Another tip in a series provided by the Offices of Information Security, Information Systems & Computing and Audit, Compliance & Privacy

Resilience is the ability for an organization to recover quickly from adverse events and evolve into a better state as a result of the experience.

There are five steps in organizational resilience: anticipate, prepare, respond, adapt, and bounce back better.  

• To anticipate is to think ahead to what adverse events might occur.
• To prepare is to develop plans for dealing with those adverse events.
• To respond is to execute those plans when the event happens.
• To adapt is to recover as the organization moves towards a new normal.
• To bounce back better is to learn from the experience of the adverse event and to grow into a more mature and stable organization.

Following these five steps allows Penn not just to cope but to thrive in the face of difficult circumstances.

For Penn as an organization to be resilient, each individual school and center needs to engage in the five steps. Penn also must ensure the safety and security of the Penn community when on campus. In addition, individuals within the Penn community—students, faculty, staff, and other constituents—must exercise care for their own personal resilience, ensuring that they have the stamina and preparation to deal with difficult circumstances in their own lives and in their interactions with the University.

Penn already engages in numerous activities designed to enhance organizational resilience; Mission Continuity planning is one of these. The Penn community demonstrated our resilience in how we dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic, continuing to deliver on our institutional mission of teaching, research, and service throughout that challenging time. We are working towards becoming an even more resilient organization to address the many challenges we are bound to face, so Penn can not only continue to be a world-class University but can evolve into an even greater future.

For more information, and additional resources, e-mail askmc@lists.upenn.edu.

For additional tips, see the One Step Ahead link on the Information Security website: https://www.isc.upenn.edu/security/news-alerts#One-Step-Ahead.