilience.

Resilient Organisations are excited to partner with the New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering on this Earthquake Commission (EQC) funded project focused on understanding societal expectations for future seismic performance of buildings.

Getting small businesses (SMEs) to make resilience a priority is a challenge. To help address this we have delievered a series of workshops around the South Island.

We are thrilled to announce that Charlotte Brown and the MERIT team have been recognised in the 2021 Lloyd’s Science of Risk Prize.

Want to make sure your organisation is prepared for an earthquake? Download our free Earthquake Preparedness Guide to help get you started.

How do you balance the life safety risks of an earthquake prone public building against the community costs of prolonged closure of community facilities?

We recently completed an Earthquake Commission (EQC) funded research investigated whether the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 (HSWA) has a role in how New Zealand organisations manage earthquake risk.

Risk is a big part of the construction industry – both part of its success and failure. Here are ten simple steps towards better risk management you can implement to improve the
productivity and performance of your organisation.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the devastating 22nd of February Canterbury, NZ earthquake. To mark this milestone, we are sharing our top tips for organisations navigating crisis and disruption. We end with Tip 10, Plan to Adapt: Planning and Preparedness.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the devastating 22nd of February Canterbury, NZ earthquake. To mark this milestone, we are sharing our top tips for organisations navigating crisis and disruption. We follow on with Tip 9, The Paradox of Insurance

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the devastating 22nd of February Canterbury, NZ earthquake. To mark this milestone, we are sharing our top tips for organisations navigating crisis and disruption. We follow on with Tip 8, Staff Engagement: More than just a Buzzword.

This month marks the 10th anniversary of the devastating 22nd of February Canterbury, NZ earthquake. To mark this milestone, we are sharing our top tips for organisations navigating crisis and disruption. We follow on with Tip 7, Recovery is a Marathon not a Sprint.

This month marks the 10th anniversary of the devastating 22nd of February Canterbury, NZ earthquake. To mark this milestone, we are sharing our top tips for organisations navigating crisis and disruption. We follow on with Tip 6, Recovery for a New Environment.

This month marks the 10th anniversary of the devastating 22nd of February Canterbury, NZ earthquake. To mark this milestone, we are sharing our top tips for organisations navigating crisis and disruption. We follow on with Tip 5, There is no such thing as too much communication

This month marks the 10th anniversary of the devastating 22nd of February Canterbury, NZ earthquake. To mark this milestone, we are sharing our top tips for organisations navigating crisis and disruption. We follow on with Tip 4, Take Care of your Staff.

This month marks the 10th anniversary of the devastating 22nd of February Canterbury, NZ earthquake. To mark this milestone, we are sharing our top tips for organisations navigating crisis and disruption. We follow on with Tip 3, Collaborate for Success.

This month marks the 10th anniversary of the devastating 22 February Canterbury, NZ earthquake.

To mark this milestone, we are sharing our top tips for organisations navigating crisis and disruption. We follow on with Tip 2, No Organisation is an Island.

This month marks the 10th anniversary of the devastating 22 February Canterbury, NZ earthquake.

To mark this milestone, we are sharing our top tips for organisations navigating crisis and disruption. We begin with Tip 1, Take care of your leaders.

Recovery can take time. Here are some things to keep doing to help your business recover well.

The guide offers valuable advice to electricity providers on how to prepare their networks and their organisations and respond better to disruptions of any kind; be it earthquakes, volcanic events, pandemics or technology change. 

See what we’ve got to say in the November 2020 edition of OnMAS.

Disasters can generate substantial quantities of disaster waste that must be managed for effective response and recovery….

Tracy Hatton recently attended the annual NZ Lifelines Utilities Forum. This forum provides the opportunity for essential infrastructure and service providers to come together to share knowledge, best practice and lessons learned. Attendees include utility providers for water supply, wastewater, stormwater, electricity, gas, telecommunications, roads, rail, airports, and ports, as well as researchers, emergency management professionals, and central government agencies.

If you want to test whether your organisation is prepared for a crisis, just ask “What did we learn from scenario testing our crisis response plans?”

