ISO 22316 - New guidance standard on organizational resilience
The International Organization for Standardization has published a new standard that provides guidance to enhance organizational resilience for any size or type of organization. This international standard - ISO 22316:2017 – Security and resilience - Organizational resilience - Principles and attributes - establishes the principles for organizational resilience and identifies the attributes and activities that support an organization in enhancing its resilience.
ISO 22316 defines organizational resilience as ‘the ability of an organization to absorb and adapt in a changing environment’ and states that organizational resilience enables an organization to deliver its objectives and to survive and prosper.
James Crask, the project leader responsible for the final development of ISO 22316, explains:
"Resilience is one the most important concerns of organizations today. Being able to identify and adapt to changing circumstances resulting from emerging threats and opportunities will separate the survivors from those organizations relegated to history. ISO 22316 is a landmark document representing international consensus on the core concepts supporting organizational resilience. The principles and attributes contained in the document have the potential to help organizations survive and evolve in the face of mounting threats and new opportunities.
Case studies of organizational failures have shown that resilience relies upon a range of processes and organizational characteristics. Historically many of these have not been actively considered by organizations. This standard seeks to redress this by outlining the principles that underpin resilience and the attributes that contribute to it.
The road to publication was long involving a large number of international experts. At times discussions were fraught reflecting the challenges involved in reaching consensus on what is a complex subject involving numerous management disciplines. I am very grateful for the hard work of everybody involved in this process.”
Brian Roylett, the project leader responsible for much of the early development of ISO 22316 shares:
“The release of ISO 22316 provides the catalyst for further standards development within ISO/TC 292. The guidance document is not a standard produced in isolation but rather a forerunner of a suite of standard guidance and handbooks on organizational resilience – in particular some of the “how to” that was (intentionally) not addressed in ISO 22316.
ISO 22316:2017 – Security and resilience - Organizational resilience - Principles and attributes is available from ISO national member institutes. It may also be obtained directly from the ISO Central Secretariat .