When building a new program, start with a Strategic Response Team. There are a four good reasons for this.

First: Obvious, that having the right people in the room to lead the response to a strategic threat or opportunity makes a difference.

Even if no other preparation or resilience investments have occurred, these are same individuals who would naturally lead an ad-hoc response.

Identifying these people in advance, and putting their names on the Strategic Response Team roster makes it tangible. See below to download a roster template. 

This is not an ad-hoc team.

It builds performance expectations: to outperform others who may have a haphazard team that “does its best under challenging circumstances.”

Second: there is an exceptionally positive cost-benefit of assembling and training this Strategic Response Team.

Building this team requires no capital.

It requires almost no operating expenses.

It simply requires investing some time with trained personnel and clear executive support.

Building a Strategic Response Team is probably the most efficient activity that helps an organization develop ongoing strategic resilience.

Third: instant gratification. Assembling this team is a tangible preparation step for a leadership team. They can point to it.

Even better, this team can conduct a tabletop exercise.

An exercise using strategic threats for the scenario will instantly increase the organization’s ability to manage strategic threats. Leaders leave the exercise more prepared.

Fourth: Building a Strategic Response Team is an evergreen investment.

The team itself provides resilient capability for the organization, with its flexible leadership structure.

The team provides a proven structure which is valued during uncertain times. And it provides flexibility to adapt in real-time during an urgent situation, or to adjust team roles as all organizations evolve.

This resilience becomes an organizational trait despite changes in personnel or organizational structure.

Ongoing Team Evolution

Once developed, the Strategic Response Team will continue to evolve and adapt to the organization over time, to suit the need, scaling up or down, expanding geographically, or segmenting by business unit.

And this is where the professionalism of the Strategic Resilience program team comes forward, to interact with leaders, assessing what is working and what need to evolve, channeling deep knowledge of the operation, and awareness of the organization’s strategy to put the right people in the right roles, ready to respond.

Exercising the Strategic Response Team is important.  There is a separate component of the program that describes the steps to conduct exercises.

Click here to download a template for building a Strategic Response Team. It’s just a spreadsheet. A complimentary resource to improve an organization’s strategic resilience.