If you can’t answer, you are not prepared.

Our team has been busy working with organisations in a range of sectors to conduct COVID-19 response debriefs. Capturing lessons learned, before they are lost to memories, is a key part of building crisis response capability. It is not about identifying failures or enacting blame its about learning through battle and sharpening our tactics and strategy for the next encounter.

Auckland Emergency Management is offering two 30-minute business resilience webinars to be held on Thursday 15 October at 6pm and on Monday 19 October at 10am.
This series of two webinars will be facilitated by Resilient Organisations’ Joint Managing Director, Tracy Hatton. The webinars will include practical advice on managing the ongoing impacts of COVID-19 on small businesses.

The construction sector has been a perennial underperformer in the New Zealand economy. The sector’s low productivity reflects very challenging operating characteristics: bespoke complex projects requiring unique approaches. Alongside this, poor risk management can also play a part in low productivity through increased delays and errors, time-wasting, and ineffective problem-solving.

New Zealand’s construction sector is a major contributor to the country’s health, economic stability, security and social cohesion. Identifying how to better measure the performance of the sector can make a vital contribution to driving improvements in the sector.

As we approach the 10th anniversary of the Canterbury earthquakes, we can reflect on the strides we have made as a nation over the past 10 years to become more resilient to seismic risk. It is also an opportunity for organisations to look at seismic hazards on their premises that are not related to the strength of the building itself.

The Institute of Directors (IoD) are hosting a webcast on 9th September, 6-7pm, where Erica Seville and Richard Ball will discuss the recently released report The Board’s Role in a Crisis. They will be joined by a panel of directors, including David Meates and Dr Rod Carr, who will provide their individual insights on being a board member during a crisis.

We have a client looking for an outcome focused Business Continuity professional for a 9 month fixed term position (or part-time equivalent). If you have strong relationship building skills, the ability to adapt BC principles to fit a complex context and an interest in working in Christchurch, please get in touch with Tracy Hatton tracy.hatton@resorgs.org.nz for an informal discussion.

We are thrilled that our article, Measuring the organizational resilience of critical infrastructure providers: a New Zealand case study has been one of the most cited articles in the International Journal of Critical Infrastructure Protection.

Tracy Hatton and Charlotte Brown feature in a video as part of our new partnership with AskYourTeam, providing some useful advice on resilience.

AskYourTeam drives business improvement through continuous engagement with your team.

We are partnering with Keogh Consulting to present this swebinar for emerging leaders who want to excel through challenging times.
Please join us for this free webinar on 20 August, 4:30pm NZST.

Keen to improve your organisation’s emergency response capability? Response and Recovery leadership training courses have now re-started following a brief COVID-19 hiatus.

Erica Seville and Richard Ball presented a keynote presentation at the BCI Australasia ‘Virtual’ Summit 2020 in late July. They presented insights from their recent research project, The Board’s Role during Crisis.

This week the Queenstown Lakes District Council announced the members of the Regenerative Recovery Advisory Group, tasked with looking at recovery in the Queenstown Lakes district in the long term.

Rabia has submitted and successfully defended her PhD thesis, Disaster Recovery of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) – A Case of Recovery from the Canterbury Earthquakes 2010-11.

For many organisations, the role of the board in a crisis like COVID-19 is not clear. Our latest research report is a practical guide for boards members and managers alike. It draws on the combined wisdom of 12 board chairs, directors and chief executives, all of whom have led their organisations through numerous crises.

The construction industry has been left reeling from the body blow delivered by COVID-19. But this will pass, and being resilient will help navigate the crisis and prepare for recovery and future opportunities.

The global nature of COVID-19 presents unprecedented opportunities for cross-cultural research, which can help us to better understand the impacts of culture, public policy, and resilience on economic recovery. The international working group, CONVERGE have put together a
short paper outlining the research methods and principles from natural hazard research we can apply to research related to COVID-19.

Leading through times of change: building a resilient organisation ResOrgs is exploring a partnership with Keogh Consulting in Australia to develop a leadership programme to support leaders navigate the new normal. Here are some strategies leaders can use to lead effectively through times of change.  

