Forgive me father for it has been a too many days since my last blog post. I have been very busy which is unfortunate as there is much to blog about. I’d like to start by referring back to a post by Hasdal regarding The Theory of Constraints. A very interesting concept which has prompted me to blog about another aspect of keeping your continuity plans agile, and that is keeping them focussed.
It is common behaviour in management is to gather as much information as possible whether it be required or not. The common argument for this is that this information may be required at some point in the future. I don’t dispute that this could the case in some circumstances but seldom is any measure associated with this information. This is common in my own organisation thanks to the pedantic nature of my executive team. A behaviour I fight on a daily basis and sometimes I even win.
So with all that in mind, I wish to draw your attention to a useful concept from Economics called the theory of Rational Ignorance. For a better description than I could ever provide, please refer to this excellent paper on the subject The Theory of Rational of Ignorance. The concept in brief goes something like this:
Information has a cost and a value. If the cost of acquiring and maintained this information is greater than the value then it is a rational choice to be ignorant of that information.
This is problematic from a business continuity and indeed management point of view as the cost and value may vary over time. The whole point of business continuity is afterall to reduce the cost of recovery and the value of this is enormous during an event. In order to be agile each piece of information that is gathered needs to be carefully questioned in respect to its absolute need.
Like all things Occam’s Razor needs to be applied by continuity co-ordinators in order to construct an effective process and develop a resilient organisation. A bloated and cumbersome process will only act as a hindrance when seeking to embed business continuity within the organisation. How more difficult is it to engage champions within the process, when they are being asked to manage information for which they see no real value.
Related posts:
Recent Comments