Addressing Structural Secrecy as a Way of Nurturing Resilient Performance

Structural secrecy refers to a systematic undermining of attempts to know and interpret situations in organisations, which significantly challenges their abilities to perform resiliently. In this chapter, we briefly share some insights drawn from a collaboration with the municipality of Malmö, Sweden, for a period of more than three years that has provided knowledge about the needs and constraints to better addressing challenges related to structural secrecy. To deal with this problem, it is essential to find ways of sharing insights about the criticality and interconnections between organisational units. The chapter outlines a method implemented in the departments in Malmö municipality used for compiling and spreading such information within the organisation as a means to become better equipped for managing both daily tasks and surprises. By contributing to an alignment of diverging views on “work as done” versus “work as imagined” this type of effort lays the groundwork for nurturing an ability to perform resiliently in suddenly emerging situations that are outside the organisation’s normal operations.