If you have not already, now is the time to think strategically about recovery. It is easy to get overwhelmed with the response process and the complexities of adapting operations to our new normal. But it is vital for long term success to allow time for some strategic thinking.

The idea of the 20-minute city, already being tested in Sydney and Paris, promotes the design of communities where education, healthcare, shopping and work are all within a 20-minute walk or bike. Could this be the future blueprint for decentralised cities?

Thursday 18 June 2020, 11.00 am to 12.00 pm As part of the Canterbury Employers’ Chamber of Commerce COVID-19 Online Support Series for Business, Resilient Organisations will be presenting a webinar on Building a Resilient Recovery Strategy.

Visionweek NZ 2020 – day three Sustaining NZ The COVID-19 response demonstrated New Zealand’s leadership. Our leaders looked at the science and took early and decisive action to address the threat. We need to extend this approach to address other sustainability threats and opportunities that we face. That was the overarching message that we took …

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Day two of #visionweekNZ highlighted the opportunities present in our tourism, technology and transport sectors to connect and create a future proof New Zealand. From new technological innovations in tourism that enables people to virtually bungy jump from their couch to improved connectiveness in our technology and infrastructure sectors to enable better planned developments that address the needs of digital equity and lower carbon transport options.

COVID-19 will be a long-running event that will require constant monitoring and response activities. This means tha there is an opportunity to reflect on and learn from our response to date, so we can do things better from this point forward.

COVID-19 will be a long-running event that will require constant monitoring and response activities. This means tha there is an opportunity to reflect on and learn from our response to date, so we can do things better from this point forward.

Consider your recovery like an adventure race: you, your teammates and a distant end point marked on a map. What can we learn from adventure racers that we can apply to our COVID-19 recovery?  Here are some typical adventure racing tips that we think will help you get through.

Consider your recovery like an adventure race: you, your teammates and a distant end point marked on a map. What can we learn from adventure racers that we can apply to our COVID-19 recovery?  Here are some typical adventure racing tips that we think will help you get through.

For many people, work has a social component; we enjoy the day-to-day interactions with colleagues in the office. When that is taken away it is important to bring your team together not only for work-related meetings but for social interaction as well. Here are some ideas for ways to stay connected with your team and have some fun.

Keep looking for the opportunities When faced with a problem or crisis, there is a natural tendency to make that our sole focus. It can be hard to stand back, be truly creative, and look for the opportunities. Opportunities come in many forms and usually take a deliberate effort to bring to fruition. It may …

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Introducing our new Research Consultant, Sophie Horsfall We welcomed Sophie Horsfall to our team as a Research Consultant in early March. Sophie has a diverse background in disaster risk, environmental science, education, and tourism. Sophie thrives in multidisciplinary fields exploring different viewpoints to find novel solutions and has a passion for understanding how things work and the …

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Business continuity planning for COVID-19 Essentials of operation With COVID-19 rapidly evolving, organisations are turning their minds to business continuity. Many businesses are finding they are not well prepared and are seeking guidance or reassurance on how to prepare. This guide is for organisations that do not have a Business Continuity Plan or want to …

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Business continuity planning for COVID-19 Resilient Organisations has prepared this advice to provide a structure for refreshing business continuity plans (BCPs) for COVID-19. If you require further assistance, please get in touch with us. Communication Good communication is essential in all phases of an event, from risk reduction to recovery. We have put communications first …

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View a recorded presentation of Erica Seville and Richard Ball presenting their insights from the Board’s Role in Crisis project.

Shut Happens booklet updated We have recently updated one of our key resources for small businesses – Shut Happens – A short guide to preparing for the unexpected. The key message is still the same – preparing for the unexpected doesn’t have to be hard –  making time to take smalls steps can help get your business ready to …

Shut Happens updated Read More »

Congratulations to Khiam Lee Khiam has submitted and successfully defended his PhD thesis, A case study of collaborative disaster management in Malaysia. Khiam’s research examines the dynamics of collaboration of ASEAN Member States particularly the national disaster management offices during different cycles of disaster risk management. Khiam used multiple case studies to explore the phenomenon …

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Read our key recommendations for boards and management on how to manage the role of their board of directors through a crisis.

