Why C-Suite Mission Executives Should Implement ERM
“Understand the matrix of reality: Antifragility grows from disorder.” (Taleb, in Antifragility).
“There are 3 types of faith: fragile faith, resilient faith, and antifragile faith that doesn’t stop even when it seems like God has.” (Hampton, in Facing Fear)
Enterprise Risk Management, or ERM as it is known in the secular world, needs to come to the missions and faith-based NGO world, yesterday.
For the record, I almost always check what McKinsey Barton and Harvard Business Review have to say on a topic I’m researching, and I often trace their conversation (publications) on the topic through the years. More on McKinsey’s view of the necessity for ERM later, except to say that ERM in the traditional business approach is not adequate for faith-based missions and like many things, must be modified to fit the kind of risks we face in Gospel advancement.
ERM must be implement first at the top but almost simultaneously at the bottom, field level as well. Here’s why it is urgent.
CCI (Crisis Consulting International), uses the following 12 statements (used with permission) to ask Mission Executives (C-Suite, which includes CEO, CFO, COO, CTO, etc), if they have an answer for the following statements:
0 = No
1 = Maybe
2 = Yes
C-SUITE LEVEL QUESTIONS:
My organization understands and seeks to adhere to duty of care best practices.
My organization is prepared to manage a major, enterprise level crisis.
My organization has a policy (policies) that clearly spell out who can order an evacuation or relocation and who must comply with this order.
My organization has policies related to crisis communications (media statements, family relations, church communications, donor communications).
My organization has a policy (policies) that state its position on payments of ransom and extortion.
It is clearly understood in my organization who would manage a crisis event (and who would not).
My organization’s field workers/travelers are trained in kidnapping avoidance and survival.
My organization’s field workers/travelers are trained in how to manage a government detention and/or interrogation.
My organization and its workers knows what it believes about “lying.” (American church view is inadequate, simplistic, and unBiblical.)
My organization has established policies or protocols for workers’ use of secure communications, social media, etc.
My organization has identified, assessed, and rate/ranked risks in the various places it works (or sends short-term teams).
My organization has established thresholds (trigger points, tripwires) for known risks and corresponding plans when/if they occur.
What’s your organizational score? How ready are you? The path to risk literacy and risk shrewdness starts here and here and leads to being at least 3.5 on the risk maturity matrix (will be published soon at this website).So the question I started with, Why C-Suite Mission Executives Should Implement ERM?
Because you aren’t ready, and that’s not good stewardship of your most valuable resource, your people. As an organizational leader, you will be held accountable before the throne of God on how you stewarded your people and organization. The tools, the training, the experts, the theology is all available to you.
Make a theology of stewardship a priority in your organization, and you will experience greater team loyalty, organizational peace, and give God greater glory in your organization’s mission and vision. More people will come to Christ because your people are more resilient because you provided the training and you became a more trustworthy leader in a future crisis.
