247 General Discussion and experimentation, they learn” (p. 36).58 He posits that if employees do not have a learning orientation as part of their routine prior to a crisis, then a breakdown of learning occurs during a crisis leading to disastrous consequences. Learning must be established in the day-to-day routine to enable coping mechanisms during a crisis or breakdown. Essentially, learning should occur in each stage of resilience.48,59 Comparing the data that was collected throughout Chapters 4-6, it appears that a shift occurred from a “performance” orientation to a “learning” orientation within the organization. Hence, respondents’ claims of the “old” vs “new” Sanquin did happen because there was a release of the “old” ways of “this is how it should be done” to an embrace of experimentation, a reflection of successes and failures, in alignment with Kayes’ quote. Chapter 5 illustrates this well for the CCP group, which learned much as they improvised, as learning is inherent within the improvisation process.60–63 However, this was temporary as a shift back to the old ways occurred as well, which leads to the point that a learning orientation should be embraced within the organization culture. In Chapter 5, we discuss that while it is common for performance to dominate in a heavily regulated BE, embracing an attitude of learning opens the door for experimentation and engagement of the employees, without endangering safety or efficacy of the blood products. While Sanquin coped well during the COVID-19 crisis, it is an assumption that Sanquin can and will perform just as well in future crises, because a complex interplay was at work then. If there is opportunity to improve organizational capabilities now, then it should be done as it will improve all stages of resilience.48 Practically, this translates into implementing good practices that were developed during the pandemic; essentially, looking at all the reflections of “lessons learned” and incorporating those into the daily rhythms and routines of the organization as appropriate. Secondly, our results reflect that the success of these projects came from well-experienced senior employees who had been employed at Sanquin for decades. As the majority of Sanquin employees are of an elderly age, they will retire in the near future which leaves question marks as to how the remaining and new staff will handle future crises. Therefore, taking advantage of this period, training of both the younger and the older generation should be done to allow for a transfer of knowledge and experiences. Literature describes how “knowledge must remain in the organization as employees come and go” (Evenseth, p. 9).64,65 There must be a feedback process where a diversity of perspectives is gathered and individual lessons are shared collectively, 65–68 where knowledge is shared between and across organizational units,67 all embedded in a system where lessons learned contribute towards future behaviors and plans.64,66
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