Latest research update The Australian Journal of Disaster and Trauma Studies (AJDTS) has published a special issue focusing on “Pathways to Earthquake Resilience” – The case study of Wellington, New Zealand, featuring two papers from the ResOrgs team. The paper, Business recovery from disaster: A research update for practitioners focuses on ResOrgs’ six-year research interviewing and …

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LA Times story on lessons learnt from Christchurch earthquakes Rong-Gong Lin, a reporter who has worked on earthquake news at the Los Angeles Times for nearly a decade, recently visited Christchurch and spoke to a number of people, including Tracy Hatton, to learn more about the lessons California can learn from Christchurch.  As he notes …

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EQC Biennial Grant funding for new project We are excited to have been awarded a grant under the New Zealand EQC Biennial Grants programme. Tracy Hatton will be leading a team of researchers looking at how organisations perceive their obligations under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 and what they actually do to …

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Farewell to Ellie Kay This month we say farewell to Ellie Kay, the youngest of the ResOrgs team. Ellie has been instrumental in the development of the Trajectories programme of the Resilience to Nature’s Challenges National Science Challenge, keeps us on track with our diversity and wellbeing goals, and has been involved in many other …

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Building risk management strategies into the vertical construction sector Achieving a high level of productivity in the construction industry remains challenging. Within the sector, there are also differentiated performance outcomes between the horizontal and vertical construction sector. The recent successes of horizontal infrastructure projects such as the Northern Toll Road Gateway, Waterview Project, and Christchurch …

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Keeping up with an evolving strategic risk landscape  By Erica Seville The insurance sector, like many others, is at an interesting juncture, as the nature of the strategic risks facing the sector evolves and anticipated time-frames for change shorten.  At first glance, it is a sector populated by well capitalised, established and large incumbents.  It …

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Resilience coaching special offer We know that being the business continuity or resilience champion in an organisation can be both personally and professionally challenging. In acknowledgement of Mental Health Awareness Week, we are offering a special on our one-on-one organisational resilience professional development coaching. Connecting with others and sharing problems (and successes) can be a …

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Earth Ex 2019: Testing resilience planning Want to test your resilience planning? Have a go at Earth Ex 2019. This web-based exercise takes you through a Black Sky hazard scenario, testing your readiness and response plans. We recently did it and even though resilience is our core business, we still found it useful to test …

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The link between diversity and wellbeing: a no-brainer for NZ organisations By Ellie Kay As the ResOrgs diversity and wellbeing champ, I have often written on, well, diversity and wellbeing. When it was suggested that I think about writing a blog, though, I wasn’t really sure where to start. Sure, my colleagues have become accustomed …

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Calling all board members and CEOs – A Board’s Role in Crisis Have you been on a Board of Directors or a CEO of an organisation that experienced a crisis within the last 10 years? Do you feel you learned from that experience? Would you like to share your experience to help others facing crises …

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Tracy Hatton speaking on water resilience Tracy Hatton was recently interviewed by the Resilience Shift about the importance of water resilience. Resilient Organisations, in collaboration with the Resilience Shift recently published a resilience primer on potable water infrastructure.

EARTH EX – Global resilience exercise The virtual multi-sector global resilience exercise EARTH EX opens on 21 August 2019 and remains open to participate in any time through to the end of October. The ResOrgs team have registered and will be taking part in this exercise. and we encourage organisations to register and take part. …

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Bumpy roads to reconstruction In the latest issue of BRANZ’s Build Magazine, a recent QuakeCoRE project involving researchers from Resilient Organisations, the University of Auckland and Market Economics, address the question of what differentiates the earthquake rebuilding timeline of Christchurch from other places like Kobe following the 1995 Great Hanshin earthquake and Los Angeles following …

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Queenstown Tourism Operators getting prepared By Erica Seville (Resilient Organisations) and Trevor Andrews (Emergency Management Otago) May 2019 This month, Erica Seville, spent an afternoon with the Queenstown Lakes district TORQUE group.  TORQUE (which stands for Tourism Operator Responders of Queenstown), brings together the largest tourism operators in the district, along with the Department of …

