Roads to Resilience

[crews during training], ‘You are the last line of defence and you are flying on the plane.’ The number of times I get crew reporting they have heard, seen or found something of concern, means this layer of our security systems is working ” (Head of Corporate Security and Resilience). Additionally, all the people involved in operational and strategic decision making go through a common risk management training programme, so that everyone works with one concept of risk: “ We have made the commitment to use risk management in the decisions we make. So, rather than waiting for bad events to happen and learning from them, we try to think what could happen in a particular context, for example, when we consider flying to new destinations, and what it is that we can do to ensure a safe and secure operation for our crew and passengers in that context. We want it to be uneventful and almost boring, because that means everything is working for us ” (General Manager Corporate Safety and Security). This attitude to risk management extends to the organisation’s highest levels: “ Managing risk is a core role and it is not incentivised in any way. We have a Safety and Security Board that meets every six weeks. We discuss operational events, for instance, health and safety issues, the risk management of events that we have been experiencing such as, for example, the recent disruption due to snow. Emerging risks are also discussed. We have similar structures embedded within the divisional areas, so within Engineering, Operations, Cabin Services etc. We engender very much a forward-looking, proactive and open culture where, when we are talking about risk, safety and security, it is not about blaming someone. It is always about learning and what we can do to prevent the event happening again. It is always about the event first, not the individual ” (Chief Operating Officer). A characteristic feature of Virgin Atlantic’s senior leadership team is that they are intimately engaged in the business: “ Spending time with my senior reports and our teams at all levels is important. I make time in my agenda to just be where I want to be and talk to whom I want to talk to. I talk to a lot of people and try to get a feel for what they are doing, try to show them that I am actually aware of how they are contributing, and answer their questions. I walk around the office a lot but also around the operation at our airports. I get a tremendous sense of input and energy from seeing our global operation in action and witnessing our teams delivering with a great sense of pride ” (Director of Operations, Safety and Security). When Virgin’s senior leaders go into the business, it is not always just about maintaining an understanding of the situation on the ground. It is also about engaging with people on how the company is performing and keeping the brand alive: “ Clearly, we can’t personally touch the whole business, but we do have open business briefings every quarter with the executive team. We will record that and put it on the intranet, so that everyone can access it. We also do monthly ‘meet and greet sessions’ where we go into the business for a couple of hours, so that people can come and ask questions. I think we are very much known in the business as individuals, not just personalities that sit at the top of the organisation, so people don’t have a fear of speaking with us. They are engaging with us. So, it is all about interaction. Further, one of the things that we have invested in over the last couple of years is making sure that the brand lives internally and externally and making sure that the two are connected. Something Leadership and governance

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Roads to Resilience: Building dynamic approaches to risk to achieve future success