Sharpen the systems, COOs! 🧠
In this issue, many business continuity plans are failing because they were built for an office-centric world that no longer exists.
Modern work depends on remote teams and cloud applications, so redundancy must extend beyond a single building or conduit. Backups need real-world testing to guarantee seamless failover in seconds, not minutes. Plans should anticipate compound incidents and be treated as a living discipline, regularly reviewed and refined.
📰 Upcoming in this issue
🧯 Your Continuity Plan is Failing, Here’s How to Tell
🚨 Crisis Management: Definition, Stages, and Examples
🌟 Building Cultures Where Ownership and Purpose Thrive
📈 Trending news
Set SMART Metrics That Tie Output to Outcomes
Turn Training Gaps Into Measurable Productivity Gains
Make Accountability Your Daily Operating Advantage
🧯 Your Continuity Plan is Failing, Here’s How to Tell
This article highlights three warning signs that leaders often miss, illustrating why binder-era plans fail in today’s cloud-driven, remote, and always-on environment.
Key Takeaways:
🏚️ Outdated Assumptions: Too many plans still safeguard a single office or circuit, while teams and apps span homes, coworking hubs, and cloud platforms.
🔌 Untested Failovers: Redundancy appears solid on paper, but real-world “pull-the-plug” tests reveal slow switchovers, authentication issues, and lost sessions.
🧩 Compound Incidents: Resilience requires preparation for stacked disruptions, not just one-at-a-time checklists.
🔁 Living Discipline: Quarterly reviews, health checks, and automation help maintain stable operations and preserve customer trust.
🚨 Crisis Management: Definition, Stages, and Examples
Investopedia explains how organizations prepare for, respond to, and recover from disruptions, highlighting common triggers from cyberattacks to product recalls.
Key Takeaways:
📘 What It Is: A coordinated approach to protect people, assets, operations, and reputation.
🧭 Three Phases: Pre-crisis planning, active response, and post-crisis recovery, each with clear roles and timelines.
🗣️ Communication Matters: Timely, factual updates reduce confusion, prevent rumors, and limit reputational damage.
🧪 Test and Improve: Drills, after-action reviews, and ongoing updates keep plans relevant as risks evolve.
🌟 Building Cultures Where Ownership and Purpose Thrive
Andra Raluca Ungureanu outlines how to scale an ownership mindset without creating burnout, offering practical leadership rituals teams can adopt immediately.
Key Takeaways:
🧭 Purpose-Led Goals: Anchor decisions to a clear mission, linking purpose to metrics and daily trade-offs.
🤝 Ownership Rituals: Transparent dashboards, cadences, and post-mortems build accountability without blame.
🗣️ Trust and Autonomy: Leaders provide context and delegate outcomes, enabling faster execution while maintaining alignment.
🌱 People Development: Coaching, feedback, and recognition pathways help retain and grow top talent.
Quick poll 💬
After reading, what will your team do next?
Why It Matters
Unplanned downtime erodes revenue and customer confidence. Updating continuity strategies for today’s distributed environment and rigorously testing backups limits risk, safeguards trust, and keeps operations moving.
Until next edition,
Chloe Rivers
Editor-in-Chief
COO Intelligence
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