It’s that time of the year again, and surveys are running to see who will win the title of Business Continuity Person of the Year. Common criteria include the most effective, most innovative, most promising newcomer, and best lifetime achievement. There are even a couple of new categories being offered: best crisis communications and best business continuity through partnership. While there may well have been exceptional performances in these areas, it’s a fact that unsung heroes of business continuity also exist in other domains. Do any of the following “alternative awards” sound like ones you feel you deserve?
- Best Business Continuity Sense of Humour – Business continuity implementations can be fraught with pitfalls and setbacks, and sometimes the best course of action is to have a good laugh at the situation before trying another tack. Think of the Inuit on the icepacks for whom laughter is a key part of survival, and keep your sense of humour intact!
- Best Business Continuity Epidermal Robustness (aka. Thickest Skin) – Any BC practitioner is a target for those remarks about there being no need, no justification and no interest in preparing for something that “will probably never happen”. Grow a thick skin, focus on the benefits and carry on anyway – remember that in the jungle, the thick-skinned elephant outlasts most other animals with its lifespan of up to 70 or 80 years!
- Most Heroic Resistance to Sighing About BC Attitudes – It’s tempting to heave great sighs about different attitudes to business continuity, such as “that’s for the others” and “I’m way too busy putting out fires to spend time preventing them”. But sighs don’t do it. Think positive and find new ways to get people to appreciate the benefits of business continuity – and to start doing it themselves as well.
- Most Creative Use of a Business Continuity Peanut – A peanut? Yes, in the financial sense, meaning a very small amount of money. Even if the budget for business continuity actions isn’t as big as you’d hoped, don’t lose heart. Show what you can do with peanuts this time and put in a good claim for a “real budget” afterwards!