Contemplating ...

… BCM in the Public Sector

Ken Simpson — Tue, 08 May 2012 22:36:27 +0000

Today and tomorrow I will be in Melbourne for a Conference addressing BCM in the Public Sector. Today I am facilitating an interactive session on the subject of “Making business continuity an everyday activity”. Tomorrow I am conducting a half-day workshop entitled “Establishing and Delivering a BCM Programme – thinking beyond the plan”. This workshop is about the application of real programme management, not just the concept that you have an annual cycle of activities that you repeat ad nauseam. For something different I will be updating this post throughout the day with comments... Read more..

… adaptation and serendipity

Ken Simpson — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 13:30:28 +0000

My previous post included the comment that Adaptive capacity was something we did when our plans and procedures are inadequate to respond to a disruption. This capacity is something that can be built and sustained and is an essential attribute of a resilient organisation. Unfortunately our obsession with writing plans means there is a lot of vested interests that do not want to understand the importance of developing the capacity to adapt. Amy Stephenson is one of the people wh... Read more..

… BCI lecture, Dr Robert Kay

Ken Simpson — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 03:48:34 +0000

[caption id="attachment_4601" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Source : CEO Perspectives on Organisational Resilience, published by Australian Government"][/caption] Very interesting and enjoyable time at the Annual BCI Lecture last night. Read more..

… a community event

Ken Simpson — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 12:08:05 +0000

I am still at DRJ Spring World in Orlando. Unlike other conferences I have not been posting a daily summary of the event. I guess that is in part because there have not been those specific sessions that absolutely inspired me. That is not to say that there is not good content, it is more a comment on my jaded learning palate. But I have come to understand why people keep coming here, this is the 46th conference. The first keynote on Monday was certainly entertaining - but did have a message to take away. Anthony Galie is a... Read more..

DRJ Spring World, Day 1

Ken Simpson — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 01:15:28 +0000

The Spring World conference is underway here in Orlando. Florida. This is my first time visiting a DRJ event, so it has been interesting to observe the scale and organisation of the event. The Sunday session was a bit slow, only a single workshop session, but two different social functions afterwards changed the pace a little. I attended the "Mock Disaster Exercise", which had great publicity and a limited number of places available. Unfortunately more "mock" than anything else. But it did provide a Twitter introduction that led to some entertaining chat over drinks later. The BCI recepti... Read more..

… awareness takes more than a week

Ken Simpson — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 08:50:24 +0000

If we want to maintain awareness about our industry, and perhaps one day even raise it to the level of a profession, then we need to focus on creating new knowledge and improving our craft all year round - not just 1 week of the year. Perhaps the most useful (in my humble opinion) contribution this week was published with minimal fanfare by the Australian Government and its Resilience Advisory Group. I have previously posted about their Organisational Resilience posit... Read more..

… the (BC Awareness) week that was

Ken Simpson — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 23:26:33 +0000

My involvement with the awareness aspects had to take second place to the continuity of my own business this week - and unfortunately I missed the local BCI Chapter event as a consequence.

There was another webinar that I watched (on replay) over 3 sittings - "New threats, new skills, new challenges - the next 5 years" by Charlie Maclean-Bristol.

Charlie offered 5 predictions for the next 5 years, which is very safe as they have all already come to pass.

The nature of incidents will change How we manage Incident Management will change Cloud... Read more..

… capability, maturity and mapping

Ken Simpson — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 12:25:33 +0000

The title reminds me of an old joke - you can have capability, maturity or mapping - pick any two! Only the one webinar that was of interest to me on Day 2 of BCAW 2012. Karen Humphris of ContinuitySA presenting on their CM2 - Capability & Maturity Model. The model is based on the old adage that you cannot manage what you do not measure. To this end they have created 12 BCM success factors, which have specific measures and weighted averages that all mix together to produce a standard 5 level maturity rating.... Read more..

… BCAW 2012

Ken Simpson — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 12:15:23 +0000

Business Continuity Awareness Week is underway for 2012 - if you had not realised this, you can find the website here. The major event of Day 1 for me was the "C-level Water Cooler Meeting" Webinar. This was a session intended to introduce a new initiative of the BCI Partnership. It would appear to be a wide-spread problem that many BC practitioners are unable to adequately engage with Senior Management and Executives. This initiative is intended to provide resources to help. If you are attending Read more..

… conversations, aspirations and changes

Ken Simpson — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 12:44:58 +0000

Back in October of last year I wrote about the need to stop debating the meaning of resilience and just try to build the capability as we each perceive it. As Liisa Valikangas exhorted "resilience is not a strategy; it is a rehearsal. In fact, it is a constant practice." I was reminded of how simple it could be to actually start on this journey by two recent blog posts. The first is another reference to the Read more..