Marie-Chris­tine Ther­rien presents the resilience of pub­lic sys­tems at the Cer­cle de la haute publique du Québec

The past two years have high­light­ed the impor­tance of the resilience of pub­lic orga­ni­za­tions and sys­tems to ensure col­lec­tive recov­ery in the after­math of crises. In this regard, gov­ern­ment depart­ments and agen­cies have a dual respon­si­bil­i­ty: the orga­ni­za­tion­al respon­si­bil­i­ty to be resilient in main­tain­ing and adapt­ing their work orga­ni­za­tion, oper­a­tions and ser­vices to the pub­lic, and the soci­etal respon­si­bil­i­ty to sup­port the resilience of dif­fer­ent sec­tors of activ­i­ty, includ­ing through the devel­op­ment and adop­tion of renewed pub­lic poli­cies, to ensure the prop­er func­tion­ing of the econ­o­my and soci­ety. In order to present the state of the sci­ence on resilience, Marie-Chris­tine Ther­rien was invit­ed to the Cer­cle de la haute fonc­tion publique du Québec at the end of Feb­ru­ary. She then gave a lec­ture to more than 100 senior offi­cials in Que­bec. The con­fer­ence aimed to answer the fol­low­ing ques­tions. What is a resilient orga­ni­za­tion? What are the key find­ings and lessons learned from crises such as the pan­dem­ic? What are the levers and bar­ri­ers to resilience? How does resilience, as a strate­gic con­cept, strength­en and broad­en capac­i­ty for action? How can we build on resilience to improve prac­tices and con­tin­u­al­ly change our orga­ni­za­tion and pub­lic policies?