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Resilience primer for the water sector We recently completed this primer, and the published version is now available to download from The Resilience Shift. This primer is a brief document introducing the principles of resilience for the potable water industry. It is intended to assist those in the water industry to consider shifting practice to …

Resilience Shift Potable Water Primer published Read More »

Advice for farmers affected by Mycloplasma bovis The Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) is offering a grant for advisory services to farmers affected by Mycoplasma bovis. Resilient Organisations has been identified as a pre-approved supplier for these services. If you are a farmer that has been affected by M. bovis and want help navigating through …

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Ellie Kay awarded the GRRN Young Researcher Award Congratulations to ResIlient Organisations Research Consultant, Ellie Kay on being awarded the Global Resilience Research Network (GRRN) Young Researcher Award for her presentation entitled “Embedding resilience measurement in policy and action” during the 2nd annual GRRN Summit in Freiburg, Germany. Ellie’s work seeks to operationalize the New …

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Managing Information and Data for a More Resilient New Zealand Resilient Organisations’ researchers working on the Resilience to Nature’s Challenge project have published a report on the Data Integration and Visualisation En Masse (DIVE) Platform: Lessons Learned and Future Pathways. The Data Integration and Visualisation En Masse (DIVE) pilot project was funded by the NZ …

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Supporting your team following the Christchurch mass tragedy Bernard Walker, University of Canterbury The mass tragedy in Christchurch affects many people. The injured and deceased are part of our Canterbury community. Some are work colleagues, and others are friends and family of workers. Most workplaces are affected. The events bring a wide range of emotions, …

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Thank you from the ResOrgs team Friday’s events here in Christchurch have had a profound impact on all of New Zealand.  We echo the words of our mayor in expressing our disbelief that this could happen in New Zealand.   We are grieving alongside our community for all that we have lost.  We would like to …

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Ellie Kay shortlisted for GRRN Young Researcher Award Congratulations to Ellie Kay for being one of just five young researchers invited to compete for the Global Resilience Research Network (GRRN) Young Researchers Award. Ellie has been invited to attend the GRRN summit in Freiburg, Germany in April to present her research. The GRRN Young Researchers …

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Resilient Organizations book now available in Chinese and Italian versions Erica Seville’s book, Resilient Organisations: How to survive, thrive and create opportunities through crisis and change is now available in an Italian and Chinese version. The Italian version is Organizzazioni resilienti: Come sopravvivere, propserare e creare opportunità al tempo della crisi (Italian Edition), published by Armando …

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Expert opinions on the New Zealand Resilience Index The Trajectories Toolbox of the Resilience to Nature’s Challenges Kia manawaroa – Ngā Ākina o Te Ao Tūroa National Science Challenge (RNC-NSC) has been working on the development of the New Zealand Resilience Index (NZRI), which measures place-based community resilience. The index uses a multi-capital model, including …

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View an interview with Resilient Organisations Principal Consultant, Tracy Hatton, about the importance of water resilience.

Resilience Shift seeking new Global Director The Resilience Shift is looking for a new Global Director in a role which promises to contribute towards a safer and better world, according to The Resilience Shift’s Acting Programme Director and Arup Fellow, Jo da Silva. “This is an exciting opportunity for the right person who will genuinely …

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Farewell to Kaylene Sampson At the end of the year Res Orgs will be sadly saying goodbye to one of our Senior Research Consultants. Kaylene Sampson will be leaving us to follow her passion for education and take a position as Team Lead in the Learning Evaluation and Academic Development Unit at the University of …

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Honorary Fellowship award recognises New Zealand’s global leadership in resilience Last month, Resilient Organisations’ researcher Dr Erica Seville was awarded an Honorary Fellow of the Business Continuity Institute (BCI), a prestigious award that recognises innovation at the forefront of organisational resilience globally. The highest honour granted by the BCI, the honorary fellowship has only been …

