Resilience initiatives must be led by the organization’s top leadership, establishing resilience as a strategic priority directly influenced by the highest levels of decisionmaking. Organizations need to determine from the outset how this requirement will be translated, who amongst the top leadership will take the lead, and how other members of the top leadership will govern, monitor, measure, and challenge the resilience programme. Top leadership is central to the development and management of resilience and is involved throughout the whole cycle.

To develop resilience a complete and clear picture of the business or organization and its wider ecosystem is essential. Understanding the current state of the organization, the external and environmental factors impacting upon it, and its existing levels of resilience provides the starting point for considering what additional activities are required to achieve the desired resilience outcomes. This gives a roadmap of existing good practices and capabilities that can be built upon or expanded; and it also provides clarity on existing silos that need breaking down.

Resilience strategies need to be coherent and integrated across the whole organization and require collaborative efforts both internally and with external stakeholders. This Core Principle involves breaking down organizational silos and enabling the management and development of resilience to take place in a structured, consistent, and aligned way.

The capability to adapt is an organizational skill and ability, which flows from and is led by top management. It is used on a day-to-day basis to help the organization develop to ensure long-term sustainability and growth; and it is used in response to an incident or event to determine whether and how the organization needs to change or transform in order to be able to continue to deliver on outcomes during and after the challenging situation. Being able to adapt is an intrinsic capability that flows through and informs the whole resilience cycle.