Many companies, however, still define resilience too narrowly.

"Most discussions focus on defense," Thallner says. "How do we avoid being knocked down? How do we recover when something goes wrong?"

He argues that this mindset is increasingly outdated. Instead of asking how to recover from disruption, organizations should focus on how they can grow because of it. Resilience, in his view, is less about returning to a previous state and more about continuously evolving into something stronger. 

Stop waiting for certainty

If resilience begins with mindset, it also requires leaders to rethink how they make decisions. One of the most common mistakes Thallner sees is executives delaying important decisions because they expect uncertainty to fade. They wait for clearer signals, believing market conditions will eventually stabilize. 

But today's business environment doesn't operate that way. Uncertainty has become a permanent feature of executive leadership, making adaptability — not predictability — the defining leadership skill.

To explain why, Thallner distinguishes between complicated and complex problems. Complicated problems have identifiable solutions, even if they require specialized expertise. Complex problems are different. Markets evolve, customer expectations shift, regulations change and every decision alters the environment in which future decisions will be made.

In that kind of environment, leadership isn't about finding perfect answers. It's about becoming comfortable making thoughtful decisions with incomplete information while continuously adjusting as conditions change.

"Resilience," Thallner says, "is the ability to learn faster than the environment changes." 

When disruption requires more than tactical adjustments

Not every disruption demands organizational redesign. Companies regularly navigate competitive pressures, technological change and market fluctuations without fundamentally altering how they operate.

The real question, Thallner says, is whether external changes have altered the economics of how the organization creates value.

If disruption begins affecting revenue, customer behavior, margins, cost structures or the organization's ability to execute its strategy, then leaders should look beyond tactical responses.

"Too often organizations respond with communications plans or another change initiative without addressing the underlying system," he explains.

Instead, executive teams should examine how decisions are made, how work flows across the organization, where accountability resides, and whether the current operating model still supports the company's strategic objectives.

Importantly, Thallner rejects the idea that there's a universal blueprint for resilient organizations.

"There is no ideal operating model," he says. "What resilient organizations have in common isn't a particular structure. It's the way they think."

That means recognizing that no operating model is permanent. Rather than treating organizational design as something to revisit every few years, resilient organizations continually evaluate whether their structures still align with business realities. 

Leadership starts with better questions

Periods of uncertainty also expose another misconception about leadership: That executives are expected to have all the answers.

According to Thallner, that's no longer realistic or even desirable.

People aren't looking for certainty as much as they're looking for honesty, clarity and direction. Leaders who acknowledge what they know, what they don't know and how they'll make decisions as new information emerges, build more trust than those who project false confidence.

"Confidence shouldn't come from pretending the future is predictable," he says. "It should come from having a thoughtful process for responding as conditions evolve."

That shift also changes the role of executive leadership. Instead of being the smartest people in the room, today's leaders need to create environments where learning happens faster than change. That means encouraging curiosity, inviting dissenting viewpoints and ensuring information flows quickly from employees closest to customers, operations, and markets back to leadership.

Midyear is the time to challenge assumptions, not defend them

As organizations evaluate first-half performance and begin planning for the year ahead, Thallner believes many executive teams miss an important opportunity.

Too often, midyear reviews become exercises in measuring progress against the original plan. While useful, that approach overlooks a more important question: Do the assumptions behind the plan still hold true?

Markets evolve. Customer priorities shift. Competitors introduce new dynamics. Regulations and geopolitical events reshape industries.

"The purpose of a midyear review shouldn't be to defend the plan," Thallner says. "It should be to determine whether the plan still reflects reality."

Changing course shouldn't be viewed as evidence that the original strategy failed. More often, it reflects that leadership has learned something new. Organizations that celebrate learning rather than consistency become far more adaptable over time. 

Designing organizations that evolve

Looking ahead, Thallner believes the organizations that thrive won't necessarily be those with the most accurate forecasts. They'll be the ones best prepared to adapt.

Planning, he argues, isn't about predicting the future. It's about preparing for multiple plausible futures by identifying assumptions, monitoring leading indicators and agreeing in advance on the decisions leadership will make as conditions evolve.

Likewise, organizational design should become a continuous discipline rather than a periodic exercise. Leaders should expect operating models to evolve alongside changing technologies, customer expectations and market realities — not remain fixed for years at a time.

Perhaps the biggest change, however, is occurring in leadership itself.

For decades, organizations celebrated the "hero leader," or the executive who always had the answers and projected unwavering confidence. Thallner believes that model is giving way to something more collaborative.

"The best leaders aren't distinguished by having better answers," he says. "They're distinguished by asking better questions."

Ultimately, resilience isn't something executives announce in a town hall meeting or document in a business continuity plan. It's reflected in how they think, how they lead, and how intentionally they design organizations that can continuously learn, adapt and evolve.

“Organizations that consistently succeed aren't those that avoid disruption. They're the ones that continuously learn, adapt, and evolve as conditions change. It requires humility. It requires curiosity. And it requires leaders who are willing to challenge their own assumptions as readily as they challenge everyone else's.”

The organizations that thrive over the next decade won't necessarily be the ones with the best strategy today. They'll be the ones that become better at learning tomorrow. That's ultimately what resilience is all about.