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Research Consultant vacancy We are looking for a driven, open-minded person to join our team as a Research Consultant. This is a unique opportunity to join a growing business. You will be involved in a diverse range of research and consulting projects while contributing to the vision, strategy, and development of the business and pursuing …

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PRESS RELEASE 31/10/2018 Resilient Organisations appointed by the Resilience Shift to develop resilience primer. The Resilience Shift has today announced the appointment of a new grantee, Resilient Organisations, for its programme to improve the resilience of critical infrastructure. The team at Resilient Organisations, led by Dr. Tracy Hatton, has been commissioned to develop an industry-specific …

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  ResOrgs to present at the Canterbury Earthquakes Symposium: Sharing the lessons from the Canterbury experiences event Resilient Organisations is thrilled to be presenting at the Canterbury Earthquakes Symposium: Sharing the lessons from the Canterbury experiences event on 29-30 November 2018 at the University of Canterbury. Researchers Charlotte Brown, Ellie Kay and Tracy Hatton found …

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Resilience – riding the waves of uncertainty Kaylene Sampson, Senior Research Consultant, Resilient Organisations August 2018 My home town has been rebuilding from crisis for almost eight years.  September 2018 marks the eight-year anniversary of the first of a series of devastating earthquakes to hit Christchurch, New Zealand. Since the first earthquake on 4 September …

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Shakeout Preparedness Tips for Business New Zealand ShakeOut, our national earthquake drill and tsunami hīkoi, is taking place on Thursday 18 October 2018 at 9:30 am. ShakeOut is held across the world to remind people of the right action to take during an earthquake, Drop, Cover and Hold – and to practise a tsunami hīkoi (evacuation) …

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DIVE Platform – the key to New Zealand’s exciting resilience innovations ResOrgs researchers, Dr Joanne Stevenson and Ellie Kay have been busy working with a team of researchers creating a new platform that will help researchers make better use of New Zealand’s Disaster Risk Reduction and resilience data. The collaborative team of researchers, funded by …

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Erica Seville appointed to the Earthquake Commision (EQC) Board Congratulations to Resilient Organisations’ Director, Erica Seville on her appointment as a Commissioner to the Earthquake Commision (EQC). Having spent many years leading and mentoring a group of researchers and consultants working to make public and private sector organisations more resilient, Erica will bring a wealth of …

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Oamaru Heritage Precinct workshop: future thinking for a thriving community In February this year, a workshop was held in Oamaru to bring together heritage tourism stakeholders to explore future options for the town and its heritage precinct. Attendees included tenants from the heritage precinct, and members of the Waitaki District Council and Whitestone Civic Trust. Funded …

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The inaugural ISCRAM (International Association for Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management) Asia Pacific regional conference is being held in Wellington from the 4th to 7th November 2018, and Resilient Organisations is excited to be supporting the conference. The theme for the conference is Innovating for Resilience, and the programme will cover all of the …

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Improving Resilience to Natural Disasters: West Coast Lifelines Vulnerability and Interdependency David Elms, Ian McCahon and Rob Dewhirst have been taking a fresh approach to evaluating infrastructure resilience investment priorities for West Coast communities. By looking at the West Coast’s infrastructure as a system, they identify vulnerabilities that prevent ‘flow’ through that system and the …

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John Vargo spoke about organisational resilience with Steve Moe on his podcast series, seeds. In this series of podcasts Steve talks with people making a positive impact, particularly relating to social enterprises and entrepreneurs.   Listen to the podcast on iTunes or access it via Castbox App on android phones.  It is also available at www.seeds.libsyn.com.

Building a better understanding of metadata and geospatial data We’ve uploaded a series of short videos to YouTube to help system users build a better understanding of metdata and how it can build better research practices. The New Zealand government has committed funding over the next decade to researching our country’s most pressing problems.  The …

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Incentivising organisational resilience Businesses need to believe they are going to be impacted, that they can reduce this impact through their own actions, and that it is an essential part of business to do so.  Those who believe these things invest in resilience.  However, it is not enough to rely on the ‘enlightenment’ of businesses to …

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Raising the bar – getting our keystone organisations better engaged and prepared Following on from their National Emergency Management Conference in early June, the New Zealand Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management (MCDEM) have uploaded videos of some of the conference presentations, including Erica Seville’s presentation on better preparing organisations’ for crisis.  

