Page 10 - Campus Security & Life Safety, March/April 2022

Managing Dynamic Risk: How Your Campus Can Achieve Organizational Resilience in 2022
Risk Management
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Hospitals, universities and other campus-based organizations are feeling the impact of multiple, simultaneous threats. In addition to the pandemic, they’re also contending with extreme weather, civil unrest and a rise in the number of active assailants—just to name a few challenges.
Even as isolated events, such threats present a significant security challenge. However, when risks cascade—that is, risk A is followed by risk B, or even causes risk B—they become more complex and difficult for organizations to manage.
This dynamic risk presents itself in three core elements: Rapid change, a threat emerging from a secondary direction or event and some level of surprise. The outcome is an ultimate harm different than the initially expected harm. For example, an organization might have a plan in place to shelter during a tornado, but not one for the evacuation that would be needed if the storm were to cause gas leaks on or near campus, or power outages during the middle of winter. Without a line of sight into what’s happening in the area on and around campus, institutions will find it exceedingly difficult to make fast, informed decisions. To do so, they need faster, more relevant intelligence.
Though dynamic risk has become more common, many organizations remain unprepared. Only 30 percent of security and risk management professionals feel confident they can handle the growing complexity of future risk management, as a survey we recently commissioned with Forrester Consulting found.
While 99 percent of organizations experienced a critical event in the last 18 months, only 38 percent cited “becoming more proactive” as a goal for their future risk management endeavors.
This disconnect must be addressed head-on if campus security leaders are to execute more effective responses to dynamic risk. Here are three steps organizations must take to safeguard their people and
achieve organizational resilience.
Step 1: Define What Organizational Resilience Means to You
Organizational resilience is broadly defined as “the capacity to absorb stress, recover critical functionality, and thrive in altered circumstances,” according to Harvard Business Review. But across your organization’s size (and industry), it will look different to each individual group or team. At universities, upper management priorities are focused on reputation and enrollment, while coaches want to ensure athletes can travel safely from the practice fields to the next competition. In healthcare systems, the top priority of surgical teams will be the patient on the table, while healthcare administrators are primarily concerned about ambulances reaching their destinations as quickly as possible and ensuring the safety of patients and their families who reside inside the doors of the building.
Rather than assume each department in your organization—care management, population health, senior leadership, etc.—has the same definition of organizational resilience, begin the conversation with senior leadership and bring the right individuals to the table to create a holistic view of resilience.
Ask questions such as: What are my benchmarks for both business continuity and organizational resilience? In other words, what does optimized performance look like for every team in your organization— and your organization as a whole? The answer will depend on the specifics of your mission and your organizational goals.
Consider potential risks and threats, or threats which have occurred recently and how they unfolded, and then identify your corresponding metrics for a successful response. Developing a clear picture of what resilience looks like and how all the pieces will fit together is the first step to making it happen.
10 campuslifesecurity.com | MARCH/APRIL 2022