From surviving to thriving: why resilience isn't a disaster

I was chatting to a client the other day and they told me that they didn’t like to use the word ‘resilience’ as a key word in their company HR strategy as they found it too ‘negative’.
As a corporate Resilience Coach, it got me thinking as to why this would be? Surely having resilient employees would be of great benefit and value to any organisation and especially one undergoing major change and upheaval in a highly competitive market environment?
Perhaps it is the context in which it is often currently used that set about this line of thinking.
Commonly ‘resilience’ is used (sometimes overused) in the media only when natural disasters occur such as the Christchurch earthquakes or more recently Cyclone Debbie that hit Queensland’s North Coast.
And of course the individuals and cities involved have had to very quickly learn or sharpen their resilience in the face of enormous emotional, environmental and financial upheaval and strain beyond what many of us could ever imagine.
The fact that cities such as Christchurch and Wellington have developed a ‘resilient city strategy’ as part of a global ‘100 resilient city’ movement suggests that it goes beyond merely disaster management. By 2016, 100 cities will be actively implementing and/or building a resilience strategy. Each city that takes part event appoints a Chief Resiliency Officer to head up the implementation of their strategy.
So how does this affect your organisation?
If resiliency is only seen as for times of turmoil and natural disaster then one can see how it can often be seen as negative. But like the 100 resilient city movement the true definition of resiliency is not about ‘waiting for a disaster to happen’ and then switching into ‘survival mode’ but about an “individual’s capacity to manage stress, remain healthy, rebound and learn from unexpected setbacks plus prepare for future challenges proactively”.
The key word being ‘proactively’.
Just look at how organisations have changed their HR Strategy in the last 5 years under WHS and Equal Employment Opportunities policies.
We need to move beyond the concept of resiliency being merely surviving to actually thriving in times of change and uncertainty.
Building resilient employees and teams requires a focus on forward thinking and a cultural shift. Not just a disaster recovery plan or a one off workshop.
It involves understanding what makes up resilient individuals and teams and then creating a sustainable plan to cultivate and develop resiliency as an ongoing development objective.
In this era where the topic of mental health and depression no longer holds the same stigma of past years, organisations have a responsibility to their people not just their bank balances and shareholders, so it is crucial they address the topic as part of their HR Procedures.
At True North Coaching we offer a workplace resilience coaching programme called R@W (Resilience At Work). Developed by organisational psychologists the R@W Sustain model has identified seven key components to building resiliency that go beyond merely ‘coping’ or ‘bouncing back’ to proactively identifying and developing resiliency skills to ensure that not only you can survive but thrive in times of stress or change.
So don’t wait for a disaster or a major change event to happen before you think about embedding resiliency training in your workplace. 
To find out more about our Resilience at Work (R@W) programme email truenorth@vodafone.co.nz 

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