Build Technology Resilience, Gain Trust

Modern businesses depend on technology for every aspect of their existence. Technology systems and third-party tech services are used to differentiate against competitors, execute on strategy, operate efficiently, communicate with customers, coordinate with partners, and more. Organizations are asking their employees and partners to execute faster, build more, and race to deliver on their missions at ever-increasing paces.

But that frenetic pace can have big consequences when the technology fails, whether it is from negligence, accident, or a cyberthreat.

This is why I’m eager to present at Forrester’s Technology & Innovation Summit North America in September on the technology resilience cycle and how tech professionals can use it not only to recover from catastrophe but to instill trust in the resilience of their technology systems — specifically, the idea of using resilience as a safety net so that your teams can build confidently and take risks without worrying about disastrous results. As I researched this topic, I also found fascinating data about how the way businesses communicate on tech failures impacts their resilience strategy. I look forward to seeing you in September as I share insights about:

• Building a technology resilience safety net. This is where technology resilience strategy comes in. In the past, tech leaders relied on recovery-based systems, but we live in a world where recovery isn’t fast enough; often, we need to “fly the plane while we fix the plane.” This means rethinking resilience from the ground up and creating a continuous resilience lifecycle that starts with day zero resilience planning and design, continuing through day two resilience operations, crisis response, and retrospectives. And then you can move on to …
• Using your resilience strategy to build trust. How you communicate about failure, and how you respond in the midst of that crisis, can actually improve a customer’s trust in the organization. In her report, Leverage Transparency To Boost — Not Hurt — Customer Trust, my colleague Enza Iannopollo shared data showing that customers who believe a company is communicating transparently are more likely to recommend that company to family and friends, buy additional products from that company, try new products from that company, and — most importantly for resilience — forgive that company if it makes a mistake.

Extend that reasoning to your technology resilience program: Learning how to talk about system degradation, failures, and outages in the right way will build trust in your team’s ability to respond to and resolve any issues that arise. This is the level of trust needed for the business units and product teams who depend on your technology services to leverage that safety net and take advantage of new technologies, as well as to build the innovations that your organization needs to thrive in the face of any crisis.

To learn more about this topic, check out the agenda for the upcoming Technology & Innovation Summit North America, where I’ll be presenting a session entitled “Build Trust Through Resilience, Leverage Trust For Resilience.” Hope to see you there.