Organisational Report

Introducing the 4Sight methodology The final section of the report will explore more specific requirements of Organizational Resilience using a new methodology, ‘4Sight’, which provides a leadership agenda for Organizational Resilience. 4Sight is particularly useful for dealing with complex problems such as designing a new software application, developing a new technology, planning a new infrastructure system, implementing a major change programme or dealing with a crisis. Such challenges are difficult to resolve because of incomplete or contradictory knowledge, the number of stakeholders and opinions involved, the financial risk, and the interconnected nature of these problems with other issues. Problems that involve changing behaviour, values and priorities, or that are indeterminate in scope and scale, are particularly “wicked” (Rittel and Weber, 1973). Mobilizing people to meet these challenges and problems is at the heart of Organizational Resilience. 4Sight describes a repeatable process employing creative thinking. It involves four core processes (see Figure 5).

FORESIGHT Anticipate, predict and prepare for your future

HINDSIGHT

Learn the right lessons from your experience

ACT Respond and create disruptions and opportunities

INSIGHT

Interpret and respond to your present conditions

OVERSIGHT

Monitor and review what has happened and assess changes

Figure 6: The 4Sight model of Organizational Resilience

Foresight Anticipate, predict and prepare for your future.

The worst kind of uncertainty is being unaware of what you don’t know. Therefore, scan for the stimuli to which the organization must respond if it is to survive and grow. This will require constant surveillance for possible opportunities and potential threats to the organization. Systematically explore possible, plausible, probable and preferred futures. This foresight will help people in your organization to be mentally prepared for uncertainty and change. Foresight also needs an inward focus to help your people anticipate and notice problems, errors and issues within the organization that could grow into significant incidents . Encourage people to heed the warning signs and attend to ‘weak signals’ on impending problems. Just as with evolution, the secret of resilience is variation, which, in organizational terms, comes

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Organizational Resilience | BSI and Cranfield School of Management