Building organizational resilience for sustainable success

Resilience is one of those amorphous, all-encompassing buzzwords that can mean so many things — and yet be devoid of meaning for that very reason. But it doesn’t have to be. In today’s fast-paced and ever-changing business landscape, resilience is a necessity. It’s the ability to respond to events or crises in a coordinated manner, minimizing damage and enabling a sustainable path forward. And it starts with building resilient teams.

These groups are prepared to navigate a disruptive event — or series of events — with cohesion and precision, so that when they come out on the other side of it — the need for damage control is minimal and resuming operations and business as usual is both simple and sustainable. That’s the goal.

And in today’s climate, developing a team who can act as stewards of resilience is critical. According to PwC’s 2025 Global Digital Trust Insights Survey, despite heightened awareness of cyber risks, only 2% of companies have fully implemented cyber resilience actions across their entire organization. This gap leaves many businesses vulnerable to increasingly sophisticated threats, such as cloud-related risks and ransomware, which executives told us they feel the least prepared to address.  

So how can organizations build up their resilience? What does it take to make a truly resilient team? What are the leading practices companies need to adopt in order to bolster their defenses, foster collaboration and respond swiftly and efficiently when they inevitably find themselves grappling with a disruptive event? Let's start with the people.

Building a diverse, resilient team to enhance effectiveness.

We’ve already established that a resilient team has the ability to respond effectively and efficiently — and in a way that shapes a sustainable path forward. Resilient teams have four key traits that make them successful: Collaboration, diverse skillsets, camaraderie and positivity. 

Collaboration

While it’s always important that each team member has the right skillsets, understanding the harmony of their organization — and who sits upstream and downstream from them — is critical. While it can be a challenge to break out of working in siloes — the kryptonite to a resilient team — fostering collaboration and cohesion are essential to building harmony and creating a team that knows exactly what everyone’s role is when a disruptive incident occurs.

Diversity

Creating a truly effective, impactful and resilient team requires many different skillsets. The teams that work best under pressure are the ones who are diverse — a mixture of type A and B personalities. You need people with more technical backgrounds, people with leadership qualities and people who are savvy, strategic thinkers. Gender and ethnic diversity are important, too, because everyone’s own life experiences and worldviews help bring a unique perspective and authenticity to the team. 

Many women on my team are highly skilled in dot-connecting and navigating chaos, which is critical during high stress situations. Their ability to bring together disparate pieces and teams, coupled with their ability to remain cool under pressure and respond in a calm, organized fashion is key.

Working together to practice and bond  

Another critical component of a highly effective, resilient team is time and experience. It’s so important to create opportunities for teaming and bonding — whether it be for specific projects, extracurricular opportunities outside of work, or simply the practice of running through tabletop exercises together, refining and re-running them again — dedicating time for the team to work together is crucial. The more opportunities the team has under their belt of working together and the more shared experiences they have, whether it be work-related drills and projects or happy hour karaoke, the more seamless it will be for them to gel, even during high stress moments.

Positivity

It may seem intuitive but making sure there are people on the team who can infuse levity and positivity into the atmosphere and who can help create a culture that makes others feel seen and heard is also paramount for a highly functioning team. In intense, pressurized situations like a crisis, having people who can not only maintain calm but also exude positivity helps anchor the team and keep them on task. 

Addressing conflict and building leaders

Leaders have an important role in creating a culture that allows every team member the space to grow. They should take steps to help their team develop critical thinking skills, understand their role and how it feeds into the broader organization.

Don’t avoid conflict — tackle it head on. Even if it’s as subtle as a silent expression in a meeting — leave no stone unturned when it comes to gauging your team’s sentiment and perspectives. Build a culture of transparency and honesty — and listen to your people. 

It’s also important to identify rising stars. I was fortunate enough to have a leader who saw in me more than I knew possible. I witnessed firsthand how she gave me opportunities to shine, to stretch outside of my comfort zone and to build myself up to be in the position that I'm in today. Seek out those opportunities to build up people in your team and cultivate the next generation of leaders.

Resilience actions to prioritize

Resilient teams are part and parcel to a proactive cybersecurity strategy. Organizations who are moving beyond a reactive cybersecurity approach are better positioned to anticipate risk, allocate their budgets more strategically, and commit to continuous improvement. Top-performing companies demonstrate these behaviors consistently, with a significant 69 percentage point gap between them and the global average in leading cybersecurity practices. These companies are more likely to have established resilience teams, developed cyber recovery playbooks, and mapped technology dependencies, thereby significantly enhancing their preparedness.

Resilience — when defined properly and specifically — can be the cornerstone of a comprehensive and proactive cyber risk management program that allows for quick recovery and sustainable outcomes. Building a resilient team with diverse strengths, skillsets, perspectives, and approaches — and giving them opportunities to understand their broader role in the organization, make connections, and learn through experiences — is the recipe for success.