Erica Seville shortlisted for a Continuity and Resilience Consultant 2017 Award at the BCI Australasian Awards ResOrgs Managing Director, Erica Seville has been shortlisted for a Continuity and Resilience Consultant 2017 Award at the BCI Australasian Awards. This is a well deserved recognition of Erica’s continuing work leading and mentoring a group of researchers and consultants working to …

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Learning new creative strategies for designing and facilitating learning experiences How much time do we spend ‘perfecting’ a report, or a proposal, or any of our outputs only to find we were answering the wrong question? Or that our solution did not gel with those meant to be served? Design Thinking offers a new way …

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Resilience to nature’s challenges researchers want to make resilience visible The human brain processes information visually. How can we help people see resilience? Stories. Photos. Displaying layers of data on a map. The trajectories toolbox has ammased a bank of over 400 indicators that have been used to capture some aspect of resilience to disruption …

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Creating future ready farm businesses Earlier this month, the North Canterbury Drought Response Committee, in collaboration with Resilient Organisations and Fraser Pastoral, held a workshop for a group of farmers in the Hurunui District of Canterbury. The workshop focused on how farmers could build their capacity now to navigate future turbulence. Farmers in North Canterbury …

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Resilient Organizations book available to buy online How resilient is your organization? Resilient Organisations’ Co-Leader, Erica Seville has written a practical and highly readable guide to building resilience in your organisation. The book covers the key indicators of organizational resilience and the actions that will build a resilience capacity and enable your organization to survive …

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Latest Report: Kaikoura Earthquake Social Science Research Workshop Our latest report summarises the Kaikoura Earthquake Social Science Research Workshop held in February this year and lessons learned about research collaboration, coordination,and impact following major disruptive events.It includes te research and research coordination priorities for the Kaikoura earthquake and tsunami, that were identified during the workshop. …

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Stress testing plans is important to both ensure plans are adequate but also to make sure staff are practiced and ready to face a crisis when it occurs. Here are 9 ideas on how to engage your team in stress testing your plans.

The vital link between businesses and communities after disaster Christchurch’s earthquake -hit services, particularly those we often take for granted, proved the perfect case study for Joanne Stevenson. The University of Canterbury PhD student is nearly three years into her thesis on organisational resilience and the vital post disaster link between businesses and communities. “I’m …

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Planning for the people side of continuity Recent events in Canterbury, New Zealand, have emphasised the risks that exist in business and the fragility of organisational operational ability. The earthquakes that shook the city of Christchurch in 2010-2011 caused extensive damage to people’s lives, homes and businesses. Organisations, particularly those within critical industries, faced enormous …

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For those organisations without a business continuity plan, this is a simple plan to help you work out how to maintain your essential business operations during disruption and crisis.

Crisis recovery is the long game of adjusting and re-building your organisation for a new normal and beyond. This quick guide gives you five things to keep in mind that can help your long-term recovery.

While collating the learnings from crisis events is normally left until after an event, in a long-running crisis like COVID-19 we strongly suggest capturing lessons now, to enact improvements to help you through the ongoing crisis.

It is important to strategically plan your recovery following a crisis event. This guide provides steps for resilience crisis recovery planning.

Engaged staff will help your organisation recover and thrive. This handout discusses several ways you can support your staff so they can help support your business during times of crisis.

Insurance shouldn’t be your only resilience strategy – you need to balance your efforts to maximise your claims with your efforts to move your business forward. This tip can help you understand this balancing act and how to get the best from your insurance policy.

Risk is a big part of the construction industry – both part of its success and failure. Here are 10 simple steps towards better risk management you can implement to improve the productivity and performance of your organisation.

Want to make sure your organisation is prepared for an earthquake? Download our free Earthquake Preparedness Guide to help get you started.

We have created a handy 1-pager to get you started on your debriefing process, making sure you are more resilient to the next crisis.