Embracing uncertainty and change.

• Author: Eichem, Bob
• Position: News & Numbers - Analysis of resilience planning

Resilience planning is the next frontier in creating a viable fiscal future for our organizations. Finance officers should embrace it in government finance because it takes us beyond having a structurally balanced budget and past the practice of focusing on the near future. Embracing resilience makes us think and plan with a different set of decision-making tools.

Resilience planning can provide organizations with long-term benefits that are very much worth the extra effort. It is a concept that goes to the very essence of our responsibilities as public finance officers--to keep our organizations well-funded and to leave them in better shape than they were in when we started. It isn't easy, though. Resilience planning requires us to prepare our organizations for acute shocks (situations such as economic downturns and disasters that may affect us for a few months to a few years) and chronic stresses (big issues such as homelessness and affordable housing), and to consider new strategies accordingly. Our goals should be bigger than simply maintaining what we have.

Many local governments are already working to become more resilient. To tap into this wellspring of knowledge, the GFOA has formed a 15-member task force. The members of this national team have varying levels of experience, from just starting out in government finance or administration careers to those who have been at it for several decades. Perspectives include practitioners, consultants, and people who worked in other industries before joining government. All of them are doers and thinkers who have looked at resilience planning at both the macro and micro levels.

THE ART OF ASKING "WHY"

The journey toward a resilient government starts with "why"--the fundamental reason for the organization's existence, and the reason constituents and employees should care. That existential "why" is at the center of what bestselling author Simon Sinek terms the "Golden Circle." (1) (For more information about Sinek's book, see the review in this issue of Government Finance Review.) Sinek tells us that while "why" is central, it must also be accompanied by "what" (the service that an organization provides) and "how" (the method or approach used to provide that service). The problem many organizations have, Sinek posits, is that they only are able to clearly articulate their "what" and their "how," but not their "why." Inspirational leadership isn't possible without the "why," leaving only transactional modes of management. This will ultimately fail to attract, motivate, and retain a highly effective workforce, leading to subpar organizational performance. Hence, leaders must understand that employees and constituents don't get excited about "what" the organization does, but rather "why" it does it.

Identifying the organization's "why" is not difficult from a technical perspective. A police department, for example, exists to protect people. The real challenge in articulating "why" is the emotional or "gut" component, which can be difficult to put into words. "